Origins with Kristen Balyeat

Welcome to the second installment of Origins. I'm incredibly thankful for the positive feedback and genuine interest shown in this new series. If you missed the first piece featuring Dean F. Hardy, you'll want to go back and take a look as we discussed his thought-provoking poem, Honours Student.

My vision for these mini-interviews is to showcase specific Vocal writings through shorter, chat-style conversations. I've asked the creators to choose one of their works on the platform (or I can choose one if the creators can't decide), and then we get a chance to dig into the meaning behind it as well as the writing process in a casual, relaxed format.

I hope you enjoy this deep dive into Kristen Balyeat's fantastic epistolary poem, Dear Favorite Tree, featured in Vocal's Art Community. I highly recommend reading the piece before diving in to our discussion (link below).

(Before we begin, I'd like to give a special thanks to both Gina C. and Dean F. Hardy for helping me brainstorm titles, ideas and logistics for this series. Their help and friendship have been invaluable.)

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H: Welcome! Thank you so much for agreeing to this and for letting me choose the piece. I am so excited!

K: Thank you SO much for inviting me! Humbled and honored.

H: That's exactly how I feel too. Thank you :)

I'd love to start off talking about how you became introduced to the Montenegro sisters' work. I am in love with the cover piece. No wonder you found it so inspiring.

K: Ah, yes! Well, I was actually scrolling Pinterest one day looking for artwork for my house and stumbled across their piece, but the link attached had an error. So I googled and googled until I found it, and became totally enthralled with not only that piece of artwork, but for all their little company encompassed. I love that their work directs people back to nature and our relationship with it.

H: Yes! That's what drew me to your piece as well. The connection.

Wow! There is just so much to be found on Pinterest.

K: Oh my gosh, it's a never-ending scrolling universe with all the fun stuff.

H: It really is! So do all their pieces have a music connection as well?

(I'm listening to the music now.)

K: The musical piece I have linked was actually what I wrote to, not from their site. I may have not worded it correctly in the intro to the piece.

H: Ahh, no I see now...you said 'written' not 'created'. Either way, so very cool! It's an incredibly beautiful track.

K: It's definitely a fave. His music has gotten me through many journeys in life. I love writing to music, and Roary is a constant source of inspiration for me. This was the piece I listened to on repeat when this poem was being written.

H: I love that! Sometimes I can write to music, other times I become too immersed in it. Music really can do that, can't it? Get you through :)

K: Yes, it's totally the same for me. Sometimes I'm taken away by the music and can't even think straight, and sometimes the words come out because of the music. Depends on the piece and my mood :)

H: Yes! Exactly that. You mentioned listening on repeat during the process for this poem. Did it take you long to write it?

K: Yes, I originally wrote this for the epistolary challenge. I had already written a couple pieces for it that I was happy with, but this tree and image kept coming to mind, and finally at 3am the morning before the deadline I decided to honor that little nudging So I put in my headphones and had this song on repeat, and the words started to flow. I wrestled with it all day until the deadline.

There is a shift in the flow right in the middle of the piece that I kept writing and deleting, and then finally decided to stick with it. I'm not one for poetic or creative rules, so even though it kind of threw off the rhythm, I decided that it was my piece and I was just going to go for it.

H: Wow, well I'm happy you listened to the nudge and kept going with this one as it's such a meaningful piece.

And I hear that loud and clear. I think that's why I never liked poetry when I was young...it sounded like nothing but rules.

K: Thank you! It's turned out to be one of my faves and pretty representative of my feelings about the forest.

Totally! I am not a rule follower, if it doesn't flow out naturally I can't conform it. Your poetry just blows my ever-loving mind! I'm glad you found a love for it over time:)

H: Aww, I love that :) Which ties in a bit with me wanting to ask about that connection to the forrest. Tell me a little more about it, if you will.

And thank you so much. I'm always surprised that anyone likes it, lol.

K: Yes! I'd love to. This may take a minute to type out.

Oh my goodness, you are so funny! Heather, you should be so proud of the work you produce! Every line so weighted with beauty and emotion. You express so well through your words!

H: Perfect! Take all the time you need :)

Aww, thank you! I definitely write poetry to get my feelings out.

K: Ok, typing about my love of nature...Need at least 24 hours to write it all down, but I'll try to condense it.

Brief interruption...

H: Also, I forgot to send my "hi" picture. Decided to do this for each new interview thing.

K: Hey beauty! Trying to figure out how to send my photo.

H: I jumped to my phone to do it, lol.

K: Ah yes, phone...smart. My brain...haha! Going to send now.

H: I may have to use a new picture! You look so put together. How lovely you are :)

K: You are too kind. I had to get ready just to get my brain to come online, lol!

H: Yes! Like the getting ready makes you feel like you're actually ready, lol.

K: Exactly! Haha!

Back on track.

K: The forest/nature in general is very special to me. It has always held me through times in my life when I need peace. When I am depleted, when I need rejuvenation, I go to the trees. I wrote this in my 'about me' piece, but truly, the wild is my sanctuary. It's where I connect to all that is me and more. I find that when I sit in the woods, I can feel/understand it on a level that is beyond thought, and the gifts that are given to me are beyond words.

Every time I sit with the trees, I’m reminded of my intrinsic connection to nature, that we are both made up of the same stuff/energy, and that we are just different expressions of that energy. I always have the realization that I am being breathed in by my surroundings as much as I am breathing it back in, and this incredible mutual love gives way to my/our existence—this gorgeous symbiotic relationship with trees of shared breath. Something that continues to fascinate me and give me pause.

H: 'Give me pause'...yes. So much so. The emotion in just those few sentences made me tear up. Simply beautiful. And profound to think of all we share (or should be sharing) with the home we are bound to...earth. Your love and connection are wonderfully apparent. Thank you for sharing those pieces of you.

K: Yes, I get tearful thinking about it :)

H: So, what do you hope people took away from this work?

K: I'm answering your last question but may take me a second to type out here. My fingers are getting crossed, ha!

H: LOL, no worries at all. I'm snacking on nacho Hippeas.

K: I hope that they remember their connection to everything on this planet-remembering that we are all in this together, that we are all made of ancient waters, of the same energies connecting us down to a cellular level. I think the fact that we have become so incredibly disconnected from these thoughts, from nature, is one of the reasons we are so disconnected from each other as humans. We are quite literally, energetically, and physically all one!

I also hope people can look at the way that nature has to endure hardships, yet it still not only stands, but those tensions make it stronger. I also hope people will take a moment to sit with a tree. To think of the way it started its life in darkness and had to break to be born, to imagine all it has endured— seasons of drought, seasons of plenty, fires, wind and know that if they can take lessons from those parallels in nature they will come out on the other side.

H: Wow!! I am so impressed you just came up with this answer. I need to do more connection myself. Your words are such inspiration. I have a decent amount of land that I don't get to spend nearly as much time with as I'd like to, but I want to even more now :)

I hope everyone reading this, feels your words and takes them to heart.

K: Haha! Well, I've given this a lot of thought over time. One of the things I feel would truly heal humanity...reconnecting.

H: Yes, I agree. There were so many lines as I read the poem that made me want to just breathe deeply and savor. Gorgeous work.

K: Thank you, Heather! That's all I can hope for as a writer. I always hope my words will land as a meditative experience for anyone who reads it. That's a great compliment coming from someone whose work I greatly respect!

H: Aww, thank you so much for the kind words. And your pieces definitely land! I always feel moved when reading them.

K: Oh, thank you so much! SO happy to hear that :)

H: My pleasure. I know I'm not the only one that feels that way.

K: Wow, thank you. **Blushing**

H: So I've got one more serious question and then one fun one if you're up for it?

K: Totally!

H: Yay! Alright, serious one...How did it make you feel to write this? Cathartic? Sad? Reflective? A mix?

K: That is a great question!

I felt reflective. I have a favorite tree that I absolutely love on the riverbank of a dispersed campsite we go to several times a year in the Uncomphagre National Forest, just outside of Ridgway, CO. I’ve been sitting under that tree for over 12 years, watching the nuanced changes of the passing years, not just in the tree, but in myself as well, as we both age together, although my aging is much more rapid than that alpine beauty, lol! I tapped into my experiences sitting with that tree when I wrote this and felt all of the lessons I've taken from that tree, and others rising up in me as I wrote it. So, yes, totally reflective. And hopeful!

H: Goodness, I love that so much. Reflective and hopeful...couldn't ask for much better than that.

K: Hope is good :)

H: Yes, it sure is :) Well, I want to thank you again for sharing your thoughts with me. I've enjoyed this so much. I will ask the last question, just for fun. I found a site that had 'would you rather' questions, lol.

Would you rather have an endless summer or an endless winter?

K: Ooooohhhhhhhh........I'd say an endless summer. I'm pretty in love with winter (snow, sledding, fires, hot chocolate) but summer provides many more opportunities to get my kids (and myself) outside. I know it's not an option, but really, endless Autumn would be my first pick, haha!

H: I would absolutely pick endless Autumn!! My favorite season of all. What a great answer.

I loved this so much. You are someone I greatly admire. Thank you for sharing this time with me.

K: Heather, this was so much fun, and the feeling is mutual! So grateful to you for inviting me to this conversation. I have admired your work since I found you on this platform (which was basically the beginning). You were also one of the first people to share your thoughtful feedback with me, which was such a compliment and kept me going. Thank you for all you do! You truly are a gem of a human and such a valued person in my Vocal universe :)

H: It was really all my pleasure. And that means the world to me, thank you.

This is the official end :)

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Behind-the-scenes side tangent (one of many!!):

H: LOL, no worries at all. I'm snacking on nacho Hippeas.

K: YUMMMM! I haven't tried the nacho ones. I should have brought a snack to my room, lol.

*I just found an Annie's bunny cracker that my three year old left on my nightstand...seriously considering eating it.

H: Oh my goodness are they so good!

*I mean, it's in your own house so it's probably still good...maybe a little stale...

K: It was stale. I should have just settled for drinking my thrice reheated tea. Lol.

I'm definitely picking up those nacho hippeas later!

H: Isn't that the way when you have a family...always reheating a beverage.

K: I get about two warm sips and then it sits until I remember it later.

H: My daughter got me one of those plug-in warmers I keep on my desk.

K: Oh, I neeeeed that. Putting that on my Christmas list!

H: It really is helpful.

(Kristen, I included a link to a new one that I want to get...send that to the family for a Christmas idea, lol.)

K: I did start using a Yeti mug and that at least keeps it lukewarm, haha!

H: I used Simple Modern ones and loved those but I used them for so many years working out of the home that I want to use an actual mug when I'm at home now, lol.

K: I get that! There's something cozy about a real porcelain mug. I'm using my favorite mug for my tea right now, my sister gave it to me and it's MY mug, and everyone knows it, lol.

H: I LOVE mugs!

K: Haha, me too! Even though I'm not a huge fan of Starbucks coffee, we collect their mugs from every city we visit. Been doing it since our honeymoon. It's fun to look back and remember the vacation along with the mug. Like a little experience every time.

H: That's awesome. I remember where each of mine came from. I take my time picking the right one for the day each morning.

Now it's really the end, thank you for reading!

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If you'd like to read more amazing works by Kristen, please visit her profile: