Steve Sibra
When Steve Sibra was in Big Sandy last week, one thing he did was to read from his new poetry book to a group at Craig Edward's Gallery on Saturday night.
The book is called "The Turtle is Not a Metaphor" and is some 35 dark and not so dark poems that he has written in the past few years.
Sibra grew up on a farm 7 miles south east of Big Sandy and graduated from Big Sandy high school in 1974.
Sibra went to the University of Montana and then the University of Puget Sound for law school. He loved Missoula but hated law school so got the idea to work for himself and start a comic book store. He ran that store for 35 years in Seattle and dabbled in writing along the way.
Sibra married his wife Stacey in 1994. The two have no children but Sibra says that Stacey is so kind to the family cats and dogs, that she excuses herself when walking around a cat.
Family illnesses brought Sibra and his wife to Big Sandy where they lived for a couple of years. Steve's father died and the family bought a house in Missoula where they could live with Steve's mother until she died in 2002. Then they moved back to Seattle.
Sibra says he is still in the comic book business but does not have a store and instead visits smaller shows in Washington and Oregon just to keep up with the business.
Steve Sibra has been a writer most of his life. His favorite genre is the short story but he excels in poetry as well.
For a long time he was driven to sell everything he wrote, then he purposefully did not sell much of what he wrote. Today it is a balance and how he got back into it is very interesting. Six years ago Sibra was in a Seattle coffee shop and someone mentioned blueberry muffins. Sibra told the owner he could write a story about blueberry muffins. He went home and wrote about a contrary horse named Blueberry Muffin, took it back to the coffee shop, showed it to the owner and that is how he got back into the writing business.
Sibra has learned that the more he writes the better his writing becomes.
It was about the time he was finding that out when he met author G. G. Silverman who started reading what Sibra wrote. Silverman loved Sibra's stories and poems. That encouraged Sibra to write more and start hanging out with a writing group that inspired him as well.
"I have had around 30 things published lately," said Sibra. "More were short stories. I am not a poet although I love writing poetry. It is with short stories that I have had my success and now I have another whole circle of friends and that always helps."
Sibra said that he has learned a lot about himself when he writes.
This new book of poetry came out at the end of June, 2016.
People have said that Sibra's writing is very dark. He included a poem in the book entitled "I Love You".
I love you like a beautiful windmill filled with lard
I love you like stilt man midgets dancing in curtain rod dirt
I love you like fine loving scales
I love you through windows and around doors and under siege
I love you uphill both ways in a snowstorm back in '39
I love you like a ricochet that kills a TV wrestler
I love you fiberglass, I love you canvas,
I love you tin foil gum wrapper airplane
I love you flat time no spare and the needle on "E".
Teeth of the Wind
Can I ask
what has been added to the wine?
it thickens the lips
while bending the spirit trapped deep within the torso
a tangy genuflection of the soul.
For June we will plan a topless wedding. Be there
Chain the children to the stair
suspend succulent lobster tails above their heads
watch as they snap their little jaws
to catch the hot butter as it drips down
In the lap of luxury, the bare necessities
cloud the windows with dark horror.
Bring your threadbare Mackinaw
it should ward off the screaming chill
of naked wedding vows
As they scratch in your insect brain
Here in eastern Montana the wind has teeth
it never stops. Mount St. Helens dust still swirls
it will not settle
until the old mountain spits once more.
It's the perfect spot for outdoor nuptials
so long as the groom is dead
and the child bride wears ashen grey
clear up to her bony eyebrows
Big Sandy does it again. Yet another writer born in the Big Dry and writing about it all of his life.
Sibra's book, "The Turtle is a Metaphor" is available at Craig Edward's Gallery.
