Making a poem a deeply personal work of art
We met at the 2024 Open Studios of Topanga art tour, where Sea Glassman made an intriguing contribution. She would chat with someone, write a poem about them, type it up on an old-fashioned typewriter, then paint some flowers on the paper, which the person had chosen from a pile of offerings.
Sea charged a ridiculously cheap $20 per poem. “I know other poem conjurers who write personal poems for between $300 and $500 a poem,” said Sea. “The point was not to make money. It was my gift to the Topanga community.”
This was an artist I could do business with, I thought. And, with her bubbly personality, would make an interesting interview.
The poem conjurer agreed to an interview, but only if I made it clear there’s much more to her artistry. Sea Glassman is also an actor, director, writer, and painter. She has an acting school and teaches writing.
“It sounds like I do a lot of things,” said Sea. “But to me it’s all a door to the imagination, which leads to the divine. And vice versa.”
Sea says she inhabits a world of improvisational alchemy. “Because I’m a guided intuitive, I start by asking the person what they’d like a poem about.
“Something propels each person to want a poem. It’s usually a subconscious desire. It’s a real act of agency to say ‘I’m going to step into an experience where I make something happen and get something in return.’ Poetry is a form of spiritual download I get when I connect to the person’s essence.”
The person for whom Sea is conjuring a poem talks for five to ten minutes about themselves. The focus might be a yearning, a hope, a dream, a failure or even an old wound. It could be about anything, but it’s going to come from them.
At the Topanga art tour, Sea asked people to go for a walk while she wrote their poem, which takes 10 to 30 minutes to type. “In that time, I’m sort of alchemizing the moment,” she said. “Taking the raw material and listening to higher guidance.”
Sea’s home is in Silverlake, although she also has a house-sitting business based in Topanga, and spends a lot of time here. “I love the ocean,” she said. “Big Sur, Nantucket and Topanga are my favorite places.”
“I identify primarily as a humanitarian philosopher who moves mostly through the arts. I am an artist who cares little for money and possessions. I am interested in deconstructing the life forms that are given to us. I am interested in exploration and the new frontier. The inner landscape is the new frontier. That’s where I get my fuel from. Inside the imagination is this intricate landscape that has everything on it. We are not taught how to explore our inner landscape. We’re not even taught to like ourselves.”
Sea recalls one particular customer at the art tour. “The guy wanted a poem about loss and I could tell he was the one who was banishing people out of his life. He was the source of banishment and he didn’t know it. By engaging in the act of the poem, I was able to show him something about himself he hadn’t realized.”
Sea says the poem is a tool to help the person evolve. “That sounds like weird spiritual egotism, but it’s the truth. Let’s find a way in to find out what’s really going on with someone. I am going to use the tools I have to help the person see themselves with a more infinite eternal sense. That sounds like ‘California woo-woo’ but that’s really what’s going on.”
I didn’t think I had given Sea much to conjure with for my poem and struggled for things to say. I mentioned in passing that I’m 70 next birthday, something I was hoping to keep on a need-to-know basis for the rest of my life. I wasn’t expecting her to lead with it. But our poem conjurer saw being 70 as something I needed to embrace rather than hide from. I was, eventually, deeply moved by my poem and will treasure it always. My loved ones all agree it captures my essence. There are a few typos with each poem, which I think add to their charm.
Poet, writer, and wit Dorothy Parker is one of Sea’s literary heroes and one of the characters she performs as an actress. I told Sea I had enjoyed a podcast where Sea embodied Mrs Parker. Hence the reference in my poem to Parker asking the Latin names of the succulents I grow. Clever.
For Sea Glassman, poetry is just one of the seven doors she enters to access the arts and it is, she reminds me, not her main focus. Sea is open to people contacting her for a poem. Even for a party. Prices negotiable.
T: 310 927 5032
