Misty Mallory grew up in a world of poetry. Her father's life has literally been defined by it. She embraced it as a way to express herself. And now, posthumously, a collection of her work is being published.
It's with mixed emotions that her father, poet Lee Mallory, will read from "Two Sides Now," which contains 23 of Misty's brief, free-verse poems, Thursday evening in Laguna Beach.
Misty had learned in June that a Laguna Beach press would publish her first collection of poems. That was only a week before the 23-year-old former Newport Beach resident was released from an acute-care hospital in New Jersey where she had spent a month and a half being treated for a serious mental illness.
On Sept. 22, while in an outpatient program, Misty took her own life.
The debut reading from his daughter's book, Mallory said, will be a joyous occasion for those who worked on it and for those who knew Misty.
"But," he acknowledged, "it will be the hardest reading of my life because Misty will be there with us in the sense of her presence coming forth in the words."
Joining Mallory in reading Misty's work will be poets Bil and Carole Luther, John Harrell, Neil Miranda, Curt Last and Misty's 20-year-old sister, Natalee Mallory.
"Two Sides Now," which takes its name from one of Misty's poems, was published by the Luthers' FarStarFire Press, which publishes the work of Southern California poets. (Misty's book includes six short poems by her father, two of which the Santa Ana College English teacher and poetry-reading producer wrote for her.)
"I'd read a number of pieces Misty had written and was very impressed," Carole Luther said. "We decided to go ahead and publish the book posthumously because she's a damn good poet. I found her work very intriguing."
Mallory assembled the manuscript in November, sorting through not only Misty's poems but also her personal correspondence, which, he said, "was voluminous."
"Going through the correspondence was harder," he said. "With the poetry I can be more objective."
Mallory finds some comfort in the publication of his daughter's poems.
"In the same way I tell my [writing] students, 'If you bother to write down your emotions or feelings, if you take the time to write a poem, if you create a short story--whatever you do--that work is then able to transcend you, the writer, to make you immortal': the work becomes permanent and goes beyond our very finite lives."
