Tweetspeak Poetry

  • Home
  • FREE prompts
  • Earth Song
  • Every Day Poems—Subscribe! ✨
  • Teaching Tools
  • Books, Etc.
  • Patron Love

Poets and Poems: Tina Barry and “Mall Flower”

By Glynn Young 8 Comments

Woman with laptop Tina Barry Mall Flower

In Mall Flower, poet and writer Tina Barry mixes poems and short fiction to record a life—childhood, youth, and adulthood. This artful combination of two literary forms also suggests a question: is there a difference between the two?

These 35 poems and (very) short stories—almost all are less than a page—follow in roughly chronological order. From the beginning we know that this is the story of a child in a broken family abandoned by the father. The impact is large; a five-year-old girl is left devastated and looking for answers. By the time she’s 10, she knows that the brokenness has become the normal, but that doesn’t mean she can’t yearn for what was.

What we’ll be

Mall FlowerIn Mrs. Kelly’s fifth-grade class:
six firemen
three teachers
four housewives
the first female President
two policemen
an engineer (the kind that drove a train)
twin veterinarians who liked birds
but would specialize in horses
one fashion model
I was the only hippie

I described a wedding I witnessed in a park
The bride wore a black dress:
hundreds of pleats, an embroidered
field of poppies
The groom donned denim
After the vows, the guests
tossed brown rice

I imagined the hippies’ lives
a million sunflowers
and three pink babies.
Their family nothing like mine:
One housewife
One daughter
One salesman long gone.

Each poem and story resonates with a kind of angry defiance (like being the only child in the class who wants to grow up to be a hippie). The defensiveness gives way to the finding and acceptance of self. It’s a journey that includes the sacred and profane and much in between.

Tina Barry

Tina Barry

Tina Barry’s poems have been published in such publications as Drunken Boat, Boston Literary Magazine, MadHat Lit, Lost in Thought, Inch Magazine, and The Orange Room Review, among others. She received her MFA degree from the creative writing program at Long Island University, Brooklyn.

How Barry mixes poetry and fiction is intriguing. It’s not so much that this story can’t be told without using both as it is that story is told through both. The fictional entries, like flash fiction, are short, but they could just as easily be described as prose poems. She’s comfortable using both, and likely sees both as a means to tell her story.

The family brokenness of Mall Flower is, unfortunately, all too common a story. What Tina Barry does, however, is to make the telling of it an uncommon one. It is moving and heartrending to watch this girl, this young woman, and this adult deal with a reality not of her making but which makes and remakes her.

Photo by Alessandro Valli, Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by Glynn Young, author of the novels Dancing Priest and A Light Shining, and Poetry at Work.

Related:

Blossoming Mall Flower: Huffington Post interview with Tina Barry

Fictionaut: About Tina Barry

Browse more poets and poems

__________________________

How to Read a Poem by Tania Runyan How to Read a Poem uses images like the mouse, the hive, the switch (from the Billy Collins poem)—to guide readers into new ways of understanding poems. Anthology included.

“I require all our incoming poetry students—in the MFA I direct—to buy and read this book.”

—Jeanetta Calhoun Mish

Buy How to Read a Poem Now!

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Glynn Young
Follow Glynn
Glynn Young
Editor and Twitter-Party-Cool-Poem-Weaver at Tweetspeak Poetry
Glynn Young lives in St. Louis where he retired as the team leader for Online Strategy & Communications for a Fortune 500 company. Glynn writes poetry, short stories and fiction, and he loves to bike. He is the author of Poetry at Work and the Dancing Priest Series. Find Glynn at Faith, Fiction, Friends.
Glynn Young
Follow Glynn
Latest posts by Glynn Young (see all)
  • Poetic Voices: Jessica Gigot and the Land - October 3, 2023
  • Do You Remember the First Poetry Book You Bought? - September 26, 2023
  • Poets and Poems: Yvor Winters and “Selected Poems” - September 19, 2023

Filed Under: Blog, Books, Poems, poetry, Poetry for Life, poetry reviews, Poets

Get Every Day Poems...

Comments

  1. Bethany says

    July 19, 2016 at 12:02 pm

    Thank you for this post, I like Tina Barry’s poem, “What we’ll be.” Such innocence and reality in the kinds of jobs kids pick to dream about. And the details of the bride’s dress stick with me as I read the punch of that last line.

    Reply
    • Glynn says

      July 19, 2016 at 4:37 pm

      Bethany, what I like about this is the idea of childhood dreams – the things we believe with all our hearts we’re going to be, until next week, at least. Two of my own favorite dreams were to be a cowboy and then the driver of a garbage truck.

      Reply
      • Bethany says

        July 19, 2016 at 5:03 pm

        Yes, “until next week, at least.” 😉 Love those vocation wishes of yours, Glynn. My son used to eagerly look forward to Friday mornings when the rumble would make its way down our street, to lift and flip cans bigger than him.

        I remember checking boxes on a “What do you want to be when you grow up?” type of worksheet back when I was in grade school. I believe my top picks were: Artist, Secretary (for access to all the office supplies), and Archaelogist.

        Reply
  2. D. drury says

    July 19, 2016 at 2:35 pm

    The literary style of your text nods to the multigenre style of Tom Romano. Well done.

    Reply
    • Bethany R. says

      July 19, 2016 at 2:42 pm

      D. Drury, welcome to the Tweetspeak Poetry community. 🙂 I clicked on your link, and enjoyed reading some of your writing. If you haven’t been already, Our Mischief Cafe page is a great place to find out what else is brewing on the site here: https://www.tweetspeakpoetry.com/mischief-cafe/

      Reply
    • Glynn says

      July 19, 2016 at 4:38 pm

      Thanks for the comment, and let me add my welcome to Bethany’s!

      Reply
  3. Tina Barry says

    July 20, 2016 at 1:09 pm

    Hi Glynn,

    I just want to give you a big, heartfelt thank you for your sensitive review of Mall Flower. Your comments about my style and intentions are spot on. I love your last line, too. Aren’t we all products of the experiences that “make and remake” us?

    Best,
    Tina

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Poets and Poems: Tina Barry and "Beautiful Raft" - Tweetspeak Poetry says:
    December 7, 2021 at 5:00 am

    […] Poets and Poems: Tina Barry and Mall Flower […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

For the Writer in You

Take How to Read a Poem

Get the Introduction, the Billy Collins poem, and Chapter 1

get the sample now

Welcome to Tweetspeak

New to Tweetspeak Poetry? Start here, in The Mischief Café. You're a regular? Check out our October Menu.

Patron Love

❤️

Welcome a little patron love, when you help keep the world poetic.

Your Comments

  • Bethany R. on From A to Z, the Abecedarian Isn’t Just for Chaucer—Poetry Prompt!
  • Lois Perch Villemaire on From A to Z, the Abecedarian Isn’t Just for Chaucer—Poetry Prompt!
  • Lois Perch Villemaire on From A to Z, the Abecedarian Isn’t Just for Chaucer—Poetry Prompt!
  • L.L. Barkat on From A to Z, the Abecedarian Isn’t Just for Chaucer—Poetry Prompt!

Join the Year of the Monarch

How to Write Poetry

Featured In

We're happy to have been featured in...

The Huffington Post

The Paris Review

The New York Observer

Tumblr Book News

Stay in Touch With Us

Categories

Learn to Write Form Poems

How to Write an Acrostic

How to Write a Ballad

How to Write a Catalog Poem

How to Write a Ghazal

How to Write a Haiku

How to Write an Ode

How to Write a Pantoum

How to Write a Rondeau

How to Write a Sestina

How to Write a Sonnet

How to Write a Villanelle

5 FREE POETRY PROMPTS

Get 5 FREE inbox poetry prompts from the popular book How to Write a Poem

Shakespeare Resources

Poetry Classroom: Sonnet 18

Common Core Picture Poems: Sonnet 73

Sonnet 104 Annotated

Sonnet 116 Annotated

Character Analysis: Romeo and Juliet

Character Analysis: Was Hamlet Sane or Insane?

Why Does Hamlet Wait to Kill the King?

10 Fun Shakespeare Resources

About Shakespeare: Poet and Playwright

Top 10 Shakespeare Sonnets

See all 154 Shakespeare sonnets in our Shakespeare Library!

Explore Work From Black Poets

About Us

  • • A Blessing for Writers
  • • Annual Theme 2022: Perspective
  • • Annual Theme 2021: Generous
  • • Our Story
  • • Meet Our Team
  • • Literary Citizenship
  • • Poet Laura
  • • Poetry for Life: The 5 Vital Approaches
  • • T. S. Poetry Press – All Books
  • • Contact Us

Write With Us

  • • 5 FREE Poetry Prompts-Inbox Delivery
  • • 30 Days to Richer Writing Workshop
  • • Poetry Prompts
  • • Submissions
  • • The Write to Poetry

Read With Us

  • • All Our Books
  • • Book Club
  • • Every Day Poems—Subscribe! ✨
  • • Literacy Extras
  • • Poems to Listen By: Audio Series
  • • Poet-a-Day
  • • Poets and Poems
  • • 50 States Projects
  • • Charlotte Perkins Gilman Poems Library
  • • Edgar Allan Poe Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Blake Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Shakespeare Sonnet Library

Celebrate With Us

  • • Poem on Your Pillow Day
  • • Poetic Earth Month
  • • Poet in a Cupcake Day
  • • Poetry at Work Day
  • • Random Acts of Poetry Day
  • • Take Your Poet to School Week
  • • Take Your Poet to Work Day

Gift Ideas

  • • Every Day Poems
  • • Our Shop
  • • Everybody Loves a Book!

Connect

  • • Donate
  • • Blog Buttons
  • • By Heart
  • • Shop for Tweetspeak Fun Stuff

Copyright © 2023 Tweetspeak Poetry · FAQ, Disclosure & Privacy Policy

We serve poetry with our cookies. Because that's the way it should be.
We serve poetry with your cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you... accept the cookies with a smile.
Do not sell my personal information.
Cookie SettingsAccept
update cookie prefs

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT