January 2022
What triggered your interest in creating poems?
For me the trigger was an urgency to explore and express the tenderness, pain and fear of bringing a daughter with mental illness safely into adulthood.
Who are your favorite poets?
I am drawn to beauty and clarity in poetry, to the thrill of how words sound and the way they cause a shiver of unexpected pleasure and awareness when placed together in a concise, new way. Derek Walcott, Sharon Olds, Louise Gluck, Pablo Neruda, William Butler Yeats, Christina Rossetti, Dorianne Laux, Kay Ryan to name a few.
What inspires you? Other poets, painting? music?
Initially I was inspired by people, feelings, needs and wants. At the Writer’s Studio, I imitated many poets, which is a fascinating way to learn technique. More recently I relish the challenge of using nature, specifically fruits and vegetables, to explore both beauty and, if I’m successful, the human qualities they reveal through a certain lens.
Where have you published?
I have published widely in journals, most recently in The Night Heron Barks, The Adirondack Review, Gyroscope, and Lily Poetry Review. I also have four published poetry collections.
My first book, Lovely Daughter of the Shattering (Kelsay Books, 2019), chronicles a family’s journey from adoption through turbulent adolescence into single motherhood. It was 15 years in the making and led to my second book, The Machinery of Grace (Kelsay Books, 2020). Consisting entirely of centos—poems compiled from individual lines of other poets—this book deals with the three phases of losing my mother: decline and death, memories, and re-engagement with life’s pleasures. It was actually a glory to write because the chorus of voices somehow affirmed the universality of loss and healing.
In early 2020 Gail Goepfert and I experimented with collaborating. Our initial attempts lacked focus…and then came the pandemic. We began responding to this unprecedented experience with poems that echoed and enhanced one another. The resulting chapbook, This Hard Business of Living (Seven Kitchens Press, 2021), is a brief time capsule of the early days of Covid.
The success of this effort took us in a very different direction: a combination photography (Gail’s) and poetry (mine) book about the secret life of fruit. Honey from the Sun (Blurb.com, 2020) is a romp in color and fun. We were blessed to find this outlet during the height of the pandemic.
Are you in a feedback group that meets regularly? If so, How often?
As mentioned above, I am part of a group of poets who critique and encourage one another. Plumb Line Poets met three Mondays a month for several years. During the worst of Covid we met twice a month by Zoom. Now we average about one meeting per month.
We know every poem is different but--on average--how many revisions does one of your published poems require?
It varies on how successful I’ve been with the first draft. Some poems need only minor tweaking. Others are shut away for years, during which period I may rewrite ten times, often shortening the poem as I go. When I write a cento, I can fiddle with the lines every day for two weeks. There is no set pattern.
Do you gear some of your work toward performance poetry rather than the written form? Why or why not?
A long time ago, I choreographed a poem of mine and performed it in a dance class. (Egad!) Now, I stick to words on the page. I do feel poems come alive when read aloud, and I often recite them as I’m revising to better feel the rhythm and sweep of the lines.
How long might you struggle with a poem that doesn’t seem to want to come together?
I have quite a few poems in my computer that will most likely never see the light of day. I’d say after ten years of resisting improvement, they remain forever in hiding.
Is there a special person in your life you’re inclined to share your work with? Explain.
Other than my husband and, at times, my daughters, I share my work with all the Plumb Line Poets—Marcia Pradzinski, Catharine Jones, Gail Goepfert, Melissa Huff, Pat Price, Carol Sadtler and Barbara Skalinder. And with our growing collaborations, Gail has become a special friend, inspiration and advisor. I show her my first drafts and greatly value her insights.