1. Tell us about your writing journey.
I have been writing for as long as I can remember. It has always been my sanctuary, a place to make sense of my feelings and observations. I had a difficult childhood, and writing became something I could rely on. It never judged me. It allowed me to feel what I felt and put it somewhere safe.
The first time I stepped outside of my own world with writing, I entered a poetry contest at age fourteen and won. I wish I had saved that poem.
2. Does the weather generate your poems or is there another prevalent muse?
I have a few consistent muses, but lived experience is the strongest one. Much of my writing comes from grief, especially losing my husband of 33 years to cancer at age 52. Writing allows me to return to specific moments, to stay connected to him, and to honor what we shared.
Nature is another constant. I walk every day and notice everything, from flowers and trees to the way a single leaf lands on the sidewalk. I often pair those images with an observation.
Music also plays a role. Depending on my mood, I write alongside artists like Coldplay, U2, Genesis, Fleetwood Mac, and Tina Turner.
3. What do you have to resist in order to write a poem honestly?
I have to resist the urge to make it sound finished too quickly. If I try to polish too soon, I miss what is underneath. I have to step out of my own way long enough to reach the core feeling and let it come through without editing it as I go.
That’s where the truth is. The rest can come later.
4. When you write a poem that is ‘memoir’, do you feel like you are writing about yourself, or is it as if an outside person had the experience?
I am always writing from within my own experience. When I write memoir-style poetry, I am inside the moment again. That’s what allows it to feel vivid. I’m not observing it from the outside. I’m returning to it and writing from there.
5. What comes to you first? The urge to write? A line? An image, either real or imagined?
It is usually an experience or an image. Sometimes they are tied together.
I might see something simple, like a deep red leaf on the sidewalk that looked like Mick Jagger’s lips. Suddenly there is meaning attached to it. That image turned into a reflection on voice, when we use it too much, or not enough.
Those moments happen often for me. I notice something, and then the meaning follows.
6. How much change comes through revision?
A lot, and I welcome it.
Sometimes it is just a word, but other times it is an entire sentence or more. Revision helps me move from what I felt in the moment to what someone else can actually feel when they read it.
There is a balance between staying true to the original emotion and making sure someone else can feel it too.
7. You write in other genres. Is there one that you favor over others? And why?
I have always loved haiku. I wrote it almost exclusively for two decades.
More recently, I’ve moved into prose-style poetry and flash nonfiction/memoir. Right now, that is where I feel most at home. There is something about the combination of structure and freedom in that form that fits how I think and write today.
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