Please tell us a little about yourself
I am a woman of a certain age (wow, doesn't that sound mysterious). I am in my mid 50's and am a mother and grandmother and recently retired from a satisfying career as a nurse/midwife. I have an empty nest and am busy feathering it with bits of paper covered with random writings and story lines. In my years spent caring for women from all walks of life, I have been storing up a well of thoughts about what it means to be a woman. The observing is over, the time to record those thoughts is now here. Some random things that define me are that I love dark chocolate, wood smoke, afternoon naps, the smell of fresh cut hay, seeking out small villages to explore on road trips, photography, and people who don't take themselves too seriously. And a good book! Always always always a good book.
Tell me about your blog(s), about the name and what it means to you?
I named it "one girl, one pen". Simple and understated, I like that. I have read books that had great titles but the content wasn't that great. I didn't want a fancy title I wanted the writings to be worth the reading. To speak for themselves.
When did you start blogging?
I live on a sprawling farm and had started a blog that kept track of the comings and goings on the farm but I had thoughts I wanted to write that didn't fit that theme. There are little kids that read my farm blog, mainly to look at the pictures of cows and horses and chickens. It just didn't seem like the right format to explore things that were deep or sensual or sad in between posts about the chicken poop! So I gave these writings from my heart its on little corner on the Internet and that is how one girl, one pen came to be.
Your first poem, do you remember it?
No I don't. Sorry to be such a buzz kill but I have been scribbling things on napkins for ever and I cant honestly say one was "first" I used to arrive late to class in college because I was sitting in the parking lot writing poetry and short stories.
Is there a style of writing you prefer?
I love writers who write about deep elemental and primitive things with a light and ethereal voice. Its hard to do since those things are essentially on opposite ends of the spectrum I am so amazed by that ability.
Do you write only poetry?
I don't think of myself primarily as a poet. I think of myself as a writer. I have 3 story lines going which are supposed to be novels but they are languishing in word perfect unfinished. I do much better with short stories and when they are really short and begin to have a rhythmic flow - then they become poems.
Favorite poem you've written?
FIRE
There once was a girl who saw too much and ran far inside herself
And when she could run no more she stopped
and leaning against the wall of tiredness and defeat
she sank and huddled down
All was still
except somewhere deep inside was that little girl
Still looking
That kind of look that makes you stare at the screen when the movies over and the
screen has faded to black
The kind that makes you stretch your eyes wider to cross a room in a darkness like pitch
Even knowing that wont help you see
Into this infinite nothingness she stared as she curled against that wall waiting
In spite of the looking and waiting it still caught her unaware
when it came
this mind numbing joyous light
Gently surrounding her
changing her
It warmed her light dimmed soul
And she became it
this fire
Small and crackling
Soothing and warm
And then bigger
And irrepressible
Impossible to ignore
A long overdue conflagration
of thoughts and feelings and ideas
and love
And whether made uncomfortable by her heat or drawn
by its warmth
people gazed at her fire
~~
Inspirations! Where do you find them and what makes you comfortable writing?
Reading other peoples work inspires me a lot. To think, there are only 26 letters in the alphabet and to see how differently they are combined to express a full range of human emotion depending on the hands that are crafting them is amazing to me.
Favorite books? Authors?
Oh so many. Too many, like I said above it is a never ending fascination to see what a writer will do with the same basic letters. How about I just name oldest favorites and most current? Oldest would go back to my romantic tortured adolescence.....climbing up in a pear tree to read Jane Erye. I wanted to live inside stone walls and eat crusts of bread. Once I read about the Bronte sisters all busy writing away, I wanted to be Charlotte even more than her character Jane. Just so romantic and desperate to my 12 year old self perched in a tree imagining it all. Coming forward to the present time, I just finished "A Year by the Sea" by Joan Anderson. I love that she writes about the basics of finding yourself and rejection followed by redemption. As for poetry authors, it would have to be a tie between Mary Oliver and her exquisite take on the natural world, "tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? And E. E. Cummings reach for the stars,
"here is the deepest secret nobody knows
and is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart in my heart"
If you could live in a book, which one would that be?
Chocolat by Joanne Harris. I love the allure of Vianne, the strong single mother. A healer and an artist who used chocolate infused with mysterious herbs to shape peoples lives for the better. All done in a pair of killer red french heels of course! .
Being part of Jingle community, what are the benefits?
I feel honored to count myself a member of ..the Jingle community. To be reached out to so warmly and welcomed and challenged to become better in such a warm supportive environment is an incredible gift.
Any advice for people who would like to write poetry?
If you would like to write poetry that means that you can write it. You are capable of it. The universe does not allow for people to like something and then be incapable of creating it. With that in mind, what is holding you back? More than likely fear. The worst of all the four letter words. As to wether you can be good at it? That is all about the practicing. I am not good yet but I decided to ditch the fear and just put myself out there. I will continue to hone my skills through use and by learning from others. That sounds too simple a recipe but I believe that is how "good" writers are created.
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