What inspires you? Other poets, painting? Music?

Continued from home page.

I’m also a home cook, recipe collector and nutrition advocate, and was once a board member for the activist group Illinois Coalition for Safe Food, so that explains my food poems. Spiritually, I’m a Christian, and have enjoyed writing poems lately about the many unsung women heroes in the Bible.

In essence, I’m all for writing poems about “what you know,” but also about researching and writing about “what you WANT to know about.” The subject matter for poems is endless! And at the feet of each and every poet.

Where have you published?

Four of my full collections have been published: Night Ribbons, Swimmer’s Prayer, Earth Elegance (poems about animals), and Epicurean Ecstasy: More Poems About Food, Drink, Herbs & Spices. Also three chapbooks: Private, On Purpose, Omnivore Odes: Poems About Food, Herbs & Spices, and Drenched (poems about water and other liquids). In addition, as mentioned above, there’s my memoir/creativity guide/history of the Chicago poetry scene/and reference Frugal Poets’ Guide to Life, How to Live a Poetic Life, Even If You Aren’t a Poet.

It takes time and work. Each completed poem is a reward. Every poet needs to put their heart into it. Just so you know, it took about 15 years after I started writing poetry seriously to come out with my first book. It’s natural that any poet would eventually like to see his or her first book published, but may not have as yet. It’s important to know that you first need to get individual poems published in literary journals and anthologies before you really think of putting a book together. Be prepared to be thick-skinned about submitting to journals, as you will likely get more rejections than acceptances. Don’t take rejection personally, as many (not all) journals are flooded with submissions, have only so much space, and each editor has a subjective taste in poetry. Keep trying. Book publishers want to see your track record, and you should have one. And it’s probably a good idea to try to come out with a chapbook before you publish a full collection. Publishers are more likely to publish a chapbook for a newer or under-published poet than a full collection, because it’s less of a financial risk. Of course, self-publishing is an option that’s more popular today than ever.

How long might you struggle with a poem that doesn’t seem to want to come together?

Some poems flow out easily in one fell swoop, but that’s an exception. I usually tinker with a new poem for a few days until it’s to my liking. If it’s just not going anywhere, I put it away, sometimes for a few months, and revisit it later with fresh eyes. The draft might bear the seed of what I want to get across, but it may need to be expressed in another way. And often putting it aside can allow that process to gel.

I find it kind of amateurish when a poet reads a poem at an open mic, let’s say, that he or she just wrote that same day and is overly excited about. Most likely, it still needs work. And please try not to send freshly born poems out for publication. Take some time to make sure you are happy with your opening, images and ending. Then put yourself in the position of the reader’s perspective. Will the poem come across the same way for them? What’s unclear, masked, or overly personal? Are you saying too much…or too little?

Rather recently, I found a typewritten poem in my file cabinet from several decades ago that I had forgotten about and had never published. I reworked it, sent it to a literary magazine, and it got published! So what was old to me, is now new to others. Why not, especially if such poems don’t have topical references, locking them in a certain era.