March 2023 Issue
Vol. 2 Issue #3 March 27, 2023 Better late than never, right? It is still March for a few more days! This month, I am happy to introduce you to my friend...
Vol. 2 Issue #3 March 27, 2023
Better late than never, right? It is still March for a few more days!
This month, I am happy to introduce you to my friend and fellow writer, Dorothy Riehm. Dorothy and I have been writing together (accompanied by six other inspiring writers) in a DIY writing group since 2019. Could it really be that we are going on four years together? Perhaps you will meet them all in the coming months as I expand what this monthly foray into your inbox can be.
It’s Dorothy’s turn in the spotlight for now. She wows us weekly with her incredible poems, often drafted following a short prompt and just a little more than half an hour of independent writing time.
Enjoy both of these poems and the interview below.
Until next month,
Linda
I Was Going to Write a Poem
By Dorothy Riehm
I was going to write a poem
but I made a pie instead.
It was much easier,
and so much more appreciated.
Here and Now
By Dorothy Riehm
A moment tenderly unfolding
it could be anywhere, any time,
a time when I am truly present
not lost somewhere in my tangled mind.
Look, listen.
The snow is melting so quickly, so quietly,
long thin patches of white border the driveway
and rise into molecules of light
to a gray sky that is not gray at all
but a radiance shining through gray
a brand new quality of light
Interview with Dorothy Riehm
LC: When did you start writing poetry and what inspired you?
DR: My sister recently found a prize-winning poem I wrote in fourth grade. It was about Jesus and Christmas (I attended Catholic school). Believe me, it showed no promise, but it definitely had rhyme and rhythm.
LC: Describe the process of growing into your identity as a poet?
DR: Actually, I would identify myself more as a lover of poetry than a poet. I have loved poetry since I can remember, reading it, hearing it read or sung. In eighth grade we had to memorize many different poems and recite them. The other kids may have hated it but I enjoyed it and can still remember lines from Poe or Wordsworth or Keats.
During high school, as a young adult, and even into my thirties I did not write. It wasn’t until I took a poetry class one summer in my late thirties. I worked at Harvard, and tuition was free. The teacher was enthusiastic and encouraging so I started writing my own poems.
It wasn’t until I retired that I joined some writing groups and found I really enjoyed the process. In 2017 I started a journal and attempted to write a poem a day, which I kept up for about three years.
Without my knowledge a friend sent a poem to Friends Journal, a Quaker publication. It was accepted and for the first time I saw myself in print! Does that make me a poet?
LC: What keeps you writing?
DR: I attempt to capture with words what wakes me into a deeper reality. I seek and find beauty in our struggles here. Now that I’m older and have the time and inclination to reflect on life. It’s almost as though I don’t have a choice. I just feel the need to write and so I do.
LC: Any advice for aspiring poets?
DR: I guess we are all poets when we look at the world with fresh eyes and attempt to put our experiences and feelings into words. What keeps me writing is this need to communicate my sense of wonder and curiosity, the need to make some emotional sense out of all this mystery and pain and joy.
Recent Articles:
A Writer Who Shares Her Dreams
By Tzivia Gover
Mycelium Flowering
By Linda LaDuc
Access the entire archive of past articles here.
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