HOW DO YOU ACHIEVE WORK-LIFE BALANCE?

As a poet I’m always working because consciously and unconsciously I am observing the finite and gross nuances and changes of nuances – for example, the way a breeze might suddenly strike my cheek, the squareness with another or lack of, and what subtleties reflect. This is not work though, this is love of life that I put into language. Poetry.

I love the process. I love free writing, stream of consciousness writing and all the steps, meaning days, weeks, months, years it might take to create a poem … from the blank sheet of paper (which can be intimidating) to the finished poem, that creativity. I simply thrive in this place. I might spend years trying to find the “right” word. I might say my poem aloud 500 times in search of its essence until it “feels” and “sounds” right in my ear and body. Poetry is 100 percent visceral for me.

Also, other poets’ poems motivate me as there are those times of despair as a poet when the blank sheet of paper stays blank. We hold each other as poets.

I’ve been writing as a poet for decades now and that I have not given up writing is my greatest accomplishment, because though there are poem and book publications, readings, awards, incredible students, there continues to be those rejected poems and manuscripts, the long days and nights where I feel I might go mad if the poem I am working on does not soon speak its truth, its voice to me.

Certainly winning the New Mexico/az Book Award a couple of years ago for my second poetry collection, “The Mistress,” published by the incredible 3: A Taos Press was amazing, and also the recent recognition within Taos community to be honored as the second poet laureate, where in the next two years my poetry project of bringing poetry into outdoor natural settings comes alive. Humbling and reflective.

Read, read, read, study and discuss the poetry of others because we have much to learn from one another as poets. And write until you have ink stains on your fingers.