Who's that Poet?

The one where Michelle interviews Michelle

Have you ever interviewed yourself? It’s a bit awkward, but what is life without some awkwardness!

First things first, please introduce yourself and share some fun facts:

Hi, it’s me Michelle. I try to use as few words as possible, both writing and talking, and people either love it or hate it. 🤷🏼‍♀️ My husband and I have two boys and we recently moved back to our home state of Kansas after living in Colorado and Florida.

I learned to drive a tractor before a car and took my drivers license test in our family’s 15 passenger van. Nailed that parallel parking. Don’t ask me to do it agin.

Photo by Ashlee Gadd

How long have you been writing poetry and what made you start?

I think I’ve always “written” poetry but I didn’t officially start writing and sharing until around 2019. I was taking a workshop with

Sonya Spillmann

and was struggling to write an essay. I don’t remember exactly what Sonya said to me but I remember that she encouraged me to try getting at the story in a different way. This was also around the time that Kate Bear was getting popular on Instagram, and I spent one night binge reading all her poems and thought, hey, I could do that. I wrote a poem about nursing my son for the last time and then I couldn’t stop.

I had always assumed being a writer meant I had to write long form, but it was always frustrating for me. Poetry gives me the freedom to do more with less.

What is your writing process like?

I laugh a little at the word process. I’ve never had a set time to write and I don’t write everyday. Recently though I have been trying to write and publish one poem a week. I use my notes app a lot to capture thoughts or lines and then go back and add and edit.

How do you make or find time to write?

I think this is an area people really struggle with especially if writing isn’t your full time job and/or you have kids. Writing time is probably not going to look as idiilic as it does in the movies.

For me, making and or finding time is always changing. Currently my focus time is Sunday mornings when it’s just me and my coffee, but most of the writing I’ve done the last five years was on my phone in random spurts. In the middle of the night, in a waiting room, on lunch breaks. I had to learn to let go of what I thought writing should “look” like and lean into the margins of time I had.

How does being a mother impact your poetry?

Motherhood is a constant inspiration and theme in my poetry. I like to think I would have still gotten to poetry without being a mom, but I’m not sure. Becoming a mom unlocked something in me that I’ve only been able to express through writing.

Poetry specifically is an outlet for me, a way to process motherhood, and most importantly, a way to share and connect with other moms that might be going through the same struggle or achievement.

Do you have any other creative pursuits? How do they relate to or enhance your poetry?

I started an Etsy shop a few years ago where I sell prints of my poems and bookmarks. I’m not great at keeping up with it or marketing it but it’s fun to use my words in a more physical way than just on a screen.

I also like to mess around with watercolors and hand lettering and a few other random crafts.

One last thing…

I have a lot of people tell me they find the thought of writing poetry intimidating and I get it. For most people poetry equals big words and complicated metaphors and old white men sitting in the woods.

But poetry can be as simple as writing down a few lines after watching your child at the beach for the first time, about how you feel in the school drop off line, what you are going to do with an empty nest. Maybe the laundry is overflowing and the floors are dirty and the babies are crying and you are tired of being tired.

That, my friends, is a poem.