Even before I was born, my mother was a published poet and a nursery school teacher. I remember hearing her poems about a fuzzy orange caterpillar or a jack o’lantern at the same time I heard nursery rhymes like Little Bo Peep and Humpty Dumpty. At first, I didn’t realize Mom wrote some of the rhymes I recited. She taught me how to create rhyme and meter, and I wrote my first poem when I was five. It wasn’t very good. But Mom encouraged me to keep at it.
As an adult, I write mostly “occasional” poems. I don’t mean that I write them occasionally (though I do), but that I write them for specific occasions. I have written them for birthdays, bridal showers, anniversaries, and graduations. I wrote one for my dad’s retirement, one for his seventieth birthday, and another for his funeral.
When my daughter planned her wedding, I wrote one about marriage and had it framed as a shower gift for her. Since then, MARRIAGE has been matted and framed about a hundred times and given to friends and family members for wedding showers and anniversaries.
My first published poem appeared in my school newspaper when I was a student. A later one was published in the school newspaper when I was the parent of students, and another was printed in the company newsletter where I worked.
Other published poems:
MY FACE (published in Ladybug magazine, February, 2005)
IMAGES OF 9/11 (published in ANYTHING PROSE AND POETRY TOO, an anthology by Anassa Publications, 2013)
