Welcome to my Poet Lady Chat Room. I would like to invite you to click on the chat box and type in a question, a suggestion, submit a poem, in other words – “chat with me.” I may, if you submit a poem, decide to feature it in my Poem of the Week section or, we may simply exchange ideas and suggestions about your poem.
This is a place to “talk” poetry with someone who has loved it all her life. I have a true passion for the possibilities of poetry and would love to hear your thoughts and/or read your poem. I will be happy to offer my reaction to your work and, based on over 40 years of teaching poetry, organizing, and conducting poetry workshops, working as a book review editor for an international poetry magazine, authoring five books of poetry and two textbooks on teaching poetry, send along my thoughts on ways to make your poem stronger and more impactful.
If you’re on my site, you have a connection to poetry. Feel free to connect with me – right here -right now, by typing your message into the “chat box” and clicking send. I’m waiting…
Your friend in poetry, Susan
FEATURED POEM
I spend time chatting with strangers,
their words circling me like moths—
soft, harmless, repetitive
and all I can offer are borrowed nods:
“Yes… hmmm… I see what you mean,”
each one a polite stamp of existence
that leads them deeper into monologues
I never asked to host.
I remain there like a mime in a glass box,
performing silence,
letting it stretch between us
until it becomes a command:
continue… keep talking… fill the space I’m drowning in.
And somewhere beneath their small talk,
I wish—just once—someone would read the air
instead of the script.
" Have you seen the new episode of stranger thi..." Must’ve been interference.
A breeze brushing past my ear, nothing more.
Because surely no signal meant for me
would arrive so...
" I love y..."
Must've the been the wind,
The tide or the mind,
A light not meant to be found,
Wait, let me rewind :
How I changed,
My tone, structure and lines
Just not not be found.
Maybe I'm the...
I spend time chatting with strangers.