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 live in an apartment with no walls,
just whispers nailed to scaffolding.
Every morning, I sweep the silence
off my doormat like dust.
I once married a moth.
We divorced over a lightbulb.
She said I was too bright.
I said she kept flying in circles.
My job?
I bottle other people’s regrets
and sell them as perfume.
Top notes: apology.
Base: memory.
Always unisex.
My name?
Call me whatever.
It’ll echo anyway.
I dated a girl who only spoke in spoilers.
She ruined my life in three sentences.
I still don’t know if she meant to.
Sometimes I walk backwards
to undo conversations.
I leave apologies under park benches
like bread for pigeons.
Children ask me
why I wear mirrors on my shoes.
I say,
“So I never step on someone else’s past.”
They think I’m joking.
I hope I am.
At night, I press my ear
to the cracks in old buildings,
listening for arguments
that haven’t happened yet
.
I write them down.
I sell them to poets.