Where were you born and where do you live now?
I was born in Ontario, Canada, and now live on the west coast in beautiful British Columbia.
Besides writing do you have any other occupation?
I’m a teacher and tutor and love it! I love the high of people energy and the balance it brings to my life, getting to have introverted creative time writing on my own, then daily interaction with students discussing ideas, learning about their interests and having the privilege of getting to know them. They truly inspire me. It’s an absolute honor to be part of their academic and personal growth. My poem “Inventory” in Rainforest in Russet is about the feeling of awe and wonder each year as the grade twelves graduate and I reflect on the gift of time I got to have with them whether in the classroom or as a private tutor.
Do you have any hobbies?
Walking in nature, especially at the ocean and in old growth forests in BC is my favorite thing to do. I also love reading. I used to play guitar and sometimes wish I hadn’t given it away. It was a soothing hobby either alone from a break from writing or jamming with others, but now I jam poetry while musicians play, so those friends and communities are still part of my life. I also like skating and swimming.
Who or what influenced you to begin writing?
My great grandmother gave me a book of British poetry quotes when I was five with space to write under each one and encouraged me to write. Both my grandmothers were also encouraging. My Scottish relatives loved books, whether it was my grandfather sharing science journals or my grandmother giving me romance stories, so I was always being read to, reading and given books, while my religious grandmother on the other side loved teaching grammar and happily read all my poems, stories and screenplays, loving their gentle themes. The love of words was in me from a young age. I also grew up in a time when reading was a primary form of entertainment, so writing followed.
Why did you decide to write poetry?
It started out in grade three with the fun of rhyme. Like most kids, I enjoyed rhyme. It also gave me something to do quietly when I finished in-class work early.
How has poetry impacted your life?
It has opened and continues to open my life beyond what I ever could have expected. Literature gives us the means to hear the thoughts of people who lived centuries ago, whether it’s Japanese love poems delivered as though the person had just written it moving me to meditation or choosing a time period like the Romantic Era to focus on and losing myself into the journals of Dorothy Wordsworth. In my MFA my advisor Juliana Spahr got me to read Bernadette Mayer for the first time and see that there’s room for extremely long poems like my morning pages just as they are. Especially in today’s world for those of us with access to the Internet, literature from around the globe is literally at our fingertips. Reading poetry is meditative and transformative to me.
Writing is the natural release of the wordsmithing that responds to what I read and then sharing my words with others is a gift of community and friendship like how you and I met on World Poetry Open Mic and are still close friends ten years later.
Yes, meeting you and becoming your friend would never have happened without World Poetry Open Mic and our shared interest in poetry. Plus, I think we are fans of each other! LOL
What propelled you to get interested in organizing poetry festivals?
When World Poetry Open Mic, the podcast we met, on invited people in other cities to host their own Poesic Fest, I loved the idea of sharing the multicultural and diverse landscape of British Columbia with listeners in Denver and beyond. It was so much fun that I started doing an annual Earth Day event in Vancouver inviting writers of all ages and a variety of genres to take part. I was also encouraged as a young writer by League of Canadian Poet outreach events and want to create opportunities for new and emerging writers of all ages.
Please tell our readers about a typical day of writing for you.
I like to remember my dreams when I wake up to see if there’s anything awesome to add into my fantasy stories, so after reflecting on and recording dreams, getting some caffeine and protein, I open the file I’m working on and either dive in if ideas are right there, or read through what’s already there and plot or edit until the caffeine kicks in and takes me on an adventure with the characters. I tend to start with fiction in the morning. Then I walk to school or tutoring taking notes on nature or observations, read literature with students, then walk home again and let the poetry percolate. If it’s an ambitious day I might do some editing after my afternoon tea or call it a day and get some exercise.
You use nature a lot to inspire people to write. How does observing nature and found objects help people to write?
Nature imagery and found objects give us concrete similes and metaphors we don’t even have to think about, in addition to offering memory. I always think of the line of your poem about your husband and watermelon rinds and how powerful that is. Observation is a starting point the reader can see and relate to and then we give it our unique touch, the or message we’re feeling and want to share.
Oh, that poem "Cutting Watermelon" was written after the actual experience and it made me so sad. I am so glad that I was able to express those feelings.
When my oldest godson was four, he emulated everything he saw on tv in play and I had an expectation that violence be used to problem solve, or that everything required a battle, which made me uncomfortable. So, I wanted a book that leaned toward non-violent solutions on big issues, to transform rather than kill enemies. When he was eight he was reading at a very high level and enjoyed the Harry Potter series during the day, but didn’t want anything that would give him nightmares, so his bedtime stories from me became meditative safe dream material with whatever two or three details he requested, like a team of eight-year-olds who save the world from pollution, or a visit to space with Santa in it, etc., and some of those stories became part of my The Light Bearers Series.
That's so cool. I also used to read to my little brother and made up a story that I wound up telling to my daughters and eventually wrote.
I also work as a teacher and tutor for neurodivergent students, including gifted and for a couple of years I couldn’t find any material for my high reading level ten-year-olds who were emotionally young, but reading complex sentences at a university level, especially the girls who found The Hobbit too sad when they realized the dragon would die. They wanted fairy tales about princesses and dogs but they needed adult level sentence structure, so I created The Light Bearers with that need in mind.
As a tutor I help students with language arts and social studies vocabulary, so I wanted to create a resource that uses and reinforces the vocabulary they need to know for middle and high school academics and that will continue through the series of Light Bearers books as I finish and release them.
Please tell our readers a little about this book.
Marcie Anderson has never been told where she is from, but she instinctively knows it isn’t Earth. No one can jump out of trees like she can and the bumpy prickles of her crystals protrude like piercings. When she opens the silver locket that answers her questions, she finds herself on a spaceship headed into danger. There is no turning back when she realizes she has been called to Light Bearer duty and must rescue her Light Bearer partner, Zanfry Zabadon Starlight, from the Yellow Sand Galaxy. They must outwit the jealous Princess Amitto and her Invidia robots bent on creating havoc for life-forms and civilizations that don’t suit her, protect wormhole travel and transform enemies into allies through compassion, scientific principles, and quick thinking.
You do a lot of workshops and you also teach. How do you manage to get across the ideas that are necessary for poetry to happen?
Workshops are about giving people back to themselves, giving adults time, space and freedom away from phones and demands on them so they can access that place inside themselves where their truths reside, so they can slow down and take in the simple beauty and details all around.
I start by creating safe space as best as possible, offering people a moment to slow down and breathe. I then hand out poems by established writers and ask for volunteers to read them so that participants speak as much as possible in a focussed on topic way.
I often give out copies of my poem “What Stories are in your Hands?” from Rainforest in Russet and have people respond with a poem or story about something unique to their hands like a scar or memory. It always amazes me the depths people share and their life stories. I’ve had participants who were ER nurses, veterans, caregivers, cooks, parents, share astounding stories every time.
What would you say is the most important thing to know about writing poetry?
The first most important thing is that everyone who wants to write poetry can. Take your shot and don’t let anyone stop you. The second most important thing to be published professionally in this imagistic time period is to add in specific sensory details to make the work accessible, emotional and uniquely your own.
You also do a lot of poetry readings. Why is it important for poets to read their own work to an audience?
I would encourage everyone to give an open mic a try. It’s part of the creative circle to give our words to others, to be heard and appreciated and to connect in the moment with those listening. It allows the poem to travel. I have always been amazed by how supportive and kind every audience has ever been to me, whether it was at The Mercury Cafe in Denver, Whitehorse in the Yukon, Toronto, Ontario, as a student, or the many literary groups I take part in here in Vancouver. People are kind. Fear of reading in public goes away with time, I promise, and it even becomes addictive in a healthy way, like becoming addicted to exercise. It’s a chance to experience the impact of your voice, words and message on others and to connect with community. I also find that I do my best editing hours before I’m expected to present, sometimes at the mic, lol. A live audience gets my editor side to kick into gear and encourages me to cut lines or words I knew in my gut were weak or unnecessary. The open mic portion of a literary event is an opportunity to experience the world being receptive and kind. Most people who go to open mics are also nervous or afraid of being judged and tend to be supportive.
· Your book, How to Write Poetry is probably the best book I have ever read about the elements of writing poetry. How did you come up with all of the techniques you write about in the book?
It started with my Sensory Writing Workshop that I give for many communities, where I bring in objects from nature that people write to, adapting for professional writers where I go at a faster pace or English as a Second Language communities where I slow down. I used to give a lot of the material in the book as handouts but Vancouver is very rainy and people kept asking me where they could buy the material as an ebook or hard copy so I gathered my most used workshop handouts and compiled them into an easy to read book. It’s intentionally short and affordable, although I provide additional material on my blog and Substack site, often answering reader questions with blog posts.
It’s been over ten years since How to Write Poetry was first released, so I took it down to update the links and plan to re-release it this month, so keep your eyes open!
https://zenofpoetry.wordpress.com/
· Are you working on anything new to be published? If so, please tell us about it.
I’m at work on a prose poetry fantasy novel based on my love of The Vampire Diaries.
How can people find your work?
The best way to get a copy of my poetry books Ordinary Light & Rainforest in Russet is to order from the Ingram catalogue at any bookstore in the world, since they will arrive at your store with free shipping. They are also on Amazon:
Or available directly from Silver Bow Publishing:
And The Light Bearers in the Sand Dollar Graviton is on Amazon:
Free poems & articles by Cynthia:
·You live in Canada, so here in the United States are we likely to be able to see you?
There are a number of Youtube videos of readings I’ve done:
· Finally, the last question that I always give to my guest authors. Are you a plotter or a pantser? In other words, do you outline or do you just write?
I’m an organic mixture. Pantsing is always more fun, but with epic projects like supernatural trilogies of novels, I find myself sewing the pantsed sections together by looking it all over and planning where to place or move each section to. I love to write off the top of my head when I’m in the zone, but when a manuscript gets to a place like the second draft of a three hundred page story, plotting has a place in structural editing. I find the magic is not to force old plotting ideas if fresh ones are taking the story in a different direction and not to slow down to force plotting or admin work when the words are flowing, but I like some order in the chaos, an idea of what sections to sew together each day, so I outline when I review the organic ideas that flow out in zone time, or as I’m easing in, like what couple of ideas I’m linking together today.
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