A Brief Glimpse into the Mind and Inspiration that is North Chili Poet, Elizabeth Johnston

BY SUZIE WELLS

When did you start writing poetry?

I remember writing song lyrics as early as ve, belting out lines about trees and birds and summertime as I kicked my legs out toward the sky on the tire swing in my parents’ backyard.

What styles/forms of poetry do you write/prefer?

I love lyric poetry! at’s probably why Rattle Magazine is my favorite. e editor, Tim Green, curates such an amazing issue every time. I’m also a real sucker for a great pantoum.

What inspires you to write? Where do you ‘ nd’ inspiration?

I usually write poems inspired by some struggle I’m working through as a parent, a daughter, a partner, a friend. As so many writers have already said, I write to gure out what I think. And of course to make connections with others going through similar experiences. Lately, I’ve been thinking about how writing helps me to more fully inhabit my body. I think a lot of women in particular have a fraught relationship with their bodies. We are either taught by society to think of our bodies as something separate from ourselves, something to control/contain, or over time, we learn to divorce ourselves from our bodies as a defense mechanism against trauma. I think growing up female in this country, especially now, can be very traumatizing. I also grew up in an evangelical church, where we’re taught our bodies were sinful and temporary and ultimately not our own. I’m trying to write into my body these days, to be more mindful of the bodily experience and to claim ownership of it. I started meditating a few months ago to help me with that journey.

How would you describe your writing habits?

For a while, I was training for races, and so while I was doing these long runs, I’d use the time to write poetry in my head. I don’t do races anymore, so now I try to set aside an hour every morning to write. Sometimes I’m successful, other times not so much. I am part of a writer’s group (Straw Mat Writers) and we try to meet at least once a month to workshop and then twice a year we go away on a writers retreat together and spend three or four days writing and workshopping. at’s usually where most of my writing happens –when I’m not at home distracted by my kids or animals or laundry –and my “job” in those moments is just to write and think about writing.

What are your favorite topics or themes to write about?

I am especially drawn to poems about parenting (I’m a mother of two daughters, 17 and 20). I’m also drawn to poems about gender mythology, poems that revise fairy tales, folklore, and myths from a feminist perspective. Also poems about popular culture (I’ve written poems about Barbie and e Wizard of Oz) and current events.

What writing groups do you connect with?

I’m co-founder of Straw Mat Writers and a member of Just Poets. I love online writing classes o ered by various outlets such as Catapult. Every year, my writing group and I attend the Association for Writers and Writing Programs. And I teach at MCC, where I coordinate the Creative Writing program; I absolutely adore working with our students in that program.

What advice would you give a budding writer?

Just write. Make it happen. Find the time and do the work. And value it as work, just as important as any other job in your life. If writing is what feeds you, then don’t starve yourself, even if you don’t like what’s on the plate right now. Try new things. And when you enter the publishing world, don’t give up. Just because an editor doesn’t take your poem doesn’t mean it’s not a good poem or that you’re not a good writer. Finally, write for yourself. Because, ultimately, that’s why you started writing. Because you can’t not write. It’s who you are. So honor that.

On May 16th, check out Elizabeth’s reading on Cinderella and other fairy tale poems with Rachel DeGuzman at Geva’s post-performance Insights chat. Elizabeth will be the featured reader at e Little eater on Sept. 24th.

For more information on Elizabeth’s works, visit ElizabethJohnstonAmbrose.com or follow her on Twitter @ libbyjohnston74. Check out the Straw Mat Writers group on Facebook.

An Old Dog Teaches My Dog to Swim

For Neptune and Nina, friends rst published in cahoodaloodaling.com

At the pond the old lab dives in, chasing his splashes, while my pup bounds like a colt, creeps close to water’s edge, jumps back, whines, wavers between solid ground and the instinct that will prevail: to join her friend in play, root shes from the mud, release sleek body, webbed toes, rudder-like tail. I suppose this is how love of anything goes: eventually we give up the shore. Why lament the inevitable, grieve the grey in an old dog’s coat, the hip that gives out, clouds gathering in his eyes? In the end, we are as reckless with love as animals, pretending, perhaps, to see only what they do: pond, a er pond, a er wonderful pond.

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