Happy National Poetry Month: My interview in The California Journal of Women Writers and Haiku Number 20

Recently Marcia Meier, my friend and fellow AROHO alum interviewed me for TCJWW: The California Journal of Women Writers.  This online journal was founded in 2012 with the mission of "fostering and enhancing the visibility of North American female authors, and narrowing the wide gender gap found in discussions in the literary world" by featuring reviews of women’s literature as well as interviews.  I am incredibly honored to appear on this wonderful site.

Interview: Lisa Rizzo

Marcia Meier recently spoke with Lisa Rizzo to discuss her poetry, motivations, and inspirations threaded throughout her work. Rizzo is a poet, blogger and world traveler who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. A middle school teacher by profession, Lisa has published a chapbook of her poetry and blogs frequently about her travel adventures. Her blog, Poet Teacher Seeks World, is chock-full of her insightful and keen observations during her global jaunts, which also informed much of her chapbook, In the Poem an Ocean. Her poems are earthly, nostalgic, piercing and always surprising.

Meier and Rizzo chatted recently about the poet’s passions and her life.

Meier: What inspired you to begin writing poetry?
Rizzo: I started writing poetry because I was desperate. Even though I had always wanted to write, I only dabbled with it until I was in college. Then I began to attempt writing fiction. I tried over and over to write stories that withered away to dust as I struggled with the characters and plot. I just couldn’t make them live. Then one day, sitting in the big chairs in the university library where I always sat, out of sheer frustration I abandoned prose and tried to write a poem. No, I wrote a poem. It came bursting out of me in one swift flow and that was it. I’m not sure why I had never tried poetry before. I guess I had never thought someone like me could write poems. All my traditional liberal arts education had made me feel that poets were people far out of my realm. But there it was, a poem.

To read the rest of the interview, visit TCJWW: The California Journal of Women Writers 

Haiku Number 20
sun seeps through curtains
light motifs across wood floors
salute Spring-bright day 

Day 19 National Poetry Month

listen to eyes ears
head's trajectory down up
nodding yes to life

Day 18 National Poetry Month

redheaded hummer
sipping purple blossomed sage
dance blue day to night

Day 17 National Poetry Month

 

Sandburg you were wrong

fog does not cat-creep it swoops

down to smother day

Day 16 National Poetry Month

maple cherry pine
dogwood oak crabapple plum
allergies abloom

Day 15 National Poetry Month

among empty desks

lone computer rests silent

happy introvert

Day 14 National Poetry Month

blood red moon eclipse
passion's arc glow - only why
so late? time for bed

Day 13 National Poetry Month

over neighbor's fence
sprightly rhododendrons tempt
me to come and play

Day 12 National Poetry Month -- NaPoWriMo

no dazzle of stars 
just cloud-shuttered night  - alone
I will watch and wait

Day 11 National Poetry Month

confetti blossoms
among green leaves ignored by
warbler splish-splashing

Day 10 National Poetry Month

almost ten o'clock
time when all good poems should be safely tucked in bed

Day 9 National Poetry Month

doves fetch twigs to build
over front door and back such 
steadfast optimists

Day 8 National Poetry Month

sun rich through new leaves
falls green and gold on warm skin
closed eyes open heart

Day 7 National Poetry Month NaPoWriMo

April 7, 2014

wait for night's silence
when rush of day drops away
listen for yourself

Day 6 National Poetry Month

sun-dazzled ocean 
under blue line horizon
draw arabesque sky


Happy birthday, Dad!

Day 5 National Poetry Month NaPoWriMo

April 5, 2014

cherry blossoms dance
along branch's edge not there 
but here home at last

Day 4 of National Poetry Month

April 4, 2014

after five hour 
flight coast to coast, words won't spring
free - but must crawl on

Day 3 NaWriPoMo

April 3, 2014

Capitol pilgrim
paying homage to women
amid good old boys

dressed in marble shine
Mother Susan, Lucretia
and Elizabeth

I give my silent
thanks to women of courage
who walked before me

April 2, 2014 - Day 2 of NaWriPoMo

4/2/14
White House clearance rules:
no cameras, purses, knives,
no photos inside.

White frosting covers
red and yellow and blue rooms
like petit fours on

gilded plates. Untrod
spotless rugs with saucy touch - 
fringe mussed just like mine.

April is National Poetry Month - I'm taking on the NaPoWriMo Challenge!

I've been writing a haiku or haiku-esque poem every day (or sometimes night) since the first day of this year.  So far that means 90 poems this year.  Until now I've been posting these to a private group on Facebook.  Trying to be profound and poetic every single day is a daunting task so until now I've posted these haiku to a private group on Facebook.  That makes me feel safe from my sternest critic:  my own fearful self.  But I've decided to go public for the entire month of April.  I can't promise that all my poems will be good or interesting or poetic.  I'm sure there will be some who tsk-tsk at my western attempts at a form of poetry that originated in a very different culture and language.  So it is with some trepidation that I offer you my first offering for April:

                     forgot to water
                     my tulips - out with orchids
                     much more exotic

Only 29 more to go! Happy National Poetry Month!