Featured Poet: Sally Naylor

This week's feature poet is Sally Naylor. At the last Courtyard Poetry reading, she shared a couple poems from her new book Riffs. Below is an interview with Sally.

What inspired you to write the particular poem?

First I hear an idea and rush to transcribe it in Ars Poetica, I heard A good poem never cries out loud and then next you will drown happy in it, that heart, that poem. This poem is my second ars poetica. But I often write about writing since it’s a metaphor for living. I also love poems of place and have written many New York, Canada, Tennessee and Florida poems. Those have been my places for decades.

 Which poets inspire you?

I love Mary Oliver and my teachers Campbell McGrath and Maxine Kumin and fellow student Richard Blanco ( Obama’s inaugural poet) also my Fort Lauderdale workshop friends: Meryl, Lori, Gary and Deborah.

Why do you enjoy writing?

Writing helps me make sense of my life, it clarifies and sometimes changes my emotions and provides me a verbal album of my life. But I really do it because I have to. I’m an art addict.

A sample of her poetry:

Reprinted on this blog with permission from author.