Nancy Simmonds was elected our PSI 2nd Vice President at our Spring Fling in May. To get to know her better, I interviewed her about her life as a poet. Enjoy!
1. What is your home club?
NI Poets in Fort Wayne
2. Where is your hometown?
The first third of my life was in Minnesota. The second traveling for my husband’s Family Practice schooling and residency. And then we settled in Fort Wayne and I have been a Hoosier for many years.
3. How long have you been writing poetry? (since what age?)
I started writing poetry in 2014 or so.
4. Do you remember what first turned you on to poetry?
As a child I could check out as many books as I wished from the library as long as one of them was a book of poetry. A favorite book of mine was “Read Me Another Story” compiled by the Child Study Association of America. There were many poems interspersed with stories in that yellow book and I was enchanted by Christina Rosetti, Old Shoes and New Shoes by Irma Simonton Black, Over in the Meadow (that rhyming song) , Margaret Wise Brown, and Robert Louis Stevenson.
5. Favorite form of poetry to write?
Free verse
6. To rhyme or not to rhyme? (which do you do?)
I really struggle with rhyme.
7. Favorite poets?
Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Billy Collins, some of Linda Patten, Adrian Matejka’s Big Smoke, whoever happens to pop up on Poetry 180.
8. Describe your writing environment (at a desk, out in nature, at a coffee house? Morning or night? Do you have a special beverage as you write? Do you write on a computer or longhand?)
I write at a desk in long hand stapling revision to revision to revision. I write mostly in the mornings although if it’s an interruptus kind of day I will steal away to a quiet floor of a library and power write at any other time of the day.
12. What do you find most challenging about writing poetry? What are your particular writing skills?
My favorite writing is using found words and stringing them together into something exciting. I really struggle with structured form.
13. Your day job?
I worked at IPFW at the front desk in Information, Admissions and Student Services. How I missed those inquiring minds when I retired 18 months ago!
14. Other hobbies?
I read LOTS. I make quilts. I run/walk local and virtual races. Currently I am working on the Amerithon, 3521 miles across America. I just started July 4 so I am still enthusiastic. I greatly enjoy traveling and we have visited 18 countries.
15. Any family members/pets you want to mention?
Husband Dan, four kids, two sons in law, a daughter in law, nine soon-to-be-ten grandchildren and a big old wolfhound lab mix named Watson.
1. What is your home club?
NI Poets in Fort Wayne
2. Where is your hometown?
The first third of my life was in Minnesota. The second traveling for my husband’s Family Practice schooling and residency. And then we settled in Fort Wayne and I have been a Hoosier for many years.
3. How long have you been writing poetry? (since what age?)
I started writing poetry in 2014 or so.
4. Do you remember what first turned you on to poetry?
As a child I could check out as many books as I wished from the library as long as one of them was a book of poetry. A favorite book of mine was “Read Me Another Story” compiled by the Child Study Association of America. There were many poems interspersed with stories in that yellow book and I was enchanted by Christina Rosetti, Old Shoes and New Shoes by Irma Simonton Black, Over in the Meadow (that rhyming song) , Margaret Wise Brown, and Robert Louis Stevenson.
5. Favorite form of poetry to write?
Free verse
6. To rhyme or not to rhyme? (which do you do?)
I really struggle with rhyme.
7. Favorite poets?
Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Billy Collins, some of Linda Patten, Adrian Matejka’s Big Smoke, whoever happens to pop up on Poetry 180.
8. Describe your writing environment (at a desk, out in nature, at a coffee house? Morning or night? Do you have a special beverage as you write? Do you write on a computer or longhand?)
I write at a desk in long hand stapling revision to revision to revision. I write mostly in the mornings although if it’s an interruptus kind of day I will steal away to a quiet floor of a library and power write at any other time of the day.
12. What do you find most challenging about writing poetry? What are your particular writing skills?
My favorite writing is using found words and stringing them together into something exciting. I really struggle with structured form.
13. Your day job?
I worked at IPFW at the front desk in Information, Admissions and Student Services. How I missed those inquiring minds when I retired 18 months ago!
14. Other hobbies?
I read LOTS. I make quilts. I run/walk local and virtual races. Currently I am working on the Amerithon, 3521 miles across America. I just started July 4 so I am still enthusiastic. I greatly enjoy traveling and we have visited 18 countries.
15. Any family members/pets you want to mention?
Husband Dan, four kids, two sons in law, a daughter in law, nine soon-to-be-ten grandchildren and a big old wolfhound lab mix named Watson.
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