Welcome Guest Poet: Linda Swift #poetry #npm

STEPH: Linda, it's great to have you here on the blog. How long have you been writing poetry?

LINDA: I first wrote poems when I was ten. Don't ask how long ago that was! And at that time I can recall reading one to the entire church membership at Sunday morning service celebrating Children's Day. I also read for a group of my mother's grownup relatives who had invited me to lunch to share my poems. I've written poems sporadically throughout my life and I'm currently putting together a collection of my poems spanning several forms and subjects which I am aptly calling "A Potpourri of Poems."

STEPH: Do you have a favorite poetry style?

LINDA: I like and write a variety of styles. Among my favorites are sonnets, ballads, and haiku, but overall I'd say lyric poetry--rhymed or unrhymed-- is my choice. I currently have two published poetry books at Amazon. One is prose poetry about flawed characters and puzzling events in the Bible titled Humanly Speaking: Conversations With God.  The other is a collection of haiku  arranged by four seasons titled Song of Every Season. Both books are beautifully illustrated and available in print ($11.99) and ebook ($1.49)

STEPH: Who is your favorite poet?

LINDA: Emily Dickinson because her poems contain so much in so few words. But Edna St. Vincent Millay is a close second. Then there's Sara Teasdale, Robert Frost, Henry W. Longfellow and so many more from the past. My favorites, as you can see, are poets who write simple, understandable poems about ordinary people and things but their words touch me.

STEPH: What is their favorite poem of yours and why?

LINDA: Oh, dear, how can I choose a favorite of Emily Dickinson when there are so many I love? Without titles, I will just mention first lines of a couple.  "Hope is the thing with feathers…" and  "Success is counted sweetest…"   And for Edna St. Vincent Millay it is her short poem that begins "My candle burns at both ends…" that is so memorable to me.

STEPH: What is your poem about?

LINDA: Moonflower is about love with an image of nature in the background. I have many more poems that include autumn, my favorite time of year (and season when I am most creative and have written the most poems). But we are romance writers and it is spring so I have chosen a poem which includes both.  The poem doesn't have a deep meaning; it is just a moment caught in time by a word picture that I hope will speak to your heart.

 Thanks for inviting me to participate in your celebration of Poetry Month. It's always a pleasure to share my poems with old friends and new.

MOONFLOWER

We stand together in the night
Shadowed by the gnarled old tree
Spreading its blooms of silver-white
To form a scented canopy.
A soft warm wind
Throws a blossom in my hair
And you stay my reaching hand
With a whispered, "Leave it there.
It's a moonflower for a moongirl,
Playing hide-and-seek with moonlight."
Silver silence fills our moonworld,
Two moonlovers in the night.

Bio:
Linda Swift and her husband divide their time between their native state Kentucky and Florida, stopping en route to visit their children in Nashville. She currently has thirteen books available in ebook and print, with seven short stories in ebook only. These include poetry, contemporary, historical, and speculative fiction. Linda invites you to visit her website for more information.
http://lindaswift.net/

Links to:

Song of Every Season
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=+Song+of+Every+Season+by+linda+swift&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3A+Song+of+Every+Season+by+linda+swift

Humanly Speaking: Conversations With God
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Humanly%20speaking%20by%20linda%20swift