Behind the (Writing) Scenes with…
Donna Puglisi, Cape Canaveral Branch
My Creative Process for Writing Poetry
From The Pen Woman, Winter 2019
My mother always wrote poetry on napkins, on random pieces of paper, on the bathroom sink in pencil — wherever and whenever she had a thought, an emotion. She kept a notebook and a pen under her pillow so that if she had an idea, she could immediately capture it. All too often, thoughts are lost if you don’t write them down.
I’m just like Mom. I carry notepads and pens wherever I go. I don’t know when a thought will come, an inspiration, an observation of human behavior, something someone said.
I am absorbed in my environment, immersed in a feeling, being the observer. How does the lake flow? Look at the clouds. Listen to the wind. Just breathe.
I am an artist and my canvas is my words. I touch people with honesty and write what is around me. I keep my poems (even just the beginnings of a thought or theme) on my computer. Print it out, keep it as “work in progress.”
Time alone. No interruptions! At a café, a glass of wine. That’s when I write the best. The flow cannot be interrupted.
Relax and just let the thoughts flow. Be the vessel.
Always reread the next day. Keep rereading; embellish, but always stay with the same thread you started with. I almost feel that I can leave my body and fly anywhere I want to. That is my creative process.
I am empathic. I am the director, the playwright, the performer. When I see my poetry coming together for a book, it’s who I am.
We are all poetry in motion. A dancer I will always be, and my writing is a dance of words.
Donna Puglisi has been writing since she was 12, influenced by her mother, who was also a poet. She has published two poetry books, “Diamonds In The Rough” and “Roses and Onions, One Layer at a Time,” and is working on a third.