PORTRAITS
As a reader and lover of stories, I’ve always read more for character than for plot. I suppose I am more interested in “who” than “what”. Perhaps that’s why so much of the artwork in my home features faces. In many of my poems I am trying to find inner truth in portraits.
CREATURES BIG AND SMALL
Growing up, the only pets my sisters and I had were small rodents confined to cages. When I started spending time in upstate New York, I was surrounded by a variety of wildlife- birds, bats, mice, groundhog, snakes, deer, fox – to name just a few- and we were constantly encroaching on each other’s habitat. When I am not annoyed by these creatures, I am amazed by them.
Ode To The Deer Mouse on the Basement Floor
NATURE
I’ve never been one to enjoy hiking in the woods, but mid-life I discovered bike riding and the joy of pedaling down country roads, surrounded by woods and cornfields and sheep grazing. Some people go to places of worship to commune with their spirituality. For me, a ride in the country feeds that same need.
THE HUMAN CONDITION
According to a Bhutanese folk saying, to be happy you must contemplate death five times a day. Perhaps that is why so many poets contemplate suffering and mortality in their poems. In a weird way, these poems affirm the joyousness of life and gratitude for the life I lead.
Elise Chadwick 