In March 2020 I was a featured speaker at TEDxScranton. My talk, “Writing Poems for Strangers,” shares my experiences presenting on-the-spot poetry installations.
Watch the full talk on Youtube. – Writing Poems for Strangers
Excerpts from “Writing Poems for Strangers”
If you haven’t practiced, or even if you have, it can be hard to write a poem on-the-spot, especially in a minute,…”
“Writing poems for strangers is exhilarating. I never know what someone will want to talk about or where the poem will end up. Writing poems for strangers is not always pleasant. In truth, it’s emotionally exhausting. I speak to widowers, parents who have physically or emotionally lost children, people experiencing relationship difficulties, teenagers with all sorts of burdens. I try to honor their stories in the poems and I keep tissues handy, because sometimes we both need them.”