Wildflowers and Wanderings
Interview with poet Jess Lynn
Friends, I’m excited to share that today, author Jess Lynn is guest-writing this post about poetry and her poetry book, Waking Wildflowers. I connected with her via Instagram (link below), where she shares heartfelt, beautiful content. Jess Lynn is also a contributor for The Wistful Wild: fairy tale poems of longing and ferocity. Enjoy!
1. Do you remember your first encounter with poetry, or the first time a poem or poet captured your attention?Â
(JL) My very first memories of poetry was probably the poems in Highlights magazine as a kid. Simple and classic with fun illustrations. But the first time a poem really captured my attention was in middle school. I can't remember which came first but I remember reading "We Wear the Mask" by Paul Laurence Dunbar and feeling it resonate deep within me. Then I didn't understand all that Dunbar meant in his poem, but I recognized hiding my pain and true self behind the mask of a smile and being what others wanted, what they expected. The second is Maya Angelou. The first book of poetry I owned was Maya Angelou. "Still I Rise," "Phenomenal Woman," and "Caged Bird" are poems that shaped me. I can still feel her cadence and influence in much of my writing.Â
2. What kinds of poetry are you drawn to writing and reading?
(JL) I'm drawn to poetry that is a soft meandering, often focusing on nature or our relationship with the natural world, but also one's place and season in life. In both writing and reading, I tend toward poetry that is reflective...that begs a question and seeks an answer. Even if there isn't a clear cut answer. Because when is there ever really one? I think that's what poetry can give us--the chance to explore and wrestle with who we are between the shadows and clean pages. Poetry that gives space for answers and questions, even if there's no conclusion.
3. What do you love about writing poetry?
(JL) For me, writing poetry feels like music. When it comes and flows, I love the feeling of being visited by the muse. The unexplained phenomena of how a line or a poem will just roll over you and spill forth. I'm learning to love when it's harder too. When I give myself (though I don't do this often) the constraints of a certain form it is a gift. It sounds weird to say, but limitations birth creativity. Even struggling to find the right word or phrase knowing something is off, there's a knowing that it'll come...eventually.
4. What inspired you to write Waking Wildflowers?
(JL) The last five years have been filled with a lot of inner and interpersonal turmoil, dealing with unresolved issues in my past and present. It's a reflection of my own journey, of coming back to myself, becoming something new, of wrestling with the loss and darkness and learning gentleness. For me, Waking Wildflowers is about healing and moving forward, while recognizing that we're always waking up. I used to think I just needed to get to this milestone or that point in my life, then my life would be back on track. Then I'd be fully alive. Then I could be my full self. Then I'd be healed. But I've come to realize that we're always waking up. That the cycle of waking, death, birth, and rising repeats and being present in that is what it means to be fully alive.Â
5. Who is Waking Wildflowers for?
(JL) Waking Wildflowers is for anyone who feels the itch and discomfort of shedding old skin, for anyone who knows they're not who they once were but aren't yet who they'll become, for anyone who wonders if there is a way other than self-hatred and exhaustion. (There is.) And you should probably like flowers too. There's a lot of that.Â
Jess Lynn is a lover of stories, wearer of flower crowns, and still believes in magic. She sees her work as an intersection of history, myth, and magic. When her head’s not stuck in a book or following rabbit trails of possible plot lines, she’s busy building a life with her husband, mothering and homeschooling their four children (7 - 14), and ever so slowly renovating their 1917 farmhouse in South Carolina.
Book- https://books2read.com/wakingwildflowers
Website -Â https://www.jesslynnbooks.com/
Instagram -Â https://www.instagram.com/jesslynnbooks/
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