LatinosUSA

Selma Martin is a retired English teacher with 20 years of teaching children ESL. She believes in people’s goodness and in finding balance in simple living. She lives in Japan with her husband.

In 2018, Selma participated in a networking course whose final lesson was to publish a story on Amazon. After many failed attempts, she completed the course and self-published her short story, «Wanted: Husband/Handyman,» in 2019. Later, collaborating with peers from that course, she published «Wanted: Husband/Handyman» in Once Upon A Story: A Short Fiction Anthology.

Selma has published articles and poems on Medium since 2017; she has a story in Short Fiction Break, 2017, and poetry in The Poetorium At Starlight, 2022, MasticadoresUSA, and Spillwords.

Selma writes poetry on her website, selmamartin.com.

You can find Selma, selmawrites, on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

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NF: What drew you into writing?

SM: Nolcha, dear sweet lady, thank you for reading In the Shadow of Rainbows, my debut collection of «Songs of Presence.» I am over the moon happy you did, and based on that, you designed your interview questions for me. What a delight to stand here on your stage talking to your lovely audience. I am overjoyed.

Library books did, listening to the radio, and hearing my mother singing and reciting poetry to my siblings did. All those occurrences lit me up and drew me to write something that someone as ordinary as mothers (ordinary: everyone has one, right?) could love, memorize and pass on to their children.

NF: How did teaching influence you as a writer?

SM: My teaching was an extension of my learning. I started teaching when my own boys were the same age as the children in my care. And for a few years, I applied what I was learning from my kids — things that would motivate the kindergarten kids as I was touching on familiar subjects.

NF: You started out with short story writing. Why did you decide to start writing poetry?

SM: Yes, short story writing came first. And that was just a natural way into something I admired. In 2016 when I entered a new phase: retirement, I spent a lot of time listening to podcasts on writing — novel writing — and exploring contemporary books at NPR Book of the Day, Turner Stories, and Audible (the few names I still remember), and the Write Now Podcast with Sarah Werner.

Listening to those kinds of podcasts gave me tunnel vision, and I started with story writing. Immersing my soul in the practice of writing every day. But I struggled to curb my propensity for long winding sentences, which I thought weren’t so bad. Until, at my last round of edits in September 2020, I found myself with 100,000 words that I couldn’t turn into a coherent and smooth story. Sigh. I determined then and there that I needed to figure out how to learn to say things with fewer words. Then, I remembered that Mother recited poetry, so I researched Google and WordPress Reader to point me in the right direction. I found syllabic poetry on the Word Craft Poetry Website and was hooked from that moment on. 

NF: When does writing short stories work better for you than writing poetry, and vice versa?

SM: I have put short story writing on the back burner and given my undivided attention to poetry. Poetry makes me feel fully alive. I will not say that I’ll never return to story writing (one day, I will finish that novel I started), but for now, it is poetry that I want to dedicate my time to. And as long as I have a place to practice and people who support me, I will continue galumphing in poetry. 

«Please don’t think me vainglorious; I’m just a little euphorious.» ~ Ogden Nash. 

NF: How do you approach writing? Do you write every day or as the ideas strike? 

 SM:  But for the occasional novels I read and review on Amazon, I’ve been accumulating book upon book of poetry. And reading the works of poets on WordPress Readers invites me to explore. I love the prompts from dVerse, Tanka Tuesday, Skeptic’s Kaddish, and Keep It Alive. I would do more if I had more time, but these are the ones I turn to for inspiration. When time allows, I’d go to the various websites and check on the prompts. One catches my attention, and I start writing on it. I write daily but don’t publish every day. 

NF: Now, let’s talk about your debut chapbook, In the Shadow of Rainbows. Many people find shadows to be frightening tricksters. However, in poems such as “My Shadow,” shadows are friends, companions. Please talk about how you developed a relationship with shadows.

SM: Frightening tricksters, you say? Are you one of those people? I hope not. But I can see how verbing that word could give it a sinister feel in the dictionary and your imagination. So don’t verb it. See it as a noun instead, always a noun that is in tune with an energy that usually places you in the cozy center. Whether that source of energy comes directly in front of you — in which case your shadow would appear behind you and you wouldn’t be able to see it. Behind you, my favorite angle, as then your shadow appears in front of you. So for me, my shadow is always a noun. Nolcha, do you ever marvel at the phases of the moon? As a child and even today, no longer a child, I am fascinated by the gorgeous moon. I love me a full moon, and, like every poet, I’ve serenaded her abundantly and will continue to do so for a long time — but did you know that there are no shadows up there in the full moon phase? Of course, you know. And so, the moon gets to see the face of god: the sun. But I love to see Moon with our planet’s shadow on her face best of all. It makes me feel that Moon appreciates the company; I bet Moon feels better when she has shadows tickling her face. 

NF: I noticed that you often use internal rhyme in your poetry. What attracts you to internal rhyme, and how does it enhance the power of your poems?

SM: Rhyming enhances the pleasure of listening to poetry (even if only in your head). As children, the jingles we learned almost always rhymed. Rhyming is soothing, and though sometimes it’s challenging to achieve, it’s a great accomplishment when I arrive at a good rhyme. 

NF: Your poems often use the natural world to describe people and relationships. What is your relationship to the earth, the weather, the seasons, and time?

SM: I am an optimist, in many cases a Pollyanna, and I don’t mind. Cell biologists tell us that 95% of all illnesses and diseases directly cause stress. And how that happens is that we churn on worst-case scenarios when we should be feeding our minds seeds of possibility. I like to create good realities for people as we are part of a larger whole. And contrary to what some might believe, we matter, but we are not the center of the universe. Nature is! Check out this poem I wrote many moons ago: 

YOU MATTER

for
when winds
start to blow
dreams run afoul
and answers resound
more like questions so strange
as is life 'n complex'ties
where sometimes some things don't make sense:
take mighty mountains, brightest of stars
take me or take earthworms, eggplants, or slugs
all protons, neutrons, electrons like you
so when the questions and their answers
or resistance and rejection
turn your head in confusion
make you scream, "unfairness"
think of your greatness
Why--you matter!
you're the wind
with heart
soar

In this poem, I strived to show that we are just as important as the rest of nature. No better, and no less. But to act without heart (even if only in our minds) is senseless. So please, let’s embrace the idea of one for all and all for one. The One, being nature.

NF: Some of your poems have a spiritual quality that intersects with everyday life. Please enlarge on the role of spirituality in your life.

SM: Easy. We are spirits, and I’m not referring to this in any religious sense. Our spirits are housed inside bodies made of flesh and bone, and hair. I will not expand on this further: the rest should come from you because I do not intend to convince you of anything concerning what I said initially. If you agree with it, you need no more explanation. If you don’t agree…

NF: Poems such as “Instinct” and “You Know Her” burst with curiosity and childlike wonder. What in your life inspired you to bring these qualities into your poetry?

SM: This is not bragging, but I had a wonderful childhood and believe we must preserve the magic we tapped into when as children, we daydreamed and played. I once read an article from Bright Horizons that asked: “Where can you find police officers, veterinarians, office workers, princesses, karate instructors, and chefs all happily working side-by-side?” And the only response that could ever answer such a clever question is, “In a dramatic play area of a classroom.” Most of us grow up too early and spend our lives trying to recapture our magical childhoods.  In the two poems you mention, I try to tap into that quintessential capacity we left behind when we gave up childhood things too early at the expense of forgetting the magic of play. I hope you liked them. 

NF: The details in your character poems bring the people in them alive. What are your tips and tricks for paying attention to the details that surround you?

SM: I enjoyed being a mother to my children and reliving my childhood (which, like it or not, was different from my children’s in so many ways). And my thinker overflows with good memories that I intentionally keep alive. For how long? I don’t know, but I will surely try. That’s my only trick. 

NF: What are you writing now?

SM: I’m writing more poetry. 

NF: Do you have any new projects in mind, and if so, what are they? 

SM: Nothing concrete at the moment. Right now, I’m just so busy doing everything I can to promote this collection for which I was a happy conduit. I want to see In the Shadow of Rainbows go places and touch the many hearts that open wide their doors to it. It was a labor of love. And if I can lift up one person through these poems, my joy will find no bounds. 

Thanks so much for your great questions. I hope the responses are clear to you and your readers. These are the answers today; perhaps they’ll be different tomorrow. I bless you and wish you miracles.