Lifelong writer said she was inspired by memories of past trips with her family
You’re never too old, or too young, to be creative and get your writing published, according to one Schenectady County woman who stated penning poems as a young woman and continues to this day.
Joanne Seltzer never really had a day job, but she raised four children as her husband went into work early and traveled often for his job. When the children were at school and she had some time off, she would write poetry. Now, with her children gone and her children having children, she still doesn’t consider herself retired.
In a way I am retired, but I don’t think of myself as retired, said Seltzer, Niskayuna resident. `Once you’re a poet, you’re always a poet, even if you stopped writing I’m going crazy because I have a hundred things to do, and I’m lucky if I get five of them done each day.`
On Sept. 12, coinciding with Grandparent’s Day, `Child of my Child: Poems and Stories for Grandparents` will be released, and Seltzer’s poem `Jonathan Loves Loons` will be among those published in the anthology.
Seltzer was one of two people selected from the Capital District to be published in the anthology out of hundreds of submissions from writers from across the country and abroad, including Europe and Israel. More than 60 writers are included in the collection.
`It always feels good to have worked accepted,` said Seltzer. `I’ve had a lot of rejections along the way, and being accepted is a lot nicer.`
Seltzer isn’t new to being published, though, because she started her creative writing path at only 7 years old. Her mother was a teacher and brought the poem to work to show other teachers and eventually sent it into a children’s magazine. Soon Seltzer’s first poem was published when she was 8.
`One day, all of a sudden, these words were jumping around in my head and, as I remember, I wrote it down the best that I could,` said Seltzer about her first published poem. `I didn’t write anything equal to it for several years. I had to wait for a long time for the muse to come back.`
After putting poetry aside for many years, Seltzer said she started writing poetry again around her mid-life. She continued to write poetry in rhyme, but free verse was becoming the popular choice among many writers, so while in college she didn’t fit into what was being done.
She has appeared in various journals and anthologies, including The Village Voice, The Minnesota Review and When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple. Seltzer also published three chapbooks (small collections of poetry) and recently published a collection of her poems.
Seltzer said her writing process doesn’t follow any defined form, but when an idea hits her, she jumps into the thought.
`A lot of times, all of a sudden it is there. I feel it going on my head, and you either take it or you lose it. I’ve learned that the hard way,` said Seltzer. `Sometimes, if I’m under a lot of stress or angry at somebody or something and very often those aren’t good poems, but they can be.`
Some things about the writing process can’t be explained, she said.
`I think there is a bit of mystery involved in the creative process,` she said. `I don’t think it is a science it is an act of submission to allow this to happen and have it take you over. I don’t know if I lose control, or I give control away.`
Seltzer said she doesn’t live by her grandchildren, and her husband died five years ago, so she was reflecting on past experiences involving them to spur the inspiration for the poem. Every summer for 12 years, she said, they would go for a week to Lake Winnipesaukee. At the lake, well, there were loons. This shared experience then grew into the poem.
`It was sort of a connection that he loves loons and I love loons and we experienced it together,` said Seltzer. `There is a certain message in the poem about respecting wild animals I don’t write a lot of poems about my grandchildren.`
Recently Jonathan, her oldest grandchild, came to visit her from Baltimore, Md. She said what she enjoys doing when her grandchildren visit is sharing life stories with them.
`I’m at a stage now, where if I don’t tell them, it might be gone forever,` said Seltzer. `I think this is one of the functions of grandparents, to tell their grandchildren who they are and where they came from and what they were like as a child. It is just something they can’t get from anybody else and it is just who they are and what made that person what he or she is.`
Besides writing poetry, Seltzer said she tries to exercise, because she thinks part of being a poet is talking care of herself. Also, she said she is a `very food orientated` person.
`Child of my Child` is 120 pages and can be ordered from Gelles-Cole Literary Enterprises, P.O. Box 341, Woodstock, NY, 12498, or online at
www.ChildOfMyChild.weebly.com
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