Describe your creative space. Do you work at home, in public spaces, etc.?

THIS HAS VARIED OVER TIME. I USED TO GET UP EARLY EACH MORNING AND SIT THERE AND WRITE.  With experience now I live and listen to the inside and out, and catch something when something is there.  It is always a great surprise.  I do have a space to type, submit, revise…a room for this only…but most of the poems come when I am walking or swimming, living, and then I quickly jot down what I have after which the hard work begins.

What kind of materials do you use? Do you write by hand or type? What is your favorite writing utensil?

I write on whatever paper I can find…sometimes I do a journal and select phrases that grab me…the journal is a journal of what has been going on in my life.  Many of us have written good poems on napkins.  Me too.

What is your routine for writing?   Sometimes I work in the morning…but these days I am working in the late afternoon.  With years of experience and 11 books behind me I do not fret or force anything.  And poems do keep coming but usually not in the writing office

How long have you been writing? When did you start writing?

Began writing age 25…Many years…

Who is your intended, or ideal, audience? Who do you write for?

I write for the ideal world called by some “truth.”

I do write political poems but they are poems not slogans etc.  They are challenging but my responsibility as a person who believes in democracy.

What inspires you to write? If you are blocked, what do you do?

I do not fret about being blocked…I always come out of lapses. I wait.  I sweep the floor,  I go swimming , I wash the dishes,  I walk in the woods, I pet my dog..etc., (I live.)

What other things do you do besides writing? Do you dance or play golf, etc.?

I swim, I play piano, talk with a few friends.

What is your favorite part of the creative process?

When something comes up and then I have a pencil to write it down and then work on it expand it, hone it or leave it alone. When done I feel happy, I only recently realized that doing this makes me happy and that I have to do it, with no worry of course.

Getting a flash, a phrase and then keeping focused to continue it.

Check out Roberta’s work in Volume 3, Issue 2.