I am an everywoman, a generalist. I lose track of things. I am me. I am plugged in, checked out, tired, and amped. I’m a mother. A poet. A breadwinner. I write for work, but also out of necessity. I process the world in candid words and painterly photographs, visual poetry. I tell fictional stories about true events and make up circumstances to more accurately reflect true feeling-moments. Sometimes I am funny on purpose. The rest of the time, I’m just on purpose.
I wrote my first poem at three years old, though that’s not saying much; children are poems and speak the world naturally in that medium. My first poem was published at 15 years old. I saved the $10 payment check, it’s papered in a photo album somewhere. I have been writing ever since. These days, my themes cover a lot of personal territory including motherhood (I have two children), divorce (two of those, too), anxiety, and activism/social justice, an impetus that’s recently found a home in a newfound identity as a Unitarian Universalist. Nature is a frequent motif. I use narrative poetry to tell stories, and stream of consciousness style when what needs to be said is meant to bypass your brain to be better understood.
My professional accomplishments include numerous print and online journal publications of individual poems. I’m currently seeking publication for three completed collections. I’m a professional writer and marketing consultant by day, a job that pays me to occasionally play with words (I count my lucky stars frequently). I was an editor of my college literary magazine and have won numerous scholastic awards related to English and Writing, including two Pushcart nominations in 2010 and a Best of the Net nomination in 2018 for poetry. I’m currently completing my BA in Creative Writing and English (Poetry) at Southern New Hampshire University, with a projected graduation date of August 2018.
I am a long-standing member of a closed poetry workshopping group in Gainesville Florida called The Bee Tree Poets. We host a monthly community poetry workshop open to all skill levels for people looking to hone their craft in a safe and welcoming environment. We occasionally perform as a group. I’m also a former visiting member of The Writer’s Room (circa the 1990s), a prose workshop let by author Sloan Wilson (Man in the Grey Flannel Suit, et al).
And Robert Heinlein once hit on me at a party. Yeah.
I am pro-Oxford comma.
samara powers poetry 