Trudy Kleckner was recently featured in the Arts & Culture section of Quintessential Barrington magazine where she shared some thoughts on writing poetry that we think are worth sharing here. When asked how she turns an ordinary event like visiting a bakery into art she responded: “The poet’s job is to tell a story that moves people. It asks the reader to notice something.” Here’s her poem that accompanied the article.

In The Bakery

the air smelled of butter and sugar and fresh baked bread

a stranger stood ahead of me in line

brown hair sprinkled with grey and smiling eyes

she ordered six scones

      i asked the baker for three

was told they were out

the woman turned and offered to share

oh no i replied

i will make another choice

i did not know her

name or age

but i knew she was kind

i did not know where she was born

or where she lived

but i knew she was kind

i did not know her religion

or her political preferences

but i knew she was kind

in this world

filled with meanness    violence    division

she gave me what i yearn for

more than scones

she offered kindness

We noticed. The poem’s story lifted us. When asked what poetry’s super power is Trudy responded: “Brevity. Poetry says a lot with few words.”

Explaining her lack of punctuation in the poem she said: “Know the rules before you break them. For me, the comma and the period interrupt the flow. Gradually I eliminated punctuation all together. I use line breaks and spaces for a pause.”

The article included some of her thoughtful tips on how to write poetry.

• Pay attention. What moves you? You can often feel it in your body. It lingers in your mind.
• Embrace silence. This let you hear an idea inside your head or in your environment. Write it down to anchor it.
• Let the idea sit for a while until it starts telling you more.
• Write it out in longhand on paper until you think you’ve got it. Then move it to a computer and edit.
• Don’t tell the whole story. Let the reader fill in the blanks in their own way.

When asked about the impact poetry might have if read or written by people everyday she said people would be:  “Kinder. More thoughtful. Curious. More open to one’s self and others.” We agree!

Trudy Kleckner’s third book of poetry Bring Light is in the process of being published and will be available soon.