Celebrate April Poetry Month with a Local Poet

By Chris Weber

Local poet and attorney Alissa Sammarco’s new poetry book The Waiting Room, will be released this spring. I had the opportunity to ask her a few questions about her desire to write. Her answers follow.

Why do you write poetry? 

“Poetry is an expression of what is hidden below my surface.  I write to show you what I see in the world.  Sometimes it is as simple as the sun behind the clouds that triggers a memory and emotion that I am then able to capture in verse.  It is a way to tell a story.  It is a way to share what loss feels like, or love, or desire.  Sometimes it is a way to demystify the mystery of living.  But most of all, I write to tell stories of how relationships intertwine and form us.” Shares Sammarco.

What do you want to bring to the reader?

Sammarco, “I want the reader to follow the story of a poem, and from one poem to the next, of the book.  Every book I write has a theme, a beginning, middle, and end.  The book should carry you on a ride of emotion through imagery and narration.  I want to bring the reader to the place where the speaker of the poem lives, and where they end up.”

Why do you read poetry?

“A good poem can suck you in and spit you out like swimming in the surf.  It can be fun or it can be peaceful, like floating in the sun and bobbing up and down.” Sammarco adds, “But a poem can also make you cry or make you afraid, and crash you down hard like a storm onto the sand.  I read poetry to take me on that journey, and to see through the eyes of another poet.”

The Waiting Room by Alissa Sammarco:

“I slipped my fingers between the sun and moon releasing colors like the rainbows in an oil slicked puddle. 

I caught a silver moon piece under the eclipse moon’s lips pouting as she hid the sun from us 

all of it  

all of it 

aurora borealis from the edges of my heart 

suddenly changes everything.”