Feb 14, 2022
Jacqueline Suskin has been a poet all her life. It’s something she was born with, she says, and this passion for poetry has led her to build a career where people pay her to write poems about their experiences, their longings, their celebrations, and their desires.
In the latest episode of the Make Meaning Podcast, Jacqueline speaks with host Lynne Golodner about Poem Store, the entrepreneurial venture she created in 2009 by taking a typewriter to public spaces and writing spontaneous poems for payment; her seven books (plus the new one she’s working on); why she believes meaning is a choice and how being able to assign meaning to ordinary objects and experiences is what sets humans apart from every other creature.
In this episode, Lynne and Jacqueline discuss:
- Her latest book, Every Day Is a Poem
- How she works with people in one-on-one sessions
- What it feels like to write poems spontaneously & for commission
- Why she never keeps a copy of a commissioned poem
- How poetry is the conduit we need to ponder the depths in this crazy time
- How all people experience the same celebrating, grieving, longing and loving, and how everyone wants to connect to these experiences through language
Links and Resources;
- Jacqueline Suskin
- Poem Store
- Lynne Golodner
- Lynne’s Finding Your Voice at Midlife Writers Workshop
- The Hollywood Farmers Market
- Commune
- Typing poems in Oakland, California
Find Jacqueline Suskin: