Today we’d like to introduce you to Shannon Rebecca.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
There are so many ways to answer that question! But, as this interview is focused on the poet part of me, I will start with this:
I grew up with many changes around me—we lived in at least 11 different houses, three different states (Washington, California, and Maine), people came in and out of our lives…—but one thing we could always count on was our nightly routine of my dad reading to me and my brother before bed. On the nights we had more time it would be chapter books, but on the nights we only had a few minutes he would read us poetry. To this day, I can’t read Shel Silverstein without hearing my dad’s voice in my head, and seeing his mannerisms and enactments bring the words to life.
The first poem I remember being proud of I wrote in 6th grade. It was called Shy, and it started “I am a picture frame, holding everything inside.” It was the first time I wrote something where I felt I was able to express something about myself that I hadn’t otherwise known how to say. And I saw I could do it creatively; it felt like a puzzle I could put together—how can I put words to this feeling I have as accurately and succinctly as possible?
And it hooked me! Although it wasn’t until many, many years later that I wrote as a habit, as a tool, as a regular way of expression.
Today, my poetry happens mostly on Sundays. I wake up, put coffee on, play some quiet jazz through my house, and write. It’s a ritual I look forward to every single week.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Is it ever a smooth road? 🙂 But also, what would be the fun in that?
There were a few things I had to learn very clearly in order to write like I do:
1. That my writing had to come from me and no one else. In fifth grade there was a poetry contest at school. I was struggling with what to write so I told my dad and he helped me…but he helped me to the point of essentially writing the poems for me. And I won first place! But I didn’t feel good about it at all. I actually felt, for a long while after that, that I didn’t like poetry or writing, or like I couldn’t do it, because of that incident. It taught me, though, that, for me, the only value in my writing is when it truly comes from me and what I have to say. And I’ve been protective of my writing since then. I don’t solicit the thoughts of others on my work; I just do it, and if it satisfies me then it’s good. And if it doesn’t then I keep writing and editing until it does.
2. I think the biggest hurdle for me was actually learning how to not lose myself in relationships. During the time of my first marriage—close to a decade’s worth of time—I stopped writing almost completely in favor of “couples” things, things we could do together. It wasn’t until after my divorce, when I was picking up the pieces, that I had to start asking myself for the first time, “hey, what do I actually like to do, just me?” And in the answer I found my way back to reading and writing. It actually became, in that time, a vital healing tool for me.
3. The last thing I would say about struggles is what is true for most people about most things they want to do—and that is finding and keeping the discipline of actually doing it. For me, I have found the discipline through having an accountability partner in my dad. We have an agreement that every Sunday we have to send each other a poem. It can be three lines or a well-thought-out verse, but it has to be something. It started as a way for he and I to reconnect after a long period of distance, and it turned into something that feels much bigger than that; it was the birth of the Sunday Night Poetry Club, a site that I maintain of poetry that I write. I don’t post every week, but the ones I feel good about I like to share there. www.sundaynightpoetryclub.com
And, I would say, for anyone who wants to write—better or at all—a huge key is reading. Every time I read, my writing gets better. Every time I find I’m having a hard time coming up with something, or having trouble finding a way to express myself as I want, I read. I read others’ poetry, like Andrea Gibson and Billy Collins and Mary Oliver and Lucas Jones, but also fiction books where the writing makes you stop every few lines to admire the work of the writer and how they’re able to express their stories (Demon Copperhead being my most recent favorite). Reading is such a gift.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’ve been told that my poetry could be classified as “confessional” poetry. But I don’t write for it to be any one way or another. I write to work through feelings, to say things I otherwise don’t know how to say…and I try to be as honest as possible. I think that’s what sets me apart from others is that I’m not afraid of saying things, and that I have an ability to communicate in a way that people understand and makes them feel something. That matters to me because lots of people think that poetry is inaccessible or boring or old fashioned, and I like to show them that it’s not—or it doesn’t have to be.
Poetry is a way of looking at the world. It’s being sensitive to the extraordinary experience it is to be alive—the mundane, the miracles, the in-between—and capturing it in a way that makes other people realize they are not alone, in their struggles and their joys alike.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
I’ve only lived in Texas for a few years, but in that time I have grown to really appreciate it. I love that Austin has everything one expects in a city, but that it also has so much green space and hiking and natural beauty throughout. I love the pride of the people here—in our teams and our great state. I love the friendliness that I have discovered in so many of the people. And I love so much of the food! Dame Cafe has the best coffee, DeSano’s the best pizza…yum 🙂
If there was anything to not like, it’s only that we don’t have an ocean right here, because that’s something I’m used to having grown up mostly in Maine, and then spent lots of time in LA and Florida. But I try not to hold that against it here 😉
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sundaynightpoetryclub.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shnnnrbcca/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannonrebecca/
- Other: https://www.shannonrebecca.com/
Image Credits
feature photo and first photo in the other uloads: https://www.instagram.com/myglassiris_/
