Hamilton resident Patricia Fleming was always a writer: a poet. After retiring in 2016, she began writing every day. She published a book in 2023 titled, “Being Human In This Crazy World.”
Her poems are approachable and tell of her story, and fearlessness of working on her art full time after retirement.
At what point did you get serious about writing poetry?
I started writing poetry when I was very young. I would tell stories in the form of poetry, but I never shared them with anyone. As I grew older, I started keeping journals, and occasionally shared them with friends. It was my way of observing the world and expressing myself. I had no plans to share my work on a broader scale.
When I retired in 2016, I started writing poetry almost every day and publishing them on a website, familyfriendspoems.com. That’s when I became more serious about my writing and had lots of time to do it.
What are you communicating with your writing?
I became extremely introspective after retirement and started writing about my views on life, people, my past, the world, pretty much everything. I write about difficult times to help me work through my feelings. Last February, my husband and I were victims of a home invasion. I wrote a series of poems to process the stages I was going through at that time.
Someone commented once, on one of my poems, that I tend to write about being human. That is actually a perfect description of my writing and in fact, helped me figure out a name for my book, “Being Human in This Crazy World.”
Have you had formal training in writing and poetry?
I’ve always loved the written word and admired beautiful writing, but I never had any formal training. In college, I minored in literature because I loved to read. However, the truth is, I never particularly liked poetry, especially the older poets. I always found them too hard to understand. I used to think that was what poetry was supposed to be until I discovered some of the modern poets like Maya Angelou whose work was much more relatable to me.
Who are some of your influences?
I love Maya Angelou, Shel Silverstein, Robert Frost, and even more, I have my favorites on familyfriendspoems. We’re all just amateur writers, but some of the work is incredible and I love that we are a community of amateur poets supporting each other. They also provide a vast variety of poems by famous authors as well.
How often are you working on your writing?
I go through periods when I’m writing every day. I wake up in the middle of the night with a poem in my head, it’s like I can’t stop, everything brings an idea for a poem. Then I have periods when I have absolutely no inspiration at all. That used to bother me, but now I just go with it.
What do you find the most difficult to write about?
I don’t write too many joyful poems. That’s hard for me. I’m more of a pessimist than an optimist. But I do write poems about some childhood memories that were happy ones. I write from a personal point of view, but generally on life experiences that we all share.
What fight/struggle do you have regarding your art?
No struggles at all, other than writer’s block at times. I have written while I’m floating in the ocean, sitting on a beach, laying in the dark at night, sitting on my front porch, riding in the car, sitting in the bathtub, shopping. Everywhere that the spirit moves me.
Do you participate in poetry readings in public?
I don’t have that kind of confidence. I love for people to read my work but the only person I ever read them to is my husband. I had accumulated so many poems and several friends had suggested that I send them to a publisher and I finally decided I had nothing to lose because I didn’t think anyone would publish them.
When Austin Macauley did, I was thrilled to say the least. A first-time published author at the age of 70 years old.
What is most rewarding about writing poetry?
On the website, I’ve gotten comments from people all over the world, the U.K., Germany, India, Australia and California. I’ve received requests to use my poetry for a high school reunion, church celebrations, school projects, even a dance concert. The Giant Food Corporation used one of my poems in a commercial for a year and still use it internally for conferences. When someone sends me a comment saying I changed their life in some way, it makes me tearful. One woman told me I stopped her from committing suicide.
When I was contemplating retirement, I was in a panic because I felt like I would not have an identity anymore. I was a psychiatric social worker for over half my life. I felt like if I wasn’t helping people, I was nothing, nobody. But when I saw the responses to my poetry, I thought maybe this was how I was supposed to help people now, and that made it mean so much more than just being a hobby.
What is on the horizon?
I’ve been putting together poems for a second book, but that remains to be seen. I’ll always write because it’s a part of me now. I miss it when I’m not writing regularly, it feels like I’m not myself.
I want to reach more people with my book, and hope I can give a voice to those who can’t express themselves, help people realize that they are not alone in their feelings, worries, mistakes, fears, and leave behind a huge part of who I was in this world through my work.
