An Interview With Poet
MAYA JEWELL ZELLER
BY KAREN MOBLEY
What brought you to poetry?
I grew up in a family that relocated from one rural area to another, and I was a bit socially awkward. I didn’t have music
lessons or television or friends — except those constants of the natural world that seemed to exist in every place. The first
rhythms I recognized as parallel to my own heartbeat and breath were those of creeks and rivers; the wave patterns in the
ocean and the swish of tall grass in fields; the wind in firs; the beat of rain on a barn roof.
These were my entertainment and my companionship. As I learned the nuances of language, and specifically poetry, I found
those same cadences on the page. In poetry, it was as if the natural world was speaking through human language. Here was
my body and my mind, and a whole range of bodies and minds I had yet to learn. I knew nothing, yet the knowing was right
in front of me — a visit to the library, an afternoon spent staring into the currents.
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ART CHOWDER MAGAZINE