About

I have loved writing for my entire life. It is one of the most fulfilling yet challenging endeavors I have undertaken.

I am a published journalist and poet who also writes children’s stories.

I worked as a freelance journalist for two local papers: the Times-Standard and Humboldt Beacon. During that time, I wrote on assignment, as well as a series of feature articles.

I have also had stories and articles published in national magazines, U.S. Catholic and Cricket.

My poetry springs from a love of the natural world. I have had several of my poems published both regionally and locally.

I developed a love of poetry and children’s books by reading aloud to my children and then to my grandchildren. (Got to admit, Dr. Seuss is still my favorite.) My current passion is writing socially-conscious non-fiction for young people.

The Stuff of Poetry

Flotsam caught in netting,
dredged from shadows,
amorphous and suspended
between the tideline and the ocean’s pull.

Inspiration for new poems usually comes from something I’ve seen or experienced in nature. For me, the natural image or experience is the suspended, amorphous thing that gets my attention. Then if that image keeps niggling at my subconscious, I’m compelled to spill as much of my understanding of it in words. Choosing sounds or conciseness or phrasing or structure helps me peel away at the amorphousness of my tangled language. If I’m lucky, a personal connection begins to inform the words. I don’t always succeed at making that connection, but when I do, it’s like finding that intact scallop fossil, the one you’ve ardently searched for during a month of hiking the tideline from Centerville to Guthrie Creek.

– Mary Thibodeaux Lentz