Paying Attention, Discovering Joy

When asked whether the poems she wrote helped connect her to the joy they expressed, poet Barbara Crooker had this to say, "I write from personal experience. If you look at the facts of my life, you might not think that there would be much reason for rejoicing. My first child was stillborn and my first marriage fell apart partly because of this, my third daughter had a traumatic brain injury when she was 18, my son has autism. So I write in spite of, or in face of, the darkness, the suffering, that is part of the human condition, and if joy is the tone that comes through the most, I'm happy to hear this." In a powerful interview Crooker shares more about grief, the art of paying attention, and her writing process.

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