Interview – Barbara Spencer

Please tell us a bit about yourself.
Hii! I’m Barbara. I’m also known as ‘ghost’, as that is my online name on most everything. I live in Texas, which has always been home, but being an Army wife for many years, have traveled a lot. We lived for awhile in the countries of Germany and Japan. It was a wonderful experience, getting to learn and live another culture. What was funny, was when we came back to the U. S. we had a bit of culture shock, as we resumed our regular lifestyle.
Our daughters are grown, and we have two wonderful grandchildren now. It is amazing to watch them grow and learn new things.
Right now we have two cats, as we lost two others to old age, in the last year. Before cats, we always had dogs. I love all animals though, except fish. I’m afraid of fish.
When you create, what inspires you?
I would say I get inspiration from everything. Sometimes I hear or read a word, or see a picture, or just look outside at the trees, sky, and birds, and it gives me an idea of something write about.
Tell us about the specific inspiration behind one or each of your accepted pieces.
My inspiration for the poem, “His Hands”, started as a prompt from the dVerse Poets challenge. The prompt word was ‘hands’, and was called “Can You Give Me a Hand”.
This poem is in remembrance of my daddy’s life, and how hardworking he was, while at the same time being tender with me and my sister. It also is about the last days of his life, and how we were gathered, holding hands. My own hands remind me of his, in so many ways.
What is your medium of choice? Why?
I would say for my writing, I prefer to write everything down in a notebook first, then I type it up on my blog. That is because I can see it, and make scribbles, and scratch-outs, and doodles, and it helps me think of what I want to say. Also, I have a rough copy of what I wrote, just in case something happens to erase my online copy.
How did you first discover your love for creating?
I’ve always created, so I don’t remember any specific time I wasn’t. As soon as I learned to read, write, and draw, I had fun doing it all. I still enjoy doing it all.
fēlan is old English for feel. What makes you feel melancholy?
Nothing makes me feel melancholy. Melancholy is defined as being sad, depressed, joyless, serious, pensive, downcast, sorrowful, and many more words of this sort.
I almost never feel any of that, except when someone I love passes away, or our pets pass away. I’m usually not very serious about things, finding humor and something to smile and laugh about all the time.
As an empath, yes, I do pick up on other’s feelings of melancholy. I try to send them light, love, and peaceful feelings, in the hopes that it will help. As a writer, I can bring forth the feelings of whatever I’m writing about, to try ot convey this to the reader. This may be contrary to the way others write, in that I don’t have to actually experience the subject in order to write about it. Is this wrong? I don’t think so.

Please feel free to add anything else you think is relevant.
I’d just like to say thank you, Jennifer, for the opportunity to submit my poem
Thank you for reading this, and if you’d like to read more of my work, please feel welcome to visit my blog, at http://teleportingweena.wordpress.com

teleportingweena.wordpress.com
mamalouisa@hotmail.com

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