Tara Borin

I did read poetry in highschool. My nana had a slim volume of classics on her bookshelf that I liked to read, with work from poets like Emily Dickenson, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and William Shakespeare. I was also a huge fan of the Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip. Their lead singer, Gord Downie, was an accomplished poet, and when he released his first collection, Coke Machine Glow, I devoured it. I remember reading an interview with him where he mentioned the poet Al Purdy, so I started to read his work as well. I don't remember if I had a favourite, just that I loved all of it!

I first started writing poetry in highschool, and even began submitting some poems to journals that I found through a copy of "Poet's Market." My first acceptance came when I was arond 18 years old, in a little journal out of Toronto called Jones Ave. I didn't write much in my 20's, and didn't really think of myself as a poet until I came back to writing and poetry in my early 30's. That's when I started to take the craft seriously and work at refining my skills.

I think a poet's job is to observe the world around them, all aspects of it. To distill our experiences down, to crystallize them, and then to put those observations out in the world to offer others insight, comfort, a laugh, inspiration...there are so many things a poem can do! 

I was inspired to write "Nuisance" by my daily life raising my young children in an off-grid cabin in the woods. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done, but there were some beautiful and bizarre moments as well, and I wanted to capture that.

I haven't had a chance to read through the anthology yet, so I guess for now I would choose my own, because I wrote it!