I don’t usually sit down trying to write poetry. Most of my poems come from moments I actually experienced. Birds flying in a strange motion, flowers falling around me, warm rain, the smell of magnolia, my daughter splashing in the bath. I experience something, absorb the feeling of it, and then write what it made me think about.
My poems are very visual because I write from observation, atmosphere, emotion, memory, and reflection. A lot of the imagery comes from things I literally saw in real life, not random symbolism. I’ve always thought in a layered and non linear way, so my poems usually move through feeling, environment, memory, and meaning all at once.
I think both the scientist and the poet in me come from the same place: observation. One side of me analyzes elements and systems, and the other tries to understand people, love, loss, and the experience of being human.