Susan O'Dell Underwood

"Writing poetry," Susan reflects, "is a way of making meaning more tangible, and comes from an urge to share a heightened awareness. My own awareness of the natural world includes, I believe, whatever we call the supernatural. The cosmic ineffable, the almost-but-not-entirely-unknowable are all around us every day in the natural world. My experiences with the environment must necessarily be open and welcoming to every emotion--from native joy to culpability and guilt for the current destruction of the planet. Speaking these emotional connections I have with nature is a spiritual necessity for me."