About Maureen Kwiat Meshenberg:
THIS BEAUTIFULLY PROLIFIC poet, Maureen is guided by her inner soul’s journey and her warm and empathic musings about life. It was as a teenager that Maureen first started writing her unique style poetry… as a means to find her spiritual connection in her human experience. Maureen was always drawn to writing reflective soulful thoughts of the heart, bringing the shifts in life’s journey to her poetry.
Her latest call to writing came after the devastating end to her 20-year marriage. The event broke her wide open–bringing forth words not only to heal herself but for many others who would read her words and find them inspiring and encouraging. The Poet’s passion for writing draws her to write about life’s experiences… believing we are all collectively a part of life’s journey.
Her most recent work has opened many opportunities to publish on different writing blogs and online magazines, including her own Facebook page/blog called Heart’s Calling, where she currently reaches almost 3,000 regular readers. Maureen presently writes for Women as Visionaries with Lore Raymond Magazine as the publication’s Visionary Poet. She also writes for Journey of the Heart Blog, from which seven poems were recently selected to be published in an August, 2014 Anthology of poetesses called: Journey of the Heart: An Anthology of Spiritual Poetry by Women.
She delivers her poetry in “spoken word” at different Chicago venues and has several publishing projects on her plate. The budding Poet is slated to have two additional poems she specifically wrote for The Art Colab Grenada Windows project released this October, where her unique style poetry was viewed collectively with art in a gallery showing.
Tell us about your writing process.
I write because it is my passion that stirs my desire towards life. It appears in all of my life’s belonging. I write as my inner soul cries, laughs, dreams, aspires to face my journey with fierce determination and with a quiet calm of breath. My poetry is my consciousness spiraling outward in words to touch the hearts that have experience life’s belonging. All of it comes to me, as I live my life, and it is with this life I share my words with you.
What advice would you give other writers?
GIVE YOURSELF A BREAK
As this is my first time entering the publishing world, I am learning about deadlines, working with artists, managing my blog, posts and media, all through the guided hand of Literary Strategist and Publicist Anna Weber. Getting into the track of remaining steadfast and committed also comes hand in hand with life. All in perspective some would say, life is either getting in the way, or you can say, life is here to live it! As a mother of 1 young adult daughter and 2 teenage sons, sometimes I have to look at the other side of life. Living it!
So when vacation time comes in, thoughts of wow, I can really use this time to work on my book, doesn’t mean it always happens that way. Or perhaps it should be, it’s okay if I take a break, and enjoy this time with family and friends. Sometimes, it is about taking life and building memories and taking time for me. If it means to place my book project on the shelf, to spend the day at the Michigan sand dunes with my kids, life speaks to me to stop, to let go and be. Placing my feet in wet sand having waves of Lake Michigan wash up on my feet, picking up stones to collect with my teenage son to place on my prayer altar, are precious memories for me. Enjoying a visit with a dear friend of mine from California, taking in a Joan Jett concert, is taking time to enjoy life with the people I love. Taking pause, bringing in this down time, is also a time to replenish me, giving me perspective to why I’m here. I know it’s about choice, I can let moments like these pass me by, or take the time to live them. I also know things can change in a split second, we all have heard the saying life’s too short, and it so important to live with your eyes and heart open.
I also know when my soul breathes out the life of a poem from me, I answer its call. Whether I am washing the dishes, meditating, on a beach looking out onto Lake Michigan, the words flow from pen to the blank page. I keep journals and pen at hand, by my bedside, in my car and in my purse. As much as I enjoy living life, poetry is living through me as well . All of our idiosyncrasies that make us human, brings us to the emotions we live, the spirit of our drive, desires, pauses, and soaking life in. So without the labeling, guilt, worry, or regret, I come to my living with a gentle perspective. It is okay to take a breather, replenish yourself and bring life to you without hesitation. I look forward to walking the Labyrinth, and going on a nature walk in a few moments with some dear friends. To love life and live it, the rest will follow.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I do not write,
because it is forced by my will-
I write, because it is within me.
my passion,
unfettered-
The words are there inside me, ready to be release from my soul. More than just bringing my words to paper, I have the desire to reach women, allowing them to come to their unfettered releasing of writing from their souls to paper. Like a wind of unspoken words, breaking through to the other side of their lives.
I remember speaking to Lore Raymond from Women as Visionaries with Lore Raymond 2 years ago, when I first started as Visionary Poet. I said to her, I really want to be a part of a Women’s writing group, and feel the release and inspiration of their writing. She said to me, “you my dear have the ability to start your own creative writing group, your gift is already there!” So I did. Fall of 2012, I started my Creative Writing Circle. As it is closing upon Fall 2014, I will be starting up again after a hiatus for the summer to work on my book. My first writing circle for this year will be on Saturday, September 27,2014.
When I started my Writing Circle it was with full intent to have it be a sacred holding place for women to use writing as a tool of inner release. I design guidelines to how the flow and the movement of the circle will be. I have enjoyed profoundly the meeting of women and have delighted in what the writing prompts have brought us. Writing brings us to a place of opening, expanding and taking the thoughts of our hearts to another level. I create writing prompts that invite their senses, their emotions, their beings to write whatever is inside them. Many of the women who joined insisted that they do not write, or know how to write. It is not about technique, it is about them reaching in and finding voice to their words with writing. Many of them did not even know it was there, it was like opening a door to a locked room in their soul. This sacred space is a space where we gather to write, to share, to meditate and find our ease through writing.We share our joys, sorrows, fears and bravery through writing, bringing out the women we already are.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
An open explosion of possibilities!
What do you use?: Professional Editor, Professional Cover Designer, Beta Readers
What genres do you write?: Poetry, nature, feminine design
What formats are your books in?: eBook, Print
Website(s)
Maureen Kwiat Meshenberg Home Page Link
Link To Maureen Kwiat Meshenberg Page On Amazon
