Interview With Tricia Johnson
By Taruni Tangirala
Tricia Johnson is a poet wishing to share her work with others, by using the written word to embrace one another’s humanity. She is a retired teacher. She lives in the beautiful hills of Pennsylvania with her husband and two sons. Published work includes the poem “Living with Lupus” which appeared in Still You Poems of Illness & Healing, Wolf Ridge Press 2020. More about Tricia’s story can be found on the Lupus Foundation of America’s website.
Her debut poetry collection, Whirl Away Girl, will be published on March 10th, 2021 by Atmosphere Press.
What was your inspiration to pursue creative writing? What was your inspiration to write about your experience with lupus?
Creative writing has threaded in and out of my life for years. When I was first diagnosed with Lupus SLE, it was recommended that I journal as a form of therapy. It began with journaling, my head so full of change and emotions with no place to go. I was so ill with disease that my thoughts were fragments on a page, unable to craft a complete sentence. At this point, the poetry began and flew out onto the page. The unraveling of my health consumed everything—it was only natural my poems centered on Lupus.
2. In a broader sense, how do you think writing facilitates healing?
Writing allows you to express and release emotions that truly have no benefit in expressing. You can be so angry, but whom are you angry at, your body, yourself? Anger can be used for change, but you cannot change your sickness. You can however, write out the anger, describe it, paint its ugly picture in adjectives on lined paper, and let it go.
3. You split up the book into several sections, including "Symptomatic," "Treatments," etc.-- what was your reasoning/ thought process for doing so?
It was a natural progression of disorganization, at first. Trying to compile a group of poems that resonated and had a sense of flow for open submissions. I had written hundreds of poems by this time, all crammed into one folder labeled Lupus. My poems went from being titled with numbers to actual titles, to then seeing the themes in the titles, and finally grouping the titles into themed folders.
This process had been going on for seven years until this final version emerged. I decided, I can do this. I can organize these poems better for submissions making them cleaner, stream-lined, and ready for publication. I literally reminded myself: “I was a teacher! I can organize and plan anything!”
I also feel within the diagnosis of a chronic illness, there seems to be a natural progression involved. It begins with symptoms, you are diagnosed, you begin treatments. The shock wears off and the distress begins. You are reeling in medications, specialists, side effects, the fall out of this chronic illness, until you begin to emerge again. A new you, vastly different, yet familiar.
4. Many writers have those spur-of-the-moment writing instances where they reflect on their experiences immediately in the form of writing after a specific incident or event. What, if any, were the most notable instances of that happening with (a) poem(s) from your book?
New Doctor was a spur-of-the-moment poem. I wrote it after a really bad appointment with a PA. The PA and I did not connect. I left feeling disillusioned and so very angry. I returned home and wrote this emotion out on paper.
5. What was the inspiration for the title "Whirl Away Girl"?
This collection of poems has had different names as it was overhauled for open submissions. On the last reorganization, I wanted a new name that captured it. There are lines in the poems about twirling, both obvious and insinuated, a very happy childlike thing to do. It is two-fold, you can spin away from the disease and find the light, or you might be in the middle of its darkness, yet still capture five seconds of delight, whirling arms out, head back, smiling.
Truly, a message to anyone dealing with chronic illness. An empowering reminder, whirl away from it all, the dark, live on. Boldly fling out your arms, tilt your head back, smile, laugh, and spin again
6. If you had to pick, do you have a favorite poem or line from the book?
Honestly, all my poems are old friends at this point. My mood at any given time creates my favorite one. I have so many—when I finally have the description just right…and I feel its colors…
One that I never fail to smile at, sigh at, and read again is Cherry Blossoms. It is a call for self-care, a sarcastic runaway, and a beautiful mantra. It is short, simple but within it I find the complexities of myself.
7. What advice do you have for emerging writers with chronic illnesses? What is something you wish you knew early on in your writing endeavors?
Advice I would give would be to try and keep your writing organized. If you are writing volumes, have some form of filing system. To the writers with chronic illness: write it out, feel it all, let it go, share.
Cover of Whirl Away Girl. Courtesy of Atmosphere Press.
Out on March 10th, 2021.