Sundown Poetry Series' McCord dishes on publication and the perils of being a writer

Terri McCord always has been realistic about wanting to be a poet: "I had decided pretty early on that I did want to be a poet, and I knew the poet's path wouldn't be easy — that writing really had to often be its own reward."

However, she has beaten the odds and become successful, having been honored with several awards over the past few years. McCord sat down with Preview and shared her philosophy regarding writing.

Q: You had two chapbooks published in 2008: "The Art and the Wait" and "In the Company of Animals." Where did the inspiration come from for these works?

A: At the risk of oversimplifying, "The Art and the Wait" deals primarily with two subjects: art and the idea of waiting or the "weight" of waiting or living in general.

A poem I am especially attached to is "Nine Years Later I View a Painting." This poem combines my reaction to artwork I saw at the National Museum of Art and the remembrance of my mother's death nine years earlier. I guess you could say the waiting part here is waiting for grief to go away.

The second chapbook, "In the Company of Animals," picks up on these same themes, but it deals primarily with how humans behave and how we behave in relation to animals, domestic and otherwise. I'm a huge animal lover, and I am shocked and dismayed at stories on TV about how animals are often treated.

Q: Tell me about the first time that one of your poems was published.

A: I think my first "real" publication came in my senior year in college — the literary magazine "Wind." I was going to be published alongside "real" poets, adult people, one of whom is R.T. Smith, now quite a big name in the world of poetry. I was proud! I have to say that I took this as some sort of validation for my efforts.

Q: Describe your writing process.

A: Unfortunately, I am not a structured writer. I do not sit down at the same time every day at the same place. I often write in my head, and I probably am working on poems all the time. Part of a poet's job, I think, is to be receptive, and that isn't something you can or should turn off. I constantly watch things, observe my surroundings, read interesting billboards, church signs, notice a strange bird on my porch, etc. I often jot lines down on whatever I have available — a receipt, a check register, an envelope, and my favorite writing pad is a yellow legal pad that I start poems on in longhand.

McCord's work can be purchased online at the Finishing Line Press Web site (www.finishinglinepress.com), S.C. Poetry Initiative Web site (www.cas.sc.edu/engl/poetry) and Amazon.com.

She will be reading at the Piccolo Spoleto Sundown Poetry Series at 6:30 p.m. Friday at the City Gallery at Waterfront Park.