Janet Lynn Davis

Janet Lynn Davis has lived in Houston, Texas, for most of her life but is in the midst of planning a move to a peaceful, rustic area north of town. During part of her youth, she also lived on the U.S. east coast and outside London, England . After college, where she majored in journalism, she worked for many years as a writer/editor and specialist for industry in the fields of publications, communications, and media.

While Janet has enjoyed creative writing ever since she could spell, she took up poetry as a serious hobby only a few years ago. Since then, her free verse has appeared in a number of familiar online venues as well as in print. Her tanka have been published in many of the journals for that genre. She considers herself a student with much to learn, one who is enthralled by the experience.

Why I Write: "I hate to sound unoriginal, but I write because it is what I do and is what I have done for the better part of my life. I began producing my own little books and "newspapers" and writing stories, skits, and other things when I was a young child. It was second nature to me. And when I would read books, I often would notice the rhythms and special patterns in the words. In fact, even today I tend to be a slow reader, because when a passage of words sounds particularly beautiful to me (in addition to meaningful), I may read it over and over before moving on.

As is no doubt the case with many people who participate in artistic endeavors, I find the true creative experience to be pretty exhilarating. Creative writing can provide a way, in a sense, to "touch God" and the universe as well as those who have come before us-to help us learn about and experience ourselves and what is now, has been, and will be.

At times, I find the creative drive to be a bit maddening. Yet writing can be therapeutic or calming, helping us to concentrate on "the moment" and see what we must do. While much of my life has revolved around some aspect or aspects of writing, it has been only in recent years that I've really focused on writing, especially poetry, as an art.

My poetic journey has been somewhat circuitous. In fact, I'm almost surprised I embarked on it, since earlier I seemed to be more interested in prose. It's a long story how I finally "got into" poetry, but in part it had to do with one of my ways of dealing with some escalating health issues. Now I almost feel as if I must make up for lost time, not wasting a minute. So. . .here I am! "