BIOGRAPHY

I was born in the dark ages in Rochester, New York. My mother told me stories of driving a pair of horses pulling a carriage to get our groceries and how once a precious bag of oranges spilled on the roadway. Hint: that was during WWII. I remember nothing of that, but I do remember a Shetland pony we called Stinky Hydiddie—I’m guessing the stinky part had to do with his mean personality.

My father bred and raised English Pointers and developed a strain called Elhew (Wehle spelled backwards). I thought that was a corny name, but he was only 16 when came up with it! So dogs were part of my life from the very beginning and I have loved them and had them in my life ever since.

Because of my parents’ separation when I was in elementary school, and my mother’s TB, she and my sisters and I moved to Tucson, AZ, going back to Rochester in summer. For college, I went to Wellesley, got a B.A. in Sociology—and after graduation, immediately got married. It’s what we did back then!

I’ve been married three times and divorced three times. I have a son, a daughter and a stepdaughter. In my 40s, I went to graduate school at the University of Oregon while living in Eugene and earned an M.S. (no foreign language requirement!!) in Historic Preservation. I then moved to California and worked for the California Department of Transportation for nearly 10 years as an architectural historian doing Section 106 compliance work. My then-husband and I also had an historic preservation consulting business. Ceramics became an interest when I lived in Texas with my second husband and was desperate for a diversion. I love working with clay and have continued to do so off and on over the years, mostly making hand-built animal sculptures and pinch pots.

Oh yes, and poetry. How did I end up doing that? I did not major in English in college and even avoided poetry classes, but later enjoyed writing doggerel for certain occasions. That, I came by naturally. For my parents’ engagement party, my mother wrote a silly little poetic announcement that was dropped over the assembled guests from a small airplane!!

It wasn’t until I retired and began getting gray that I got serious about poetry—so I have had a lot of catching up to do. My main strategy was and is attending workshops and festivals. I have been to U.S. Poets in Mexico in Oaxaca, Poetry Week in San Miguel de Allende, the Palm Beach Poetry Festival in Delray Beach, Florida, five times, and have taken a number of classes and workshops online and at the UA Poetry Center here in Tucson, where I also serve as a docent. In that capacity I have, for several years, led a poetry circle at the public library once month that has been a very rewarding and enriching endeavor.

Another learning strategy is reading and listening to poetry. Some influential poets for me have been Laure-Anne Bosselaar, with whom I have mentored, and Gregory Orr, whose books I have read. Other favorite poets are: Linda Pastan, Marjorie Saiser, Ada Limón, and Li Young Lee. Some of my favorite poems are: “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden, “The Peace of Wild Things” by Wendell Berry, “Ithaca” by Constantine Cavafy, “Garden” by Victoria Redel, and “Rooms Remembered” and so many others by Laure-Anne Bosselaar.