Jacqueline Suskin, Poet, Educator, Author of The Verse for Now
Unlocking Your World of Creativity
Mark Stinson
5 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 26 May 2025
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome back listeners and today we welcome Jacqueline Suskin for today’s conversation centered on her latest book, The Verse for Now. Its theme is embracing our planetary identity while acknowledging our intimate, vulnerable human side amid the climate crisis.
Book order page: https://www.flowerflowerpress.press/shop/the-verse-for-now
Here is an outline of the conversation:
Evolution of Creative Cycles:
"Jacqueline, welcome back to the show! In our January conversation about A Year in Practice, you emphasized the cyclical nature of creativity and the reflective power of winter. With The Verse for Now, you delve into the idea of accepting ourselves as both vast and intimate—planetary yet personal. Can you share what inspired this shift and how your approach to creativity has evolved since then?"
Nature as a Muse:
"Your latest work invites us to find guidance in moments of contemplation: kneeling by a rushing creek, walking city streets, or sitting under an old growth redwood. Could you describe a personal moment from your creative journey when nature transformed into a profound source of poetic inspiration?"
Spontaneity vs. Craft:
"Given your impressive portfolio of over forty thousand improvisational poems through Poem Store, how do you balance the spontaneity of in-the-moment creation with the intentional craft required for a cohesive work like The Verse for Now? What role does each play in your creative process?"
Teaching & Community Impact:
"As a teaching artist with InsideOut Literary Arts and the mind behind the Poem Forest curriculum, how does engaging with communities and young creators influence your own writing? In what ways do these experiences inform the themes of interconnection and transformation in your latest book?"
Message for Challenging Times:
"In a world marked by environmental challenges and rapid change, The Verse for Now speaks to finding solace and agency through poetry. What message or practical guidance would you like to share with our listeners who are seeking to nurture their creativity and connection to the earth during tumultuous times?"
A special thanks to our sponsor, White Cloud Coffee Roasters. Listeners can enjoy a 10% discount off their order using the discount code CREATIVITY at check-out. Visit www.WhiteCloudCoffee.com for more details.
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Jacqueline Suskin is a poet and educator who has composed over forty thousand improvisational poems with her ongoing writing project, Poem Store. Suskin is the author of nine books, including The Edge of The Continent Volume 1-3, Help in the Dark Season, Every Day is a Poem, A Year in Practice, and The Verse for Now, with work featured in various publications including the New York Times, the Atlantic, and the Los Angeles Times. An ecstatic earth-worshiper, she lives in Detroit where she works as a teaching artist with InsideOut Literary Arts, bringing nature poetry into classrooms with her Poem Forest curriculum.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Unlocking your world of creativity with best-selling author and brand innovator Mark Stinson. |
| 0:09.0 | This episode is brought to you by White Cloud Coffee Loasters, where every bean tells a story of adventure. |
| 0:15.0 | Visit whitecloudcoffee.com and use the code creativity. |
| 0:20.0 | Welcome back friends to our podcast and use the code creativity. |
| 0:27.3 | Welcome back, friends, to our podcast, your world of creativity. |
| 0:32.2 | And we're continuing our around-the-world journeys talking to creative practitioners everywhere about how they get inspired and how they organize ideas and of course how we gain the confidence and the |
| 0:38.2 | connections to launch our work out into the world. And today I'm so happy to be talking to a poet |
| 0:44.0 | and educator, an author of a brand new book, The Verse for Now. Please welcome Jacqueline Susskin. |
| 0:51.1 | Jacqueline, welcome to the show. Hi, thanks for having me. I should say welcome back. |
| 0:56.1 | We talked, gosh, over a year and a half ago almost about your book back then, a year in practice. |
| 1:01.7 | And here you are with another new book. Yeah, I keep them coming. I can't stop making them. |
| 1:07.6 | Yeah, we're going to talk about that prolific poetry writing as we go along here. |
| 1:12.6 | But to this extensive work, and I want to talk about the poems that you have on the |
| 1:17.2 | Poem Store, what a great name, nine published books, you're teaching and showing others the way. |
| 1:24.2 | So you've got a lot going on, don't you? |
| 1:26.7 | I do. I'm always very busy, |
| 1:28.8 | and it's interesting being a poet in this world. I think it unravels in a lot of different |
| 1:34.6 | modalities and poetry tends to show up in a lot of different places. So it leads me in many |
| 1:40.7 | directions. My plates are very full all the time. Yes. Let's talk about your own |
| 1:46.4 | creative cycles. Last time we talked, you had this book a year in practice, and they really |
| 1:51.3 | emphasized the cyclical nature of creativity. And here we are coming out of winter into spring |
| 1:58.7 | and thinking about our creativity. |
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