Photo: Aloe Eru in my garden
I started writing poetry when I was 14 as my way of coping with the emotional and physical trauma of puberty. Most of these poems fell into the literary cliche of "Noble girl dies of a broken heart" replete with excessive drama, punctuation!!!!! and CAPITALIZATION. Thankfully, that phase lasted only one year.
I produced a torrent of poetry and occasional essays over the next 10 years. I wrote to understand my world. I wrote for catharsis. I wrote because I couldn't speak to anyone about my feelings or ideas. I wrote because describing the demons on paper was the best way to purge them from my head.
I never showed my work to anyone. I didn't even hint, let alone mention, that I wrote. My writing was prolific, then occasional, and then I stopped.
Until I was diagnosed with cancer. The pain was so overwhelming, I felt like a maelstrom of burning ash. I sat on my carpet, cried and wrote The Mountain.
I kept writing. I documented my treatment. I wrote through depression. I tried to make sense of a world where existence manifest outside the realm of logic.
Several months into my cancer journey, for the first time in 35 years of writing, I showed my work to another human being.
When I began to regain strength after chemo and surgery, I attended and participated in local poetry readings at cafes and bookstores.
I saw a disconnect between the academic poetry world and the coffeehouse milieu, and wanted to bridge that gap. I proposed setting up a poetry program in my hometown library, where everyone would be welcome.
In 2003, Placentia Library inaugurated a poetry program, becoming the first Special District in the United States to appoint their own Poet Laureate. My appointment lasted five years. I organized programs including themed open readings, and workshops taught by well-known California poets. I also researched and compiled the first comprehensive data base of current and past Poets Laureate in California.
I was in remission from cancer for 17-1/2 years, and then I got sick again. I wrote another book. I haven't published either cancer book, although they've been edited 40,000 times and are complete --- and in my opinion, awesome. I'm in remission again and generally healthy. When the muse beckons me, I write.
nopales tunas (prickly pear cactus fruit)
Rock Purslane
The Artist Wore a 50-Cent Straw Hat
self-portrait, age 26
acrylic on canvas 18x18"
My jewelry website
www.meredithbead.com
coming September 2026