BY Robert "Bob" Bussey
I interviewed Bonnie White the other day. Bonnie read her poetry for the first time at an Open Mic event at Tamp and Grind. She also appeared in the LSUA Verbatim poetry event during Poetry month and is published in the Verbatim publication this year. Sometimes I have some basic knowledge about the poet I am to interview. That was not this case with Bonnie. I briefly saw her at the Open Mic event and was able to get her cell number. I’m glad she agreed to the interview. So, here are bits and pieces of the interview, along with some of her poetry.
RLB: Tell me about yourself. I don’t know anything about you.
BW: So we moved here in 2003 when my husband came back from Afghanistan and got a job up here and this was not a place we were expecting. It was what the economy had ready for us, was to come to work up here. But then we planted our roots here with the kids. I have two daughters…. one – she’s about to turn 16 and the other about to turn 21. They been here the whole time. When I started – I finished school and then went into teaching and you kind of engrain yourself in the community that way, getting to know all the kids and the families, so it has turned into home unexpectedly. We’re originally from South Louisiana. I always thought I’d stay down there.
RLB: What part of South Louisiana?
BW: Uh it’s outside of Lafayette, a little town called Scott. I grew up there. A trailer park kid. First one to go to college, that kind of thing.
BW: I finished at LSUA and then I went back to get my certification and my master’s in education. I’m an English teacher by nature. I’ve also been an administrator; I was one of the Assistant Principals at the last iteration at Bolton High School before it became what it is now.
RLB: So did you write poetry when you were a kid and kind of left it to the side and when did you start?
BW: It was really in college. I enjoyed reading it in high school.
BW: In college I had this one teacher, the first time we ever had to explain a poem and really get into the craft of it and the mind behind it and that was really interesting to me because I like the psychology behind things, there’s a certain amount of psychology when it comes into your poetry….. Sometimes to drill down into the mind of what the poet’s trying to do, that just fascinated me. So I figured if I could read it, I could piece it and I could do it. So I did a lot of that at the time because that’s when I met my husband and did a lot of writing.
BW: I’m a free verse person usually. I don’t like to force a rhyme because then I‘ve found that when I was trying to do that it would change my content. Like I couldn’t get the kind of content I wanted out of the words if I was forcing them to rhyme so I’m very free verse. If I use a stanza, it is because after the fact when I look at it I try to break it…. and oh this is, there’s a thought here, you know so I would usually do that after the fact it was very stream of consciousness for me. Usually it starts with a word, and I will put that on a page and what associates with it and then the lines just start coming out if it from there and that’s usually how I write.
RLB: You’re saying a singular word
BW: Sometimes, like the project I’m working on right now, that’s what I did. It’s where I’m in the middle of a divorce and I’m trying to look at the arc of the entire relationships, so a lot of single words out of that and writing through it. I do have this one page that I keep that’s kind of my idea list and there’s lots of one liners in there, odd quotes something that just kind of comes up and just like hold on to that later so usually if I don’t have something that hits me I’m trying to get into the discipline of you know be more of a regular writer, I go there and I pull off a line or something and just untangle it.
RLB: So when you initially started did you start by trying to mimic some of these poets that you had read and were intrigued by?
BW: A few maybe, you know like, ok, I can I have a template, I can try to copy them. It just felt forced you know. So then I would just kind of, I wouldn’t say doodle but that’s what it felt like.
RLB: Yeah
BW: Doodle words and as something comes up you just kind of collect them in a pile and turn into poetry.
RLB: Some people will try to write an objective poem. Like you can write a nature poem just about how beautiful a cardinal is sitting on a branch outside your window.
BW: Yeah.
RLB: Where do you fit in? Do you fit in to all those areas or do you concentrate…..
BW: Most of my work is very personal, usually very first person because a lot of that right now is the process of developing that relationship initially and then the highlights and pit falls of it.
RLB: Let me ask you a little more about your poetry before we dive into some of your poems. There was this theologian and philosopher, Thomas Aquinas, who had this to say about poetry and poets, “Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his ways to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are like in being big with wonder.” So, some people say that poems can be put into two or three real general categories. A poem can be a wish. A poem can be a prayer. A poem can be a dream. Very, very general categories. Do you see your poems fitting into one of those three categories or maybe all of them? Or maybe you disagree?
BW: There’s a lot of “wish” and “wonder.” Some of them are more questioning than wonder. When there is less questioning, there’s more wonder.
RLB: Do you feel religious when you’re writing?
BW: Some time. It’s more of a plea rather than a prayer sometimes. But I think the same thing when you talk about the poets and philosophers and the idea of “all.” I don’t know of any poem that does not have some sort of…. how do I want to say this…. it’s born out of emotion. But even some of the other ones are spoken like all of the things, wishes, and wonders. All those are driven by emotion, you know. We don’t come up with ideas without having something behind it …. pushing you to it.
RLB: So you your poems speak to the human condition?
BW: Uh, I think so. There’s a lot of “raw” in there and a lot of its driven by “we make mistakes.” How we work and live through those mistakes. The sense of the need for community.
RLB: How long does it take you to write a poem?
BW: It just depends. Like there’s some I can, …. it just hits me, and it’s done in 30 minutes and there’s some that might take three months for me to get it to where it feels right.
The first poem we discussed is titled “Lost and Found.”
RLB: “Lost and Found,” the title, did it come before the poem or after the poem?
BW: I always title after.
RLB: And this was about, when I read it, it was about finding love.
BW: Ahuh.
RLB: And it was at a younger age.
BW: Ahuh.
RLB: When written. When did you write it? How long ago? A couple of days ago?
BW: Yeah, this one was recent.
RLB: Really? Wow. So you were really searching back recently.
BW: Yeah. It’s a lot of reflection this last year.
RLB: Explain the “quiet corner” in the first stanza.
BW: Yeah, I had started college and everything was new. I needed steady. That’s the word. I needed steady.
RLB: But then you arrived like a “skipped heartbeat.” What were you trying to describe with a skipped heartbeat?
BW: It’s kind of a when you see that person, you’re like “oh, ok.”
RLB: And “suddenly the world tilted.” That whole stanza was just very well written.
BW: Thank you. It’s a good sentence.
RLB: You keep on saying these are sentences.
BW: They are.
RLB: And so did you just write it out in one whole sentence from left side of the page to the righthand side of the page and then decide where to break it up?
BW: Yeah. I usually write in a sentence and then I’ll change it if…. like I need a pause here or I’m done with this phrase or to shape it into something.
RLB: Are you looking for a rhythm within each line?
BW: No.
RLB: Next stanza: It was a, hey, nice meeting you type stanza … you weren’t supposed to mean anything. So obviously it is that pointing towards well, something really got into your head anyways.
BW: Yeah.
RLB: So I don’t understand, “in silence that feels like home.” What do you mean by in silence?
BW: It’s when you’re with a person and you don’t have to keep a conversation. There are certain people you have to carry the conversation with because there’s a tension there or you know….
RLB: It’s like going on a long car drive.
BW: Yeah.
RLB: Do you have to talk all the time?
BW: Not with the right person
RLB: Ok. Alright. “Neither was the way your hand fits in mine.” “In middle of a life already written.” That condenses a whole bunch.
BW: Ahuh.
RLB: “You became a part of the story, I never knew I was missing.” I mean if you had to change your life ….Is there anything else you would like to say about the poem that you would like for me to put in the article? What did I miss?
BW: So I mean a lot of it’s about early, lost love. Then the “Hope”, the search to find a new person that would make me love him. I think many people can relate to that scenario.
Here is the poem:
Lost and Found
Bonnie White
I wasn’t looking for love—
just a quiet corner, a place to breathe,
a life that felt steady, predictable, mine.
But then you arrived like a skipped heartbeat,
a misplaced melody in a familiar song,
and suddenly, the world tilted.
You weren’t supposed to mean anything,
just a passing conversation, a shared glance,
a moment easily forgotten.
Yet here we are, tangled in laughter,
in long walks that turn into sunrise,
in silence that feels like home.
Love wasn’t part of the plan,
but neither was the way your hand fits in mine,
the way your eyes turn ordinary days into poetry.
Somehow, against all logic,
in the middle of a life already written,
you became the part of the story
I never knew I was missing.
BW: It’s not so much specifically I mean I tried to pull the original idea from and early love, I wanted to remember what that felt like and then the process of doing that like this could be somebody else. This could be somebody new you know. I will want that same yeah, I want to find that again. I’m not done just because the chapter’s closed. The book isn’t closed. This is as much for the next person in my life as it was for an earlier love.
The next poem we discussed is called “Rain.” It was written during the national poetry month.
Poetry month is the month of April, a fitting month. April is considered the month of love. It is associated with spring, renewal, and the energy of love. It is also a time for reconciliations and healing relationships. Poetry is often written about love… good, bad and ugly; about relationships … good, bad and ugly; and even healing … the good kind, the bad kind, and the hard kind. In CENLA we celebrated Poetry month with a poetry scavenger hunt. Participants would hunt for different poetry prompts at various local business establishments. And, at the end, the poet was to fashion a poem from the prompts they found. Rain is a result of Bonnie’s participation in the scavenger hunt.
BW: With “Rain,” I wanted it to be a little bit more musical. Some of those phrases I tried to, there’s no specific syllable count, there’s no specific stressors. And this was the one I used on the Scavenger Hunt and the words that are in there were some of the stuff that Shelly had put out around town. So if I’m forced to use this vocabulary, let me try and see how I can shape it. There are some very big phrases here. “Dousing fire.” “Cementing the mask.” “Sobbs of a grown little girl.” Like I wanted in these very short phrases to have a whole lot of powerful imagery.
RLB: So even though you were using the words Shelly put out in the Scavenger Hunt, this is still about you?
BW: Ahuh. It’s that idea of you don’t really know what a person’s going through, that kind of thing. I could be out there you know it looks like I’m dancing in the rain, just skipping puddles like everybody else… Well sort of like…. There’s a lot of parallelism, I’m really big on that when I have all these phrases stacked. It just seems like the writer behind it, it makes its own rhythm when you do that. Well even the idea is I’ve got these couple of sentences in there, they’re just heavy and long and then you get these bouncing phrases in between them and you get to another long idea. I do that often. I don’t realize I do it, not purposely do it but when I go and look back at things I do that. These short little bouncing phrases are usually when I get my description in and I have these longer ideas, longer lines, longer sentences.
RLB: So you were using the words from the Scavenger Hunt
BW: Ahuh.
RLB: but writing this about yourself and your ex again?
BW: Yes, there’s some really bad days …
RLB: So the title Rain. Significance of that? What is the significance of that? That’s a metaphor by itself.
BW: Well the idea, the picture in here, we’re literally in the rain and besides that we start talking about for me it’s the line when the downpour should be cleansing. That idea of when I’m out, if I were out there, I would want something to wash me, to take this away, to make me clean and simple again because none of this is simple.
RLB: So rain is the tears from the crying?
BW: More or less, yeah. All the weather in the poem is very much a metaphor.
Rain
Bonnie White
You can’t see my tears when I’m standing in the rain.
A thousand little worries falling down my face,
dousing the fire I once held for you.
Hidden in mist, disguised as joy,
Cementing the mask instead of washing it away.
A thunderous clap overpowers the sobs of a grown little girl.
The entropy of my mind feels like icy daggers
when the downpour should be cleansing.
Refresh the rawness in my soul.
Where is the rainbow, the promise of Elysian peace?
Give me the well-earned silence of darkness.
We discussed several other poems, but this article is getting long enough, so I am going to save those for another time. But I want to set out two other poems that Bonnie has authored.
Spider Webs
Bonnie White
She moves like a ghost through their house,
his words hanging in the air like cobwebs,
sticky with guilt, spun tight around her ribs.
He says she’ll never find love like his,
as if love should feel like drowning,
as if love should lock the doors,
press its weight against her chest,
whisper that she is nothing without it.
She folds herself into silence,
practices vanishing in the mirror,
counts the steps to the door,
wondering if this time, she’ll make it through.
The Perfect Man
Bonnie White
Fall for a man
who makes you question yourself.
One who walks with purpose
but never pretends to have all the answers.
One who’s wrestled with his shadows
and wears his scars without apology.
He’s the type who might disappear into a forest
or a book,
or a thought too big for conversation—
always chasing meaning,
always in motion.
Fall for a man with a mind full of questions
and a soul that refuses easy answers.
One who listens more than he speaks,
but when he speaks, you’ll feel it.
A man who knows how to hold you
without owning you,
who can build fires
and also put them out.
Fall for a man with a compass,
not a map.
Fall for a man so honest
you sometimes wish he’d lie.
Fall for a man with depth—
with layers you’ll never finish peeling back,
with corners of his heart
he’ll show only when he’s sure
you won’t flinch.
Fall for the silence he keeps,
and the storms he hides.
Do not fall only for his strength;
fall for the softness the world never asked him to have.
Fall for someone who challenges you,
who won’t let you settle for less than your fire.
And when you find him,
fall completely.
Let him know you see him,
all the way through.
Then,
whatever comes,
do not let him stand alone.
You
Bonnie White
Loving you is different
You don’t complete me
You give me space to complete myself
loving you with my body
making love to you feels like home
holding on for dear life
like I’ll never be able to feel again
I can’t keep my feelings inside when I’m near you
It’s a low rumble that lives under my skin begging for escape
That rumble is what makes me tremble
I love you with my mind
learning, listening
Sharing worlds like little treasures
You push enough to make me want to pull
You give me agency
happiness
peace
I can breathe in your silence
like new air to me
two breaths in
one breath out
centering, grounding
stolen with one touch
one look
You leave me begging for more
Bonnie is exploring the adventure of publishing her first chap book. Things to come. Things to write. Things to talk about. Things to dream, pray, and wish about.
Robert Bussey is a local attorney and poet who has resided in CenLa since 1986. He interviews other poets and then writes these articles to help promote poetry. You can reach him at Rlbussey450@icloud.com if you are a poet and would like to be interviewed.
A special note: I’m going to take a break from these articles. I’ve been interviewing and writing these articles for about 2 years without pause. I have so much enjoyed each poet I have written about. In many ways, I learned so much by being the interviewer. Every poet has a story to tell. If anyone would like to take my place for several months, please contact me. Otherwise, you will have to wait for my return.
Until then:
May your days be filled with music, wonder, awe, love and joy.
May your rains be spiritually cleansing.
May your life be filled with fantastic food, family, faith and friends.
And may everything you see, say and do become poetry.
