The Quad

Issue date: 10/29/07 Section: Features

A. E. Stallings, author of two anthologies of poetry, came to West Chester University to present her work and explain how she has accomplished them on Tuesday, Oct. 23. Her books are "Hapax" and "Archaic Smile."

Her first poems were published at a young age in the magazine "Seventeen." Stallings' poetry is influenced by her life experiences and relations. She shared her poems about Greek mythology, natural disasters, lovers and losses.

Stallings wrote many poems about Greek mythology before moving to Greece in 1999. She was influenced by a Greek poet, Lucetius, who wrote about religious matters in his poetry. Her poems include language and culture traditions from America and Greece.

Ironically, she explained how many poets write while having their morning coffee about something dramatic that may have influenced him/her or have not experienced. She concluded that many love poems are written by poets that did not write them specifically for anyone in particular. However, she suggests if one gets into an argument with his/her significant other, they could write a poem to express what they feel.

Stallings wrote poems that she thought editors would want to read and publish. Then she started to write what she wanted to as well as what she enjoyed. The poems that she favored were more popular among readers. She informed the audience that many poets write about what interests them, and she gave writers the same advice.

Shortly after her move to Greece, Stallings and her family experienced their first natural disaster an earthquake. At first it scared her; afterwards, she got the idea to interpret what happened into a poem titled "Natural Disaster." This was her prime instance of when she wrote poems based off of her real life experiences.

She wrote a meaningful poem about the passing of her father and her emotions. When she had a son on the way, she wrote poems about the experience and the joy of having a family. She mainly wrote poems about the changes in her life, especially about life and death, along with everything that went on in between.

Writing styles consist of sonnets, basic structures, clichés and free verse. She also wrote some that were not in poetic form such as her poem titled "First love: a quiz." This poem was written in the format of a multiple choice quiz. It can be read from top to bottom or the reader can even choose to read the corresponding answers from all of the questions.

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