Former poet laureate Billy Collins once said that poetry tells the story of the human heart. For poet Yvonne Higgins Leach, that truth runs throughout her new book of poems “Another Autumn,” which Leach will read from and discuss at 6 p.m. Friday at Vashon Bookshop.
From the time Leach began writing poetry at the age of 13, inspired and encouraged by her older sister, she never stopped. Admittedly, Leach is not one to rise from bed and pour her ideas out onto paper every morning. She averages about 10 to 12 finished poems a year. But the poet is never far from her creative process. Leach believes in letting her ideas simmer, tempering the thoughts and images in an alchemical process held within a special container — her own heart.
“A lot of ideas flow, but I focus on the ones that feel right in my heart. I let those stew and then do a rough outline on my notepad. I’ll think about them on walks until something tells me it is time to write (the poem) down. That takes several hours, then I let it sit and stew again. I allow a lot of time for the creative process.”
Not that Leach has had a lot of time to spare. As director of communications at Boeing for over two decades, Leach balanced work with motherhood — raising two daughters — and pursuing her passion for poetry.
“My focus was to keep writing and get published in poetry magazines,” Leach said.
And over time, Leach’s poems have appeared in journals like Spoon River Poetry Review, Cimarron Review, Wisconsin Review, South Carolina Review and South Dakota Review. Then two years ago, Leach learned that WordTech Editions had accepted her poems for book publication.
“It was the best day of my life,” Leach said. “It was such validation to achieve recognition for something I’ve worked my whole life for.”
It also spurred Leach to make a life-changing decision. She left her corporate job and devoted herself to her poetry and the manuscript that is now “Another Autumn.” In addition to the new poems written over the past couple of years, Leach combed through the body of her work, selecting some poems that stretched back to childhood, others that were germane to motherhood plus, Leach said, everything else that reflected the last two decades.
Leach divides her time between Spokane, where she grew up and many of her family members still live, and Snohomish. The poet also spends weeks at a time on Vashon, where her partner, Ed Turner, grew up. It was through Turner that Leach met island artist Janice Wall, whose painting of a fall day in Mazama Leach chose for the cover of her book.
A recent press release commented that Leach’s poems fully embrace the seasons of life through perfectly chosen images, simple language and a genuine voice. Bill Hayes, the New York author of “The Anatomist,” praised “Another Autumn” saying, “Leach … bravely opens her heart in intimate poems about family, love, loss, community, work, separation and connection, and by doing so, invites us to consider our own lives more thoughtfully. This book is a gem.”
