Interview with Poet and Author Gail Pallotta

Award-winning author Gail Pallotta’s a wife, Mom, swimmer and bargain shopper who loves God, beach sunsets and getting together with friends and family. A former regional writer of the year for American Christian Writers Association, she won Clash of the Titles in 2010. A 2013 Grace Awards finalist, she’s been a best-selling author on All Romance eBooks. She’s published four books, poems, short stories, and several hundred articles. Some of her articles appear in anthologies while two are in museums.

This week I’m celebrating the art of poetry. Welcome to my blog, Gail. Please tell us about your book of poems called Messages.

It’s a compilation of poems and short stories. Some have been previously published. I’ve written them over the years, some on notepads at work, some scribbled on a piece of paper after seeing something that inspired me, and others while sitting at my computer. The back cover copy gives readers a peek into the contents.

Find inspiration for our hectic times in these straight-forward poems for happy and sad days. Find history, warmth and a touch of the paranormal in three stories.

Getting the Goat peeks into the early 1900's when mountain life was tough. Does Mama's advice hold true today? In Stitches in Love Rose's deep love for her grandmother motivates others to share their gifts. Does Rose reap her reward? Robert Horner is tempted in The Stranger, but does he succumb to the lure?

Where did you get your inspiration for this book?

My inspiration comes from observations or experiences in real life. While visiting the traveling Vietnam Wall at Lenox Square in Atlanta, Georgia, on July 4th, many years ago, I couldn’t help but think of the huge sacrifice so many in the military make for our freedom. After I got home that day I wrote the poem, “American Summer” and stuck it in a drawer. I wrote “Irony” in college after I’d experienced a disappointment. Odd, I can’t remember the situation, but recall writing the poem. I wrote “Questions” in the 1970’s after listening to the news one night, and “Sensitivity” was scribbled on a legal pad late one night after I graduated from college, moved, and was looking for a job. I wrote “Country Spring” in the 1980’s on a trip when we passed by a field of daffodils that seemed to go on and on as far as I could see.

One of the short stories, Getting the Goat, is based on a story my father used to tell.

Do your poems rhyme or are they free verse?

Both, some rhyme and others are free verse.

Will you please give us a sample of your favorite poem in this book?

It’s difficult to choose a favorite because all of them are special in their own way to me. However, I put “Hope” in the book first because I think there are times in our lives when we need it desperately and search for it. It’s a short poem. Here it is.

Hope

There comes a day

when only dark clouds

light our way

and rain’s

ceaseless drops of blue

disguise the path

we thought we knew.

We cry

into our rooms of black

and only silence

answers back.

We listen

for a voice to care

and all we hear

is no one there.

Hope is lost

in deep, deep despair.

But wait.

Say a prayer.

God is there.

That is so beautiful. I loved that poem when I read it. Where can my readers find you online?

I love to connect to readers. My web site is http://www.gailpallotta.com

My blog is http://www.gailpallotta.blogspot.com  

My Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/AuthorsandMore

And twitter, https://twitter.com/Hopefulwords?lang=en

Thanks so much for having me on your wonderful blog, Linda.

Thank you for this interview, Gail. I hope my readers will check out this book. Below is my review of Messages. It was so inspirational.

“I love to read poems that have a meaning. One of my favorite poems that touched my heart was about “hope.” To quote the author: “There comes a day, when only dark clouds light our way, and rain’s ceaseless drops of blue disguise the path we thought we knew…” It continues on with a beautiful ending to the poem. A very uplifting book of poetry!” –Review by Author Linda Weaver Clarke