In this week’s Hot Seat, we hear from Marianne Tefft, an inspiring poet, lyricist, Montessori teacher and author of the Full Moon Fire poetry collection.
Please introduce yourself and your work.
I’m Marianne Tefft – a poet, journalist, lyricist and Montessori teacher, living in Sint Maarten since 2002. Full Moon Fire is my first poetry collection.
How did you get into poetry?
For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved listening to poems and stories. In kindergarten, I even tried to convince my parents I could “read” the Madeleine storybooks I’d memorized at school! I really got the writing bug in Grade 6, when the school principal read a story of mine over the public-address system. I loved theatre as a teen and attended Carleton University School of Journalism, in Ottawa, Canada, where I earned a B.A. in English.
After university, I worked in newspaper and magazine journalism in Canada. Later, I spent 15 years as a freelance writer, handling marketing communications for owner-managed businesses and tourism & hospitality companies. During this time, my only daughter, now 26, attended a Montessori pre-school in Toronto. That style of education spoke to me, and I went back to school to become a Montessori teacher.
Since 2002, I’ve worked at Sint Maarten Montessori School, where I’m currently the Upper Elementary teacher. It’s a special privilege to share my writer’s journey with my students. To date, 16 students have become published poets and short-story writers – and I tell them we’re just getting started!
Over the past decade, I’ve read regularly at events such as Summer Speaks/Winter Words, Writers Unlimited, St. Martin Book Fair and Poets’ Lounge. I’ve shared a love of words with some of our island’s “pillars of the arts” – Lysanne Charles, Loekie Morales, Clara Reyes, Shujah Reiph, Billy D Hamlet and Lasana Sekou, who’ve supported every step of my work. I’ve also had the privilege of seeing my poems in several anthologies, including House of Nehesi’s Where I See the Sun (2013) and Beyond Kultura’s Captured by Corona (2020).
Can you tell us more about your new book and how the project came about?
Actually, Full Moon Fire began about 12 years ago, when one of my students gave me a gorgeous Top Carrot journal as a Secret Santa gift. I filled that album, and eventually I had hundreds of poems, lyrics and works-in-progress on my laptop, too. In October 2021, I spent mid-term break sifting through them all, promising myself I would have a manuscript by yearend. At 1:11 p.m. on Dec. 31, 2021, Full Moon Fire slid under the wire!
Frankly, the pandemic was an enormously productive time for me. As a lyricist, I co-wrote nearly 30 songs, five of which have been released. As a poet, I finished Full Moon Fire and got a huge jump on other work. My second poetry collection, Moonchild, is to be published in December 2022, and my third collection, Sirius, is to arrive in 2023. I’ve also completed two children’s short stories. “Flowers from the Sea” raises awareness of single-use plastic pollution, and “Hello, Professor Otter!” is a story in rhyme for World Otter Day (May 25).
What is your favourite thing about your poetry?
With Full Moon Fire, I adore the book’s fiery full moon cover, and I’m pleased with the flow of the poems from bright to bittersweet and back again, paralleling the phases of the moon.
In general, I love to write poems for the chance to observe closely and reflect – to show rather than tell – and to invite readers to join me on an emotional journey that becomes their own, in whatever way they are inspired, reminded or moved by my words.
How does the Caribbean influence your work?
Because we live outdoors, close to the sun, hills and sea, life in Sint Maarten has a sensuous quality that informs love poems like mine. Full Moon Fire surely will touch the heart of anyone who has loved under the full moon.
Inspired by a love of smooth jazz, I’m collaborating with local creators to weave words, music and images into something unique – more on that soon! On that very theme, I’m also building a manuscript called Rainbow Country, inspired by the rhythms of life in Sint Maarten.
Can you tell us more about your connection to the moon?
Oh, I come by that naturally! I’m a July-born Cancerian, or Moonchild, as we natives of the cardinal water sign are known. As a kid, I remember being glued to my parents’ black-and-white TV, as Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk on the moon.
From the time my dad carried me into the waves as a toddler, I’ve been a water baby – I even completed the 4.2km Nevis to St. Kitts swim a few years ago. These days, the moon reflects light into every corner of my writing, and it certainly shapes my fluid reciting style.
Where do you get your inspiration?
Full Moon Fire was inspired by everything from snippets of conversation to stories in the news, psychology journals, local melee and my own life experiences. Not every poem in Full Moon Fire can be read as direct reportage, of course, yet somehow each becomes “my story” as I weave together the many threads that compose lives in love.
Meanwhile, as I develop my writing skills, I’ve been exploring several new directions. For example, I’ve been writing for online literary journals on the themes of U.S. gun violence and the overturning of Roe v. Wade. For others, I’ve made poems from sightings of sand hill cranes and dreams of dolphins, and I’m thrilled that my first haiku – the 17-syllable form that students learn in school – is soon to appear in a U.S.-based journal.
Lately, I’ve taken a liking to something called ekphrastic poetry, in which the writer invents the “back story” of a famous work of art. And I’m happily working on a manuscript called What Stands in the Way, inspired by ancient Stoic philosophy.
What would you advise your younger self, or other people looking to get into a similar profession?
To my younger self, I would say: Book the trip; Buy the shoes; Use the good china; Be like Nike – just go do it. As I wrote in “Dare to Fall” in Full Moon Fire, “Nobody wants to hit the ground/but you can’t let fear of falling turn your head around.” Believe in love, always!
To a young writer, my best advice is: Never miss a chance to write! Like Marcus Aurelius, make daily journal-writing a habit. And keep the words of Zeno in mind: “Well-being is realized by small steps, but is truly no small thing.” Take advantage of every opportunity to read, study and learn the craft of writing – which is where the Internet offers so many possibilities. Make a little progress every day, and some days, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find you’ve made a lot.
Where can we find your poetry?
Full Moon Fire is available in e-book, paperback and hardcover from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other online retailers. You can read my work on Facebook at Marianne Tefft – Poet & Wordsmith or hear me read my poems on my YouTube channel (Marianne Tefft). Please come and listen to me and other Sint Maarten poets in monthly readings at Poets’ Lounge – details on Facebook.
