The prose began, "I am words I speak, songs I sing, inhalations, exhalations of a million nuances and thoughts propelling me moment to moment." And end with, "I am just me, quite simple, releasing old anchors sailing across the world ocean to the holy shores of divinity, and I am not afraid of words I speak of Love." Allen Ginsberg once wrote, "Poetry is not an expression of a party line." In the creative expressions of poet Constance Patrick, poetry exists in a vast space, moving unconfined in eternity without bounds.
Born in Cincinnati, however, this soul required the release only space could provide. Moving to the American West, Phoenix, Arizona, was just the thing for four-year-old Constance.
However, in her sophomore year at Camelback High School, a vast horizon of possibility would appear in Mr. Delton Waite's English class. The subject was poetry in such a way that young Constance snatched her pen to discover what would emerge. First, Walt Whitman, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and then Pearl Buck's novel The Good Earth, lessons in the survival of the human condition.
English remained Constance’s focus for her undergraduate work at Arizona State University, Tempe, where she completed a B.A. in Education. She secured a position teaching high school English while serving as the right hand of the Drama department and Chair of the English department. She then taught a year in a middle school in Cottonwood, Arizona, before returning to the Phoenix area to teach English at Chandler High School. One summer, Constance took a job at the Best Western call center. The job became full-time, with promotions to assistant manager and operations manager in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, for the travel agent call center. A position with Spiegel catalog call center became available in Reno, Nevada, as an Operations and HR Manager, which eventually moved Constance to Atlanta, Georgia. She continued to grow with the company as the Manager of the Southeast call center. The position lined her up nicely to accept a position with AARP as the Economic Employment Representative before moving to Portland, Tennessee, as the Customer Service Director of National Catalog Company.
Eventually, Constance returned home to Phoenix, Arizona, as a Supervisor with McKesson and later CVS Caremark. By this time, she was road warn and tired of being on call 24/7 as a supervisor with large companies. She looks back on this time, "The takeaway for me in all these jobs was I was able to train and develop others. For those with a lack of confidence or self-worth, I was able to help instill a sense of "Yes, I can" into their work ethic." Constance retired in 2012 and moved to Sedona, Arizona, in 2013.
Now, with her portable typing table, the tree, open space, red rocks, and blue skies, Constance achieves a "go with the flow" attitude. "I have become aligned with Eckhard Tolle’s non-attachment, non-judgment, and non-resistance way of being." In other words, "The Great Way is not difficult for those with no preferences." The Great Way, Sengstan, third Zen Patriarch. In the sanctuary of solitude behind her home, Constance credits her attitude of acceptance and the gifts of Nature with opening the path for many of her Haiku works to come through and several plot twists for her Flash Fiction.
Constance credits her poetry group, Sedona Coyote Poets, with a percent of her inspiration through the two prompts they present each month. "I truly don't relate to many of them, so they challenge me into the unknown." "You find yourself in the realm of finding new context, creating new versions, imagining what hasn't been." Constance adds, "The Truth inspires me, and those who live their truth, and the "Beyond" with no end to all the space." Constance lives her "truth" in a fluid style, moving seamlessly through Haiku, flash fiction, monologues, short stories, and even a revisited novel. “I ‘paint’ moments, memories, experiences, and thoughts in words. And I 'weave' moments, memories, experiences, and thoughts into tapestries with threads and fabric only words can create."
Over the years, poet and author Constance Patrick has fed her dramatic spirit by presenting poetry and monologues in Sedona with Red Earth Theatre, Sedona Coyote Poets, and Sedona Poetry and Prose Project. Her active involvement in these communities has not only enriched her own creative journey but also connected her with like-minded individuals who share her passion for the written word. Beginning in September, she and many locals will deliver spoken word performances of their work on KAZM radio station 106.5 FM and 780 AM. They are sending their spoken creations into the community and the Universe. She is also a member of The Haiku Society of America, Arizona State Poetry Society, Scottsdale Society of Women Writers, U.S. 1 Worksheets Poets' Cooperative, and formerly the Western Edge Writers.
Email: clpatrick2222@icloud.com
Website: www.constancepatrick.com
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