Stephanie A. Hart: “I write poetry because I can’t stop myself. In every mundane action or interaction, we can find insight into ourselves or human nature or the world around us, if we take a moment to observe. Poetry gives me that moment. I wrote ‘The Purse’ when I challenged my workshop students to write a poem featuring a group of randomly selected mundane objects set together on the table in front of us, including a peanut butter sandwich which I had found in my purse wrapped in a ragged, brown paper towel and pulled apart to lie open-faced and gooey in our make-shift still life. ‘What happened to the peanut butter on pumpernickel?’ asked two of my students when I ran into them at lunch in the dining hall. I ate it.”
