Trafford author interviewed in Lombard newspaper
Book: Collected Poems, 1998-2008Author: Sheila Bitts Please click book cover to view more informationPoet Sheila Bitts was recently interviewed in the Lombardian about her poetry collection, Collected Poems, 1998-2008. Find the full article below.
Sheila Bitts likens writing poetry to keeping a journal of sorts, only in a different format-and also says her poetry has what might be called an analogous connection to her Lombard roots.The Chicago resident, who grew up in Lombard, has published some of her poems in a book entitled “Collected Poems: 1988-2008,” which contains a variety of poems she said were first drafted in the mid-1990s, with “close to four years of editing and adding poems.”Bitts attended Westmore Elementary School, Jackson Junior High School and Willowbrook High School, where she said she began writing at age 16.With her dad, Jerry Bitts, teaching English at the Villa Park high school, Bitts had to sign up for English classes with different teachers. However, she did have her dad for an elective creative writing class, since he was the only teacher available.After graduating in 1987, Bitts attended Loyola University, where she majored in biology. She explained that she chose that route partly because “my sister was interested in biology as well.”Among her humanities classes at Loyola was a poetry class and when Bitts moved to California, she also took a University of California-Berkeley extension course in short story writing.She lived for some six years in the state, first in Northern California and then in Southern California, working in prenatal diagnostics and cytogenetics.Bitts said she came back to live in Chicago-just this past April-at the urging of her friends, and also to finish a book, both of which were “beckoning me back.” She now works at Loyola Medical Center in Maywood and plans on attending graduate school.Her book contains free-form poetry that sketches scenes in Chicago and California, among others, and includes a poem about Lombard called “Lombard Spring-Summer.”Her poetry covers a range of topics, from love, feminism and theology to tai chi poems, multiculturalism and a sonnet to Belmont Avenue in Chicago, among others.Bitts said the poems are in reaction to her experiences, “kind of a reflection on what I do in my life.”"Instead of keeping a journal, I’d write a poem,” chuckled the poet.Bitts said that writing poetry, for her, is comparable to her experiences growing up in Lombard, and living across from Madison Meadow park. That is, she continued, looking out across the park gave her a feeling of “openness,” which is how she sees her poems.Also looking out toward the park, the July 4 fireworks and festivities would give way to quiet and calm along her street-even as traffic drove by, and “I always felt a sense of there being something out there to do.”"I have so many fond memories” of growing up in Lombard, Bitts said, adding that in addition to the wholesomeness and the reliability of favorites like Dairy Queen, “There was always something you [hadn’t] yet discovered.”And that’s what she would like readers to get from her poems-”a constant state of discovery and happiness.”The poet acknowledged that she doesn’t know what the future holds (she’s working on publishing some short stories) and yet, the anticipation of what might be around the corner is exciting.Comparing Lombard with her poetry, “There’s always something new to discover,” she related.”I’m going to be delighted at what I find,” she stated.”Collected Poems: 1988-2008″ is available at Amazon.com and at the Trafford Publishing Web site, www.trafford.com/04-2788.
