Something strange in the cosmos
By Carrie Trousil
 

Susan Steger-Welsh never suspected she would be an award-winning, published poet. In fact, she had never even written poetry until she had "the dream."

"Yep, me and Shirley MacLaine," the Minnesota writer joked.

What Welsh had seen in that life-changing dream was herself committing a murder -- an action she interpreted as being the "killing of her creative side," by writing only in the corporate setting.

So Welsh took action. And, as a 40th birthday present, she enrolled herself in a Whole Brain Writing seminar at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. To her surprise, all of her work came out in verse. "I've always been a writer," she said, "but I just never did poetry." She was quickly shooed by an instructor to The Loft, a Minneapolis poets' organization, where she honed her poetic skills.

Three years later, Welsh won the Minnesota Voices Project (MVP) award. "It was the same week Jesse Ventura was elected governor of Minnesota. At that point I knew there was something strange going on in the cosmos," Welsh said. MVP helped her ready her poetry collection for publication. In June,2000, her first book Rafting on the Water Table was published. "Some people try for years to get published," she said, "but there you have it, I've got a book."

Where did this creative bug come from? "It's not in the genetics that I know of," Welsh said, "My parents bought art and we were able to go to the theater, but it (art) was never what you did for a living." Perhaps she got her poetic nature from her buried Celtic heritage?

"My grandmother's name was Mary Drum. That family, I believe, was from Co. Cork," asserted Welsh. "She was very Irish and she reminded us of that all the time."

Grammy was also very Catholic and raised her family of five boys that way, a job that would understandably eat up any leisurely writing time had she wanted it, Welsh continued. "I'm in the spitting image of her. There is a poem I wrote about an old picture I saw of her that looks exactly like me."
Not that it is much easier today. Welsh has two children -- a 12-year-old- daughter and 15-year-old son -- and although they don't eat quite as much as grandma's brood, they still need provisions so she continues to work in corporate world to put food on the table. 

"You can't make a living on poetry," Welsh said, "but I do freelance writing so I am able to control my schedule." This leaves time for poetry...her second book of which is about half-finished.