An article in the local paper about ME

Note: I re-typed it for my blog. The assistant editor of our newspaper featured me in his Wednesday column. I gave a copy of my poetry book to a friend who is a sales rep for the newspaper. She showed it to the editor and the assist editor, Michael called Monday morning and we did a phone interview. He's a nice guy and seemed genuinely impressed with my poetry. Here's the article.

She’s a Poet… and She Knows It.
By Michael Jaenicke--the Robesonian's Assistant Features editor

During the day, Sherrie Parnell keeps images in the center of the lens as a photographic restoration artist for TLC Photography. Late at night, she trades in her rigid frame for freeform art.

Parnell kicked the closet door off her poetry habit with “A Sip of Sherrie,” a book available through Publish America, a Baltimore self-publishing company. The book has more than 70 poems about nature, independent women, love, being single and life.

“It’s my creative outlet,” said the Lumberton native. “What I do at work is about staying in the lines, so to speak. So poetry lets me escape, relax and be creative. Every one of these poems is a piece of me. I guess I’ve come out of my artistic closet.”

Aging wine imitates the process of life in "Merlot Ponders"…

Lost
In shadow purple,
Sitting on a self,
Merlot
Wondered about
age,
As dust
Settled on glass.

Another poem, “The Sentinel,” ponders the life of a mighty oak tree. “I have seen that tree on my way to Wilmington many times,” Parnell said, “wondering what it has seen or what happened before the highway came through. Finally I had to write it down.”

Most of the poems are short and filled with imagery. The prose makes reference to magnolias, floating chiffon, splashing puddles, lavender light, secret pathways and distant hills. She is heavily influenced by Pablo Neruda, the Chilean poet and diplomat who won a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971.

While there are many romantic offerings, Parnell said her next project, “Saturn and Satin” is “about 99% about love and lost love.” The self-taught poet is writing first novel, a process that has reached the editing stage.

Poetry is nothing new for the 42-year-old. She has been jotting down lines for years, dating back to her days as a student at Orrum High School.

“A Sip of Sherrie” is available at www.publishamerica.com.