TAK Erzinger Interview

I have dual citizenship: Swiss and American and my mother is Colombian, from the Caribbean coastal city Barranquilla. Growing up Latinx and in the south has been a major influence on my life. I am a Florida native, who grew up between Florida and Kentucky.
I am also an alumni of Boston University where I earned a BA in English and I have my English teaching certificate from Cambridge University.

The Chinese poet, Li Po (Tang Dynasty) once said, “Writing poetry is like being alive twice.”
And that is definitely how it is for me. Writing poetry has given me a voice and an opportunity to relive situations that have been beyond my control in my life. The process of writing poems has helped me to finally feel that I have a voice, whether addressing personal issues, or subjects close to my heart such as nature, environmental or social issues. Furthermore, having grown up in a bilingual, bi-cultural family and now living in a third culture, with a third language, it has helped me to express myself in a language that I feel is all my own.

I have been writing since I was in primary school, keeping journals and penning poems and this continued-on through college and into my adult life, however as things intensified in my life writing took a backseat. Sadly, almost three years ago I suffered a breakdown and my life as it was, came to screeching halt. About six months into the recovery process I began writing poetry again for the first time in years. It was as if a tap had been stuck and just needed the right adjustment to begin flowing again. Life and the direction it had taken me in had become unhealthy and part of the reason was that I was not being my authentic self and part of that self was being able to write. At the core of every poem that I write sits the question ‘why’ and the attempt to make sense of the world around me. My poems often develop into place-centred pieces in hopes of capturing a moment that I have experienced.