Patricia Joslin is a poet and essayist living in Charlotte, North Carolina. Her chapbook, I’ll Buy Flowers Again Tomorrow: Poems of Loss and Healing, was published in 2023 by Charlotte Lit Press. Poems have appeared in Kakalak, Tipton Poetry Journal, New Note Poetry, Eunoia Review, and the San Antonio Review. Patricia is a former educator with a B.S. and M.S. from the University of Wisconsin and an Ed.D from the University of Minnesota. She loves live jazz, chamber music, solo travel, and her four young grandsons.
My Story
The only private place in the tiny, crowded house of my growing-up years was a stuffy, dusty-smelling attic space under the eaves that I shared with Christmas decorations and baby furniture awaiting the arrival of brother number three. I crawled into that hideout with a flashlight and pillow whenever I wanted to read or write, careful not to look behind the overstuffed boxes piled high in the dark. Now, over sixty years later, that inner dream of becoming a writer is still alive. My home office space is a cocoon, just as the crawlspace under the eaves was a refuge to that young girl. The light from the office window to my right is filtered through colored glass bottles collected over time. I listen to classical music. An abstract art piece - a modern depiction of the Eiffel Tower - adorns the wall above my bookcase. Creativity seeps into this space if I welcome it with kindness. In the words of James Michener -“I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.”
My Poetry
today at low tide