Nancy K. Jentsch’s chapbook Authorized Visitors and the collaborative ekphrastic chapbook Frame and Mount the Sky, in which her poetry appears, were published in 2017. Her collection Between the Rows debuted in 2022. Her work has appeared in journals such as Amethyst Review, Crowstep Poetry Journal, Tiferet Journal, and Zingara Poetry Review. In 2020, she received an Artist Enrichment Grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women. Retired from teaching, she finds inspiration in her family and her rural home. Learn more.
What past event do you often reflect upon, and how did that event change you?
I have an early childhood memory of a talk my mother had with me in the basement of our home. We were getting ready for a move, and she wanted me to give up my rocking horse beforehand. She told me it would be going to an orphanage for visually-impaired children. I was crushed by the idea but eventually agreed tearfully. When I volunteer, make donations rather than give Christmas gifts, and put gently used items into our church trailer, I think of the lesson my mother was teaching me. Unfortunately, that’s not all of the story. I still hoard no longer donatable items from my childhood in my basement. I have perhaps rationalized this quirk as my way of holding onto a mother who was taken from me way too soon.
How does your work add to the quality of your life?
Writing deepens my experience of the world, both the nature I see all around me, but also the relationships I enjoy and even my self-knowledge. For example, I’d never thought about the second part of the story above until I wrote a poem about the conversation my mother and I had and considered why it is so difficult for me to part with childhood memorabilia. I also feel a unique contentment when my poems resonate with people who might not normally engage with poetry. I am happiest when I hear that my poetry is being read at a writing workshop held for the homeless, to which I have donated several of my books.
Tell us a story you would like to share with the world.
A nurse once told me that one of the questions on her first test after starting hospital rounds was: what is the name of the custodian on your floor? There are, after all, so many people in life we take for granted and I am grateful that I heard this story. I think of it every time I look easily overlooked people in the eye and wish them well. It’s a story worth sharing.
Note: Nancy will read from her chapbook Intersecting Orbits on Thursday, February 13, 7:00 p.m. at the Poet & Song Series, held at the Falcon Theater, 636 Monmouth Street, Newport, KY 41071. Her poetry will also be featured at the opening of the Smithsonian exhibit “Exploring Human Origins: What Does it Mean to be Human” at the Newport branch of the Campbell County Public Library, 901 East Sixth Street, on Friday, May 30, 2025.
Author photo: Courtesy of author
Side bar image: Pixabay/Edar
