Meet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer | Poet & Presenter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Rosemerry Wahtola, putting aside the decision to work for yourself, what other decisions were critical to your success?
The best business decision I’ve ever made? Collaborate.

Poetry is a solitary practice in many ways–especially writing it. But sharing it is another matter. I am presently collaborating with a science writer on a podcast (Emerging Form: A podcast on creative process), with a mindfulness instructor on a monthly gathering (Soul Writers Circle), with a life coach in a surreptitious kindness cabal (Secret Agents of Change), with a pianist/cultural historian teaching classes and giving performances around the art of Vincent van Gogh, and many other projects.

Collaborating has helped me in at least three main ways.

1) It makes poetry feel relevant, even useful. Poetry can be a hard sell sometimes, but when paired with meditation or yoga or science or mindfulness or grief work or parenting skills, non-poetry lovers come to see that poetry has something valuable to offer them. It opens the mind, honors the heart, inspires conversation and changes perspective.

2) It expands my audience. I love promoting my collaborators, and they do the same for me.

3) It is fun. It keeps me trying new things–pushing my practice into new places. Bonus: some of my closest friendships have come from collaboration.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I’ve been writing for decades, but since 2006, I have been writing a poem every day. For a certainty, it has improved my work. But more than that, a daily practice has taught me that the practice is much more important than the work itself. The reason I continue to write daily poems (and share them) is because it changes everything about the way I meet the world.

The people who follow my work, who hire me to speak, who take classes with me, and who buy my books know I write and share poems that are accessible, that talk about real life issues, and that open conversations about what it means to be alive. In the past year, I have been writing many poems about grief as I continue to meet the death of my teenage son. I get letters every day from people thanking me for my vulnerability and willingness to share my process–they say it helps them to meet their own grief.

The biggest lesson I learned? Give it away.

Long before I dreamt it was possible to teach/perform/write poetry in a financially viable way, I had a “day job” and did poetry work for free. I did programs in schools and taught classes for the library, I was the director of the Telluride Writers Guild for ten years and learned how to put on festivals, partner with other organizations, write grants, and support other poets. Poetry was my passion and I treated it like a passion. I practiced it and shared it for the love of poetry.

Eventually (um, decades later), I had lots of experience, a large audience and a wildly rich community. This was by no means the fast track. However, it was an organic, authentic path that allowed me to grow into this work in a way that helps me be very supportive of others.

But the next biggest lesson I learned was when NOT to work for free. When I began charging to work with individual students, I immediately had a lot of work. People had been waiting for me to offer them the chance for one-on-one sessions. It turned out I was the only one who didn’t think I should be paid! What a surprise that was. By then, I was a skilled teacher and could feel good about charging for my services.

Another example: For many years I have put poems into the world for free. It actually costs a lot of money to do that, especially when the mailing list gets large. A little over a year ago, I added a “Buy Me a Coffee” button to help defray the costs. I have been astonished by the response. People are so willing to support the daily poems with small financial contributions. I love that it is voluntary, so that anyone who can’t afford to support the daily poems still has access to them, and I love that people find value in the poems and are willing to help support the practice.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Hmmm … so they are visiting Telluride, Colorado? In the fall?

Ride the free gondola
Hike Bear Creek, Mill Creek, Bilk Creek, Deep Creek, Keystone Gorge
Go the Ouray Hot Springs (or better yet, Orvis, if they don’t mind clothing optional)
Go to Mouse’s Chocolates in Ouray
Eat at La Cocina de Luz, 221 S. Oak, Cosmo
Watch live music at the Transfer Warehouse
Visit the Wilkinson Public Library
Support Between the Covers Bookstore
Make a donation to the Free Box and see what it has to offer
Take a class at Weehawken Arts or Ah Haa School for the Arts
Sit by the San Miguel River
Eat Western Slope peaches and melons

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
When I first moved to Telluride in 1994, I met Art Goodtimes who introduced me to the bardic tradition. He mentored me in writing, yes, but more so in creating community.

*He introduced me to the “Talking Gourd” tradition in which we sat in a circle and simply listened to other people’s works instead of the predominant academic model where we read each other’s works on paper and criticized them.

*He opened so many doors for me–including the first anthology I was in, Geography of Hope: Poets of Colorado’s Western Slope (Conundrum Press, 1998). It was in this group of poets that I learned how promoting each other’s work was the best way to promote our own.

*He taught me the value of performance–how to make a poem sing, how to engage an audience, how to treat poetry as an oral/aural art. He also gave me great honest feedback about how to improve my presentation skills.

Art leads by example—he is an encourager, a gatherer of community, a devotee to the art and to the practice of the art. He is generous with praise and precise with criticism. I am so grateful for his lead in how to be in service to others and the world, how to build bridges, how to lift others up.

Website: https://ahundredfallingveils.com/

Instagram: @rosemerry.trommer

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosemerry-wahtola-trommer-a9b8665/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj1Bf78X0FkviBBrFeZ6yWw

Other: daily poetry blog, A Hundred Falling Veils https://ahundredfallingveils.com/ Tedx Talk: The Art of Changing Metaphors https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXC3-ZFkhDo

Image Credits
headshot with black shirt: Joanie Schwartz TEDx shot: Ben Lehman