My in-home office, comfortably appointed with a large desk, computer, printer/scanner/fax machine, an ergonomically correct chair and good lighting, is my word processing and editing space; I call editing UN-writing... http://www.pw.org/content/ana_elsner

I pen down most of my poetry on location, meaning, for example, on an airplane, on a park bench, at the library, when sitting in my parked car overlooking the ocean, over a glass of Chianti at one of the sidewalk cafés, in the museum gallery where my favorite paintings hang (they have a bench there, too), on the top deck of the ferry, even seated by myself in a far corner at a boring cocktail party (luckily nobody took notice)...  .

I always carry a spiral-bound, dog-eared note book, I am on my umpteenth one, and I always write in longhand with a lot of scribbling in the margins.

Sometimes, when I pick up the mail, I write fragments or ideas for a poem on the backs of envelopes. Later on, after opening and sorting my mail, I toss the empty envelopes in the recycling bin and, of course, all my notes are gone... .

I did try several times to type a poem directly into a word file on my PC. I sat there in a blank state-of-mind, staring at the blank screen in front of me, and not the slightest inspiration was forthcoming.  ...Bytes, bauds and pixels just don't get my creative juices flowing.

My true writing space is mobile, dynamic and set in various and ever-changing locales. This makes my poetry vivid and non-repetitive. Reminiscent of Jack Kerouac's writing of On the Road, my writing is spontaneous, but sans the obscenities, psychedelics and bohemian hedonism... .

Traveling light, equipped with only pen and notebook, allows for maximum stimulation in various interesting settings. In that sense, I am the itinerant poet plying my creative trade...  

Ana Elsner, a Poet "On the Road"

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