VOX: Have you ever struggled with trying to emulate someone else? How did you find that authenticity? Or did you start out being authentic?

I bought Wrong Side of a Fistfight and got “Home” for free with it, which is a good thing because I might otherwise have regretted buying it. I felt much the same about this poetry collection as I did with 'Love & Misadventure', it makes the same mistakes and has many of the same flaws. Home» Animal Poems» 31 Beautiful Mermaid Poems To Use Animal Poems 31 Beautiful Mermaid Poems To UseI should not be comparing this to other poetry books, but I just can't help to compare this to what I've read in the past that's in the same genre, e.g. Lang Leav's. This is way better than Leav's work because there are a lot of good poems that included here and one of this is Mouthful of Forevers. This is an excerpt from the said poem: A number of the poems are lyrical without being purple and empowering without making me inwardly cringe. In retrospect, it did feel something like a daydream in its pretty pose and whimsical delivery. However, the real selling point for me was that most, if not all, of the poems felt as though it could be relevant to a number of scenarios. Quite often I feel as though poetry demands a lot of me. It tells me how to feel, forces me into experiencing situations I don't want to relive or haven't experienced and wouldn't want to, to satisfy the catharsis the author hopes to share with me. This didn't feel like that. This anthology felt versatile enough to allow me to put whatever spin I wanted to on the meaning behind some of the poems, to feel however I wanted to about them and to extrapolate ideas to my own situations, or not, if that's what felt right in the moment. von Radics: I don’t know about other people, but when I write about an emotional experience, it’s never a very good poem. People’s diary entries aren’t very good poems. There’s just a lot of pain and anger. I want to wait until I have a little bit more perspective on whatever has happened and I can phrase it in a beautiful way, so I can have a sense of compassion to the other people in the story and make it more true rather than subjective. I try to wait until it’s more of a concise story and not just scrambling to write about the willy-nilly.

Another thing is that it’s internet poetry, it started online and I have immense respect for Von Radics for starting up Where Are You Press, it’s an amazing feat and I love what she’s trying to do with it. However, sometimes the internet bleeds into her poetry. There’s an ‘internet speak’ to it that falls completely out of place, for me, anyway, perhaps I only see it because I spend so much time on tumblr myself. And sometimes things just don’t seem to make a lot of sense? I’m not in control of how intelligent I was born. I’m not in control of my inspiration. I’m not in control of whether or not I’m a genius or truly gifted. What I am in control of is my work ethic.” She is the founder of Where Are You Press, a publishing house committed to publishing accessible, innovative poetry by a diversity of voices. Her work has been published in Whiskey Paper, Cahoodling, Women’s Health Magazine, and more. Her poem "For Teenage Girls" has been featured on Huffington Post, Upworthy, Everyday Feminism, and was chosen by Button Poetry as their 4th best poem of 2015. “For Teenage Girls” has since been adapted into an illustrated book by Andrews McMeel Universal. In Assyrian myths, the goddess of fertility, Atargatis, cast herself into a lake and became a mermaid. It's not the matter of what you tell but how you tell. This one is a good example. I'm a huge anti of inspiring/confessional poems as much as a fan so it's important the way you choose. Like nowadays they sound similar but not trying to be an anthem which is so lame (usually under of minimal poem.)Mermaids appear in Greek mythology as well. Achilles’ mother was said to be a Nereid named Thetis. Another notable Nereid was Amphrite, who married Poseidon and whose son is Triton, a merman. This morning I woke up so in love with you I didn’t know what to do with my body, which was far from yours. I’m never going to have a different brain. I’m always going to be this person, and so the best I can do is to be kind and to be hardworking and to live honestly.” There were some poems that were okay but I could still feel the emotion behind her words. I cannot wait to read some of her other poetry collections!