A Poem a Day: Poet Shaun R. Pankoski's Approach to Crafting Her Poetry and Beginning New Projects

Shaun R. Pankoski (she/her) is a poet most recently from Volcano, Hawaii. A retired county worker and two time breast cancer survivor, she has been an artist’s model, modern dancer, massage therapist and an honorably discharged Air Force veteran. Shaun R. Pankoski's poem, "Lupine," has been selected as part of the 2025 Lefty Blondie Press Editors' Choice Broadside Series, and is now available as a handset letterpress notecard.

"Lupine" by Shaun R. Pankoski

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LBP: What does your current writing routine look like? Has it always been this way or how has it changed? 

SRP: My serious writing was born out of my second breast cancer diagnosis in 2022, along with the serendipitous appearance of Molly Fisk's Poem-a-Day page that showed up on my Facebook feed. I had pretty much sailed through my first breast cancer experience six years earlier, but this second time shook me. I was looking for something else to focus on, and Molly provided me an outlet, a haven and a kind community of poet friends where I could hone my craft. I'd say 99% of my published work comes from this group.

Every other month, a verbal and visual prompt is posted to do with as you wish. It is not instructional or critique oriented. You may write or not. Post or not. Comment or not. I'm telling you a lot about what it is not, but what it really is, is a gift. A healing gift, at least to me. It is also a challenge, which I like. I make it a point to write something for each prompt, so at the end of the month, I have a body of work that I can edit and refine while in the in-between times. I'd like to tell you that I judiciously edit and regularly submit in the alternate months, but I'd be lying!

LBP: Do you have a dedicated writing space? What does your writing space look like? What is not included?

A view of Shaun's cozy writing space where the magic happens :)

SRP: I started out writing in a worn and over-sized easy chair in my living room, but since I write on my laptop, it wasn't all that comfortable. Now I write sitting at my dining room table. I don't have the  chair anymore. You can see in the photo my current situation. Nothing fancy, but it's where the magic happens.

LBP: Do you think of editing your own work and reading the work of others as

part of your writing?  What do you do in your non-generative times?

SRP: As much as I love the challenge of creating poems from random prompts, I know enough to understand that editing and reading other people's work is also a part of the process. As is staying organized and the business of submittals, but that's another story. Sometimes I edit as I go, sometimes I put things away and come back to them a little later. Or much later. Sometimes I see a lit journal asking for something in particular, and I know I have a poem somewhere that might fit. So I find it and fiddle with it a little until I think it's ready to go. To be honest, I never really know if something is “finished” even after it is published, I can look at it and see where I could have  changed a word, a comma, a line break. Does everyone feel this way, or is it just me?

I am simultaneously amazed, overwhelmed and a little jealous at how much beautiful work there is out there. I am also kind of late to the party, so I get most of my reading recommendations from other poets. I read other people's work from the journals that I am in or want to be in. Or from the online subscriptions I follow. Or something I stumble across on social media. There is so much out there I could spend my whole life reading, soaking it all up. Sometimes I think I'm learning, sometimes it seems too much. Trying to find a balance, in writing and life in general.

LBP: What are you working on now? What should you be working on now :) Do you work on one project at a time? How do you stay organized?

SRP: My mainstay project is always Poem-a-Day. It's where most of my finished poems come from and keeps me plenty busy. I took a little notebook with me when I went to Japan, the UK and Paris...bucket list trips after my treatment was finished. Jotting down snippets of observations and thoughts so I didn't forget. I came home and wrote about those in addition to my regular routine. I managed to shape sort of a chapbook manuscript of the poems from Japan and want to do the same with my other trips. If you're asking me what I SHOULD be doing, it would be wrestling all this raw material into some semblance of order, but I'm afraid that is my Achilles' Heel. I'm terrible at that and technology-challenged as well. My goals now are organization and a book before I die.

LBP: How do you approach a new project (poem/manuscript/different medium)? How do you keep the fire going for an extended project? Longhand or typed? When? Why?

SRP: I get inspiration from the prompts in my group. I look at the photo, read the verbal prompt and go with my first instinct. You'd be amazed at what shows up. Sometimes, I take a walk and think about it. Sometimes I dream. Or just lie flat on my back and not necessarily sleep. Something usually comes that way. Often, I'll hear a phrase in my head when I'm not even thinking about the writing. Then I have to scribble it down on something before I forget. I also look back at my little notebooks, if I can read my own handwriting!

LBP: Do you work in any other mediums? What? When? Why?

SRP: I used to take photos with a little digital camera and make cards and prints from them. You could load them on a  flash drive, take them to Walmart, edit and print. Nothing really came of that...the business part of it was just too much. Way back when, I was a photography major in school and had a big old 35mm camera, took artsy B/W photos and developed them in the school's darkroom. I also dabbled in commercial art, fine art, interior design, acting, dance. I did Taiko drumming for a while. I was all over the place. Writing seems to be what stuck. I am considering learning to play guitar. That's another story.

Poet Shaun R. Pankoski

LBP: What can poetry do?

SRP: I'm sure you've heard this before. But poetry can save your life. I'm living proof.

A 2024 Pushcart Prize nominee, her poems have appeared in ONE ART, Quartet, SWIMM, Thimble, Mackinaw Journal and MockingHeart Review, among others. She was selected as a finalist by Lefty Blondie Press for her chapbook manuscript, Tipping the Maids in Chocolate: Observations of Japan and as a first runner up for their Editors' Choice Broadside Series for her poem, Lupine.