Mary Ellen retired after spending a long career as a speech-language pathologist (SLP) in the public schools of Washington state while focusing on poetry pursuits on the side. Since 2016, she has been able to devote herself to poetry pursuits. She has had over two hundred poems published in journals and anthologies, with three poems receiving Pushcart nominations. Her poems have been published in such journals as Deep Wild, Eco Theo, Ekphrastic Review, Gyroscope, and Inflectionist Review, as well as in anthologies such as Sing the Salmon Home and Raising Lilly Ledbetter. Her chapbook, “Postcards from the Lilac City,” was published in 2020 and another is forthcoming from Kelsay Press. She believes that reading and writing poetry can heal and inspire
It is no surprise that I love poetry. I am indebted to my mother and some instrumental teachers.
My mother would sometimes recite poetry she had memorized years ago when memorization and recitation were commonplace in classrooms. When I was in the third grade and my mom taught fifth grade, my mom gave me a book of poems by a woman who had visited her school. Now I treasure my well-used copy of “Pot of Gold Verse” by Grace Madeline Hicks. My mom loved to hear me recite some of those poems I memorized.
Mom did a bit of speech improvement with her students and I often heard her recite a verse from Oliver Wendell Holmes that included: “Speak clearly if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall.”I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the good Sisters of the Holy Names in Spokane at St. Francis of Assisi and Holy Names Academy. I think all the diagramming of sentences helped me in my career as a speech/language pathologist in the schools and as a poet. One lay high school teacher stands out, also. Leola Hancock, a speech and drama teacher, taught me both the beauty of oral language but also was the first to tell me that there existed a career in speech/language correction.
Born and raised in Spokane, Washington, Mary Ellen Talley migrated to Seattle. She earned a graduate degree from the University of Washington, after which she spent forty rewarding years as a speech-language pathologist (SLP) teaming with wonderful special educators in Federal Way, WA and Seattle, WA. Poetry has become her second act. She is active in Pacific Northwest poetry circles and contributes book reviews to several journals.
Over the years, Mary Ellen has been fortunate to benefit from Pacific Northwest poetry workshops, particularly Poets on the Coast writing retreats with Susan Rich and Kelli Russell Agodon, as well as many classes taught at Seattle’s Hugo House. She has learned much from skilled and generous teachers, especially Deborah Woodard, Judith Skillman, Carolyne Wright, Sierra Nelson, John Sibley Williams, Judith Roche, Holly J. Hughes, and Sheila Bender. Sandra Yannone’s Cultivating Voices online community has widened her poetry horizons. She is forever grateful to her critique groups, particularly her fifteen years of weekly meetings with the Greenwood Poets, founded by Sharon Cumberland.
Mary Ellen enjoys spending time with her children and grandchildren, bicycling, baking, hiking, and attending live theatre and poetry events with her husband, Ken, her first and trusted reader.