I Am Here But I Am Not: The Poetry of Heidi Schneider 1986-2020

Heidi’s prodigious powers of physical description are another key element of her unique poetic style. She creates vivid and memorable images in the reader’s mind with a few deft verbal brush strokes, much as an artist creates a gesture drawing that captures the essence of a living subject in a few spare lines. Her exceptional kaleidoscopic imagery is often breathtaking, but it is rendered in the service of a higher aim–expressing and conveying her life experiences, her emotions, and her state of being in the world with fierce affirmation, even in the face of despair. Any poet who can articulate all these elements, and employ them so masterfully to engage the hearts, minds, and spirits of her readers, is surely a gifted artist worthy of widespread attention and acclaim.