Q: What inspired you to start writing poetry?
A: Watching the movie Poetic Justice and later on learning the poetry in the movie was written by Maya Angelou

Q: Who are some of your favorite poets?
A: Maya Angelou, Robert Frost, Ernest Hemingway and Edgar Allan Poe

Q: What’s your favorite poem? And why?
A: Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven. That poem is why I started writing about love and relationships. I just like the storyline in the poem.

Q: What’s your favorite poem that you’ve written?
A: I have several but if I had to chose just one it'll be "He was all I ever wanted."

Q: Do you think poems need to rhyme? Why or why not?
A: No I don't. Rhyming is part of the formatting process. It has nothing to do with the message.

Q: What topics do you usually write about in your poems?
A: Right now relationships and heartbreak. But I try not to limit myself to just those topics, I do write about other things.

Q: What’s the best advice someone has given you about writing poetry?
A: Get my poems published and I did. It took a while to get there but I made it happen.

Q: Has there ever been a moment when you didn’t want to share one of your poems with someone because it felt too personal or intimate?
A: I feel that way about every poem I write. All of my poems are personal or intimate to an extent and it took me a long time to start sharing them with the world.

Q: What kinds of subjects do you usually write about?
A: Between high school and now the subjects are realitively the same. I've touched on subjects such as: childhood experiences, friendship, experiencing success and accomplishments, being in love, heartbreak, self love, motherhood, relationships and experiences.

Q: Do you see yourself as more of a storyteller or a wordsmith?
A: Definitely a storyteller.

Q: How long does it usually take you to write a complete poem?
A: Not long at all. If the topic is weighing heavily on my mind then it's completed in several minutes. It's very rare for me to start a poem and comeback and finish it at a later time. But I do have a lot of unfinished poems.

Q: What’s the best/worst thing about being a poet?
A: The best thing is being able to write whatever you feel, however your feeling it.
The worse thing is feeling like everything you write sounds the same.

Q: Are there any particular poets you follow on social media? Who do you follow and why?
A: Only one and it's Pierre Alex Jeanty. I'm just inspired by how he made poetry a popular genre again.

Q: If poetry were banned tomorrow, what would you do instead to express yourself creatively?
A: I would go back to Event Planning.

Q: How often do you write?
A: Sometimes daily or several times in a day depending on if I can finish it or not.

Q: What would you say is your “muse”?
A: My muse varies depending on the topic I want to talk about.

Q: What have you been working on lately and what are you looking forward to?
A: I have a lot of projects in the making. I've been writing a lot of new material as well as creating manuscripts for the 3 books I've written in high school. And I also have 2 nonpoetic books I'm working on. So definitely a lot of stuff in the making.
I look forward to having Jerobertsthoughts take off and become a house name as well as seeing how many books I'll publish before I decide to close my thoughts.


Q: Do you plan each line of a poem before you write it, or do the words come to you as you write?
A: Nothing is planned.The words come to me as I write. Sometimes I have to reread what I've wrote just to write the next line to make sure it flows.

Q: In what ways has your poetry changed since you started writing?
A: From high school to now. You can definitely see the maturity level has changed. The topics are realitively the same but definitely shows growth.

Q: Who’s your audience for your poetry and how do you hope they react to it?
A: Mostly women but I feel my writings are suitable for anyone.
I hope they read something that I've written that inspired them to either write their feelings to let them out or tell me my poems helped them.

Q: Do your poems generally stick to traditional poetic forms or do you like to experiment with different structures?
A: I really don't think I have a particular form. I'll write the poem and then go back and structure it the way it suits the poem.

Q: Do personal experiences also influence the themes of your poems? If so, to what extent?
A: Yes, all the time. Maybe 75% of my poems are inspired by my personal experiences.
I use my experience to make the poem more realistic. So that you you feel as if you were in that moment feeling the exact same things.

Q: Does music play a role in your poems, either during the writing process or after the poem is finished? If so, to what extent?
A: Not really, but listening to music sometimes has helped create several of my poems such as: Hurt People, Hurt People was inspired by Skyy Real Love, Ready was inspired by listening to Alicia Keys I'm Ready, You Should Be Mine was inspired by Jeffery Osborne song of the same title and Pressured was inspired by Chicago Love Me Tomorrow.

Q: How do you know when a poem is finished?
A: If I read the poem out loud to myself and there's nothing more I feel that I need to add to it than the poem is finished.

Q: What’s your editing process like?
A: I read each poem out loud and if I feel like it flows or reads well I don't touch it. I'll reread the same poem multiple times and at different times just to make sure it's perfect.

Q: Do you ever experience writer’s block, and if so, how do you overcome it?
A: Yes I do, but I don't have a system in place yet.