How Poetry Helps Us "Make Room" For Others (Denise Saul)

What if the quiet between two people could become a room where art is made? We sit down with poet Denise Saul to explore how caregiving, aphasia, and the language of the body shaped her acclaimed collection The Room Between Us. Denise reads two luminous poems and walks us through the moment she realized her mother’s gestures were speaking, even when words could not—an insight that led her from drawing and doodling into a deliberate, spacious poetics.We get practical about process: how strict routines and late-night writing windows turned constraint into creative focus, why stanzas feel like rooms, and how giving someone space in life can become an ethics of space on the page. Denise shares the textures of care—short walks for breath, notes held in memory, and an attention that listens with more than ears. We also linger on the power of objects: a stone carried across an ocean, a ring that finds its way back, small talismans that hold memory, grief, and connection. These tangible things become portals to ancestry and identity, and they ask us to consider what we keep, what we pass on, and how we honor the voices we love.The conversation widens to heritage and community care, drawing from Guyanese traditions that treat storytelling, food, and mutual support as everyday practices. We discuss influence and craft with a nod to Pascal Petit’s fearless approach: outpace the inner censor and transform difficulty through making. By the end, poetry emerges as both architecture and ritual—something built and something felt, a craft that raises our awareness while holding another’s presence with care. If you’re navigating family, grief, or the challenge of making art in limited time, this one offers language, warmth, and a path forward. Listen, subscribe, and share your favorite image or line with us—what stayed with you after the final stanza?