"Time in a Circle" by Carroll Taylor
– her greatest fear—inherited dementia
Time and clocks eluded her.
Carroll Taylor is a writer, poet, and playwright. She is the author of two young adult novels, Chinaberry Summer and Chinaberry Summer: On the Other Side and two children’s books, Feannag the Crow and Ella’s Quilt. Her poems have appeared in anthologies and online. A retired educator, Taylor is a member of NC Writers’ Network-West and the Georgia Poetry Society. She and her husband live in Hiawassee, in the North Georgia mountains, where she feeds a crow family whose antics inspire her to write every day.
Author’s Talk
Carroll Taylor
I have always loved words. The human ability to write—phonemes, morphemes, phrases, sentences, and all the complicated workings of writing—amazes me. Written language has a complex design requiring an author or poet to ponder, compose, rethink, and edit, with a generous dusting of inspiration. That process is where the essence of stories and poetry exists, not just in the present, but in perpetuity. Literary works endure for centuries, preserving stories and poetry for generations of readers.
Growing up, I was fascinated by new vocabulary words, foreign languages, speakers’ accents, and linguistics. In high school, I enjoyed studying the intricacies of Latin and French. I spent over forty years combined teaching secondary English and French, ESL, creative writing, journalism, as well as English composition at Columbus State University, Columbus, GA.
I reminded my university students: Each of your essays is unique. There is no other essay like yours in the world. You may all write about the same assigned topic, but you will use your own vocabulary, syntax, and perspective to communicate your thoughts. The same is true for poets and writers.
I also love handwriting, not only the beauty of words themselves, but the elegance of calligraphy. There’s a certain magic in penmanship that says a great deal about a writer. I prefer to use a calligraphy pen. The flow of ink complements the flow of my creativity. No ball point pen for me!
I enjoy combining written and spoken English into storytelling. Everyone has stories. Their choices are whether to write them, tell them, or, sadly, dismiss them.
Every month I host a Zoom meeting, Mountain Wordsmiths, to encourage participants to keep writing and to find joy in wordsmithing.
Sometimes I imagine how it would be to lose the ability to think, to create stories and poetry, to be unable to express myself. As the granddaughter and daughter of two women who succumbed to dementia, uncertainty looms large in my future. My grandmother received only eight years of education during her pre-Great Depression youth, but she was an avid reader. My mother discovered her natural talent for mathematics and worked for years as head of payroll for a major company. My aunt, who lived in fear that she might inherit dementia, worried for no reason.
Time will tell what my future holds. I hope it includes writing!—Carroll Taylor
