For many years, Michele Heeney’s life was centered around giving birth in the literal sense, as an obstetrics and gynecology nurse practitioner. But at the same time, her creativity in the more-personal sense also was flourishing: “I was always writing poetry and taking pictures.”
Now that the medical world has shifted into the past for her, the poetic and visual arts have leaped to the fore, producing images of striking beauty as well as her new fourth book of poetry, The Polka Dot Chair. And throughout this artistic journey, as both bodies of work powerfully declare, has run the unifying thread of Michele’s deep love for nature. After working as an RN in western Pennsylvania, where she was born and raised, she found her vision opened up to a changing world by the energy of San Francisco and the ‘60s. California became her new home, with an expanded career as an OB/GYN nurse practitioner. What followed was a time of rewarding work in both professional and human terms, first for Planned Parenthood and later for a county hospital serving a large population of Mexican farm workers.
“I would drive through the fields near Salinas and see my patients there,” Michele says. “It was extremely interesting. I loved it. I felt I touched people.”
In addition to the personal closeness her job brought during this time, nature filled her life at home—a 6,000-acre ranch at the north end of the Big Sur wilderness where she was caretaker for the regional park district that operated it.
These are the links that informed her work, and travel over the years completed the chain. West Africa with the Peace Corps, learning Spanish in Costa Rica, scuba diving in Fiji and Micronesia—just a few of the many places whose experiences merge today to feed Michele’s imagination and gift for lyric imagery.
Her perspective and emotion lend a special voice to this wide-ranging path. Her book’s sections—Spirit, Love, Time, Nature, Art, Politics—are concerns never far from any of our minds. And Michele’s vivid words and thoughts bring us the gift of a unique new perspective on these eternal themes.