Dr. Linda Opyr Discusses Her Poetry and Inspiration

Dr. Linda Opyr, assistant superintendent in the and New Hyde Park resident who was recently named Nassau County's poet laureate, says she first started writing and hearing poetry at the .

"That's where I first started loving it," Opyr said.

Opyr's poetic career bloomed at where her poems were featured in the school's literary magazine.

"I have really been writing my entire life," she said.

Opyr enjoys writing about nature, family and events that happen to people or interactions that she sees. She tends to take walks and sometimes will be inspired on that walk to write a poem.

Opyr is constantly working on poems, even if she isn't at a desk with a piece of paper in front of her.

"Sometimes I'll have an idea and it may take a couple of weeks for the idea to get big enough for me to sit down and write about it," Opyr said.

But there are also times when a poem can be basically written in just one sitting. There is often editing after a poem has been written, Opyr said. In editing a poem, Opyr likes to read it aloud.

"Often your voice will go where the words want to go and that will help you discover when you need to add a word, when you need to take certain words out," Opyr said.

Opyr "has always loved" Robert Frost as a poet as well as Long Island's own Walt Whitman and William Cullen-Bryant. She has also been inspired by her students' poems and other Long Island poets' work.

"Sometimes people feel that there has to be a famous name attached to a poem that's really good and that's not the case at all," Opyr said, encouraging poets to continue their craft.

Opyr was an English teacher at Sewanhaka for 15 years before joining the district's central administration.

"My love of poetry has been very much a part of my professional life as well," Opyr said.

One of the biggest highlights in Opyr's poetic life was having one of her Hillside Grade School teachers who inspired her, Kathryn McCaffrey, come to a poetry reading of Opyr's in Huntington and one of Opyr's students was also there.

"And I thought here was this great line of people who love poetry and that was very exciting for me," Opyr said.

Her encouragement to budding poets is like the Nike ad -- "Just do it."

"Trust your own intuition," Opyr said. "Let your own words speak. And try to read poetry. As you read the work of others, you become aware of different techniques used, different styles other people have. It won't change your own style, but it gives you things for your bag of tricks."