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Central Standard

Married Poets Share Inspirations For Their Work

Local couple and professional poets Stanley and Janet Banks met while living in Kansas City and trying to get their writing careers off the ground. Now that the two have been married for years, they reflect on how their marriage to each other inspired their work. A common theme between both of their work is the impact that family members have on their lives.

Stanley's life has included many tragedies including the murder of his father as well as the abuse his father inflicted on him, and this sadness comes through in a lot of his poetry. He admits that his grandmother has always been his muse in his poetry, and on this Central Standard he shares some of his favorite lines about this influential woman.

Janet also writes about her upbringing and the influence her parents had on her. She reads from one of her poems, "Sugar Mountain", that praises her late parents for the way they brought her up and instilled strong morals in her. Now that they are both gone, she appreciates the work they did to make her a strong woman and help her avoid difficult paths such as abusive relationships. 

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Central Standard Stanislav Ioudenitchpoetry
Matthew Long-Middleton has been a talk-show producer, community producer, Media Training Manager and now the Community Engagement Manager at KCUR. You can reach him at Matthew@kcur.org, or on Twitter @MLMIndustries.