Saturday, April 30, 2016

The Eat Sleep Write Interview: Poet: Anca Mihaela Bruma

The Eat Sleep Write Interview

Anca Mihaela Bruma


Interview conducted by 
Eat Sleep Write Poetry Editor & Writers World Poet's Corner 
 Nikki Anne Schmutz


Anca Mihaela Bruma



Country of Origin: Romania

Present us your short bio as poet/artist?

My name is Anca Mihaela Bruma, I am Romanian living in Dubai/UAE. My love for poetry started when I was just 9 years old, when I registered myself to some creative poetry writing group. It was a turning point for me as I started to discover the mysteries of the written word and its impact on the readers. I was just 6 years old when I registered myself at a public library, being fascinated by the readings. The passion for reading, composing and reciting the written words was extended to choosing the first degree, a BA in English and Romanian Philology. While a teenager, I was published in various journals of poetry. 

Since early age, I have always viewed writing poetry as the perfect medium which is able to depict profound unfathomable complexities of someone’s life or life itself, to render into words that which is unsayable, that ineffable, which can be truly deeper than the language itself. Through my writings, as well years of readings, I always looked to seek something beyond that which was apparent to others! I was fascinated to see how different aspects of truth were transfigured by different emotions, how experiences were poetized. I pursued seeing beauty expressed in all forms of art, not just poetry; creating a “thirst” within me to explore more and more for the knowledge of the mystery beneath and beyond it, as a symbol of something greater and higher with its own power to immortalize the expressions over the years

Thank you for joining me today! It is our goal to spread the word for each poet we interview! I’ll start by asking how long have you been writing and what inspired you? 

I have been writing since I was just 9 years old I guess till I was 25. A long silent period followed, and restarted to write in 2014 January again.

Is your writing genre your preferred reading genre as well? If not, what other genres interest you most?

Yes very much so.

What poets have inspired you in your own work?

At initial stage, just a teenager, I was very much influenced by Romanticism, Realism, Symbolism, Avant-garde, followed in my university times by Existentialism, Surrealism, Transcendentalism. Poets from those literary currents influenced me in my own literary development as well approach of life. Lately, a huge impact had all seers in poetry, bringing lots of rumination about Life, Love etc.

Who, in your own life, has inspired you to write poetry?

I do not have a specific person, it is all cumulated experiences. I just tap into those sensations created by those experiences. Also my writings are more related to how I want a man to write to me, as if someone wrote those to me.



Are there certain reoccurring themes in your work? 

Yes: Love and Inner Journey of a Self.

When choosing a title for your poetry, how do you decide?

Most of the times I have troubles in choosing a title, as my poems are more kind of a flow, so I have to get out of that “poetic trance” and try to grasp the “main theme”.  I hardly write something with an already chosen title.

Are you working on any compilations at the moment?

At the moment the compilation I am doing is using my own poems as recitals with a background music, trying to mix together various arts, just to emphasize the intended message of my poem.

Do you know how the poem is going to end before you start or do you just let the poem write itself as you move along? 

Most of the time I just let it flow, however many times I do know the ending. The creative process is very complex, and no artist goes strictly by HOW it is supposed to be done, as it is know the creative process may be affected.

What is your favorite poem and why (yours or someone else’s)?

I cannot help but just be a very romantic person, and for me the best poem for Love is of Rabindranath Tagore “Unending Love”.  Why this poem out of so many amazing poems? Well it describes perfectly the idea of Love between twin souls, agelessly, timelessly, eternally and of course supports entirely my vision about Love.



Describe the relationship between you and your life as a poet.

I wrote a poem called “Between Real and Surreal” where I expressed it this “relationship” between Anca of day to day life and Anca the artist: “Me and Myself... between Real and Surreal... Standing on my own edge, it's my Life's ordeal...”


How many poems have you written to date, has the number that you’ve completed surpassed your expectations?

I do not recall the numbers, I personally not believe in “quantifying” the creative process. However, I believe in a very concentrated form of poetic expression, I believe in quality rather than quantity and strive for creating masterpieces rather piles of poems.

How does it feel to know that hundreds, possibly thousands and eventually millions of people will read the poetry you have created?

When I started to write again in January 2014, the feedback of people encouraged me big time telling I have a VOICE, a voice which HEALS and AWAKENS. I knew I have to continue to write and make this VOICE more known, not to polish my own ego but to “help” the readers. So, I took it as a mission! For me it does not matter if thousands or even millions of people read what I write, BUT it matters HOW many lives I challenged for good! This is my “milestone”!



Is there anything that you would like to say to aspiring poets?

Yes, to connect with the wisdom of their heart, to write from a place of Love. We writers have an important mission out there and how we impact on others’ lives. I believe any painful experience shall be transformed into something beautiful, the writing to become something transformative, educative and of course full of hope. In other words, to write with the intention to enlighten others rather than dive them more in deeper sorrow and pain. The world needs Hope, Love, Joy, we all have our traumatized experiences however it is up to us HOW we chose to use the power of the word: to build or to destroy!

What was the hardest part of writing poetry?

Good question! HOW I can transform my pain into something hopeful! My writings have lots of hope with some touch of nostalgia, however not depressing. This is something of which I am so careful when I write, what emotions I trigger in the readers’ minds. So yes, like an alchemist I transform the pain into joy and hope.

What did you enjoy most about writing poetry?

TO KNOW myself, the deeper layers of my own Being! I surprise myself when I discover new aspects of ME, new manifestation of my own Being.

What is the biggest thing that people THINK they know about poetry that it is not so?

That I write my love poetry with someone specific in my mind, which mostly is not true! I do write the sensations my own soul has, and the relationship between me and myself, like a Love relationship. As well, I write as if someone else writes that poem for me. My writings present my own inner voyages rather than take into account the external stimuli and write about it! My writings are very much internalized, processed and crystalized sensations of external stimuli, it is more a philosophy of Love, as I envision it: ageless, timeless, spaceless, eternally. As well my writings are more kind of a spiritual autobiography, depicting a reality behind all forms, with no space and time, a quantum view of Existence. It is more related with the realization of the greater self, beyond the mundane and well known laws of the society, as an expression of both the rational and the intuitive, in a concise form of poetry, increasing the awareness with new meanings expanded.



You are a person with many interests and inspirations. What truly inspires you?

Yes, indeed, and because I am so eclectic, it is hard to pin down WHAT inspires me. However, I think PATHOS, in everything!

Who are some of your favorite authors that you feel were influential in your work?  What impact have they had on your writing?

Poets and writers influenced me in my own literary development as well approach of life. Just to mention some at that time: Dostoevsky, Camus, Kafka, William Blake, Umberto Eco, Leo Tolstoy, Emily Bronte, Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning, TS Eliot, Plato, Henri Bergson, Jean Paul Sartre, Victor Hugo, Paul Verlaine, Carl Jung, Immanuel Kant, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Henry David Thoreau and so on.

A huge impact on me had as well the Oriental philosophies, like Taoism, Zen, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Sufism, Buddhism and so on, and all these perspectives about life made a huge impact on me and the way I approach writing nowadays. The time I did not write, for many years, it was the perfect time for me to incubate and crystallize all these knew knowledge, together with my own experiences in order to have my own signature in my own writings.

What did you find most useful in learning to write?  What was least useful or most destructive?

It is good to know various techniques in writings, and that made me to have so many approaches, I do not stick with one style, it depends on that poetic trance at that moment. I did not find anything destructive, I always find my way around.

Are you a full-time or part-time writer?  How does that affect your writing?

Writing is my hobby, part of my path. Now depends what everyone calls a “writer”: To be published? Being paid for your writings? Or writing for challenging the word for good? My humble aspiration is for the last one, to be impactful in a great way!


What are some day jobs that you have held and how have they affected your writing?

Nothing affects my writings

For those interested in exploring the subject or theme of your book, where should they start?

I have lots of descriptions done about my writings. Some done by me, some are done by my amazing co-editor, literary advocate and translator of my poems, Mr. James Cairns.  Besides my own video poetry where I explain certain things, James truly builds the bridges between my creation and the audience/readers. He is an excellent advocate of my art!

What do you think is the future of reading/writing

As the consciousness of people evolves therefore writing/reading do. Technological development has its say in this, making it more accessible to people with various means. Maybe very soon everything will be digitalized and having a hard cover book in our hands will be like something Antique. Maybe!...

How do you find or make time to write?

I do not write when I find time, I write when the inspiration “comes”.


What do you like to read in your free time?



Lots of mystic stuff.


Can you share one of your poems with us? Show us one of your favorites:



Cyberspaced Truths



I am not here to trade anymore

the cosmic runes and liquid dreams,
as Universe stumbles into its own photons...


I am here to renounce my own spectrum

with all its refracted words, rhythms
and sensationalized perfect imperfections...


Yes!... I am here... and I can hear

all these mental asymmetrical matrices
as an Ancient soul living a contemporary odyssey...


You... on the other hand

still encrypted in your structured signature
anxious of losing the conceptualized notion
of your Self!...


Between Me... and You

infinitesimally spiralling indigo pulsating
cyberspaced Truths 
of our dichroic hearts!....
..................................................


Just for you to know:

I am not an ordinary street walker!
(Anca Mihaela Bruma - 2nd February 2015)

If you have written a book, answer these:

Yes! “The Light of Our Beingness – I Am That You Are”. My second book is on its way, called “I Am! Within You –Without You!. As per my third book will be named “I Am This Intoxicated Existence”


It can be bought on: 





How do you feel about E-books vs. print books and alternative vs. conventional publishing?

Both are good options. However when I read I love to have the book in my hands!

What makes your book stand out from the crowd?

My own trademark:  I label my own writings as being "sensually mystique" or "mystically sensual", a tool and path for women to claim their own inner feminine powers. Through my writings I overpass what seems to be the limitations of the human but emphasizing the essence of the woman, of the Goddess. The main theme, Love, is basically presented as a transformative experience in life, the energysing force in the universe and empowering the creative feminine.

How do you promote your work?

Social media mostly.



1 comment:

  1. As always, Anca-Mihaela​ takes me to the dimensions of self that give me access to the creative side of expression to others. By that I mean deep into the essences, down to the core, loving the layers of myself instead of feeling the need to remove them.

    ReplyDelete