We recently connected with Bert Corbeil and have shared our conversation below.

Bert, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

I never thought I would ever get a book published, and yet, somehow I have done that. I moved to the Denver area from Chicago during the summer of 2021. I moved here with my now ex-partner, and got a job at an elementary school. My expectations moving here were nothing special to be honest. I never expected meeting a new friend at an opportune event downtown would lead me into a chance encounter with someone who wanted to to publish my poems and allow me to share my work on a broader scale. I have been writing poetry pretty consistently since 2014. The year sticks out to me because it is the year I lost grandfather to Alzheimer’s disease, and i just started a poetry class at a community college near where i lived. I used poetry as a tool to express my grief, my mental illnesses, my imagination, my identity, and everything else that comes with being human. I started to share my poems on social media to feel less alone, I guess, and to relate to friends and strangers virtually. I never saw these writings as anything more than just some scribbles of my psyche, but over time, after a lot of convincing from people who never stopped believing in me, i saw my poems as more than just throwaways. I met Nancy Viera early on in 2023, after fell in love with her book collection of books “Silhouettes”. She immediately was struck by my writing and believed, unfathomably, that I should publish my poems in my own book. I am still processing myself as a published writer. After settling on what poems to add and accompanying them with titles, my books was officially released this early September. “Chaos Under the Moon”, a book of poems by me exists and it will forever be wild to me that it does.

Bert, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I put a huge chunk of this in the first segment, but i need to make another shout out to Nancy Viera, for believing in me more than i believe in me sometimes. Please, if you enjoy poetry about mental health, imagination, and love, please check out my book “Chaos Under the Moon”, available for order from places such as Tattered Covered Books. My website is bertcorbeil.com. I’m also on Instagram as “hey_its_me_bert_sorry” where i post memes and wonderful pics of clouds.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Sharing with others your work and hearing ow much your work means to them. Never fails to defrost my heart.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

The books of Nancy Viera honestly very much inspired me to keep writing what I know.

Contact Info:

• Website: bertcorbeil.com
• Instagram: hey_its_me_bert_sorry

Image Credits
Grandpa Eakin