Anna Lowry describes herself as an “underground poet”.The vice president of public relations for the Bermuda Hospitals Board was one of the new faces to emerge through the recent publication of ‘This Poem-Worthy Place: Bermuda Anthology Of Poetry Volume II’ a collection of poetry published by the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs.She had several poems included in the anthology such diverse topics as cheese, a broken rockface and a dog escaping from a cage.“This is the first time I have ever been published,” she said. “I am a bit of an underground writer.”Ms Lowry, originally from London, England has lived in Bermuda for several years. Her first poem was about a worm.“I have been writing poetry since I can remember,” she said. “My mother started me writing poetry really early. I started writing more seriously in my late teens. The first poet that really inspired me was Spike Milligan. He always came from a really strange angle of perception. But more recently I have been inspired by a Polish poet called Wisawa Szymborska. Again her work has a lot of ideas and images. She writes one poem in a museum. She starts thinking about how her own possessions will outlive her.”Ms Lowry said that poetry has always been something she did to help herself reflect on the different experiences in her life.“To me it provides an opportunity to sit and reflect and take something out of a moment that you might have experienced. I also write short stories. I was a bit nervous about entering my poems for consideration because some of them are serious, but some of them are meant to be funny. My long-term goal is to do a series of poems on cheeses,” she laughed.“There is one in the anthology on eating blue cheese at night and sneaking it from the fridge. You get an intense pleasure eating it at night. I also wrote one about cheddar cheese. I love having a slice of really strong cheddar while I cook. It tingles on the tongue. It is almost like doing a tango. “She said she doesn’t know if she has enough poems to put together a book of her own. She writes quite slowly and is an obsessive editor.“Poems are almost like processes that are never finished,” she said. “These poems are the poems as they were at some point in time. I always continue fiddling with them for long afterwards. Sometimes when you leave something and come back and work on it, it takes you in a different direction.”She said it is probably time considerations that cause her to write more poetry than short stories a poem can be written in an hour.“I wasn’t raised with computers in school, but I am already a child of the computer age,” she said. “Nearly all the writing I do now is on the computer. I got an iPad in December. I love it. It is much more convenient than a laptop. I much prefer writing on the computer than writing by hand. I guess because I change things so much.”She wanted to become a professional writer when she was young, and considered journalism. After college she found a temp job working on a company’s internal magazine. This led her to a career in corporate communications.To prepare for the upcoming anthology, folklife officer Kim Dismont-Robinson organised workshops for poets. Spread over three weeks, they were led by writer-in-residence Kendel Hippolyte and included individual sessions with poets Alan C Smith, B Candace Ray and Nick Hutchings. Ms Lowry took the workshops.“That was really good and very inspiring,” she said.The Department of Community and Cultural Affairs has placed special emphasis on the development of Bermuda’s literary arts over the past five years. Writing has been encouraged, strengthened, and promoted through a number of initiatives including but not limited to the Bermuda Literary Awards; the publication of books celebrating Bermuda’s cultural heritage such as Florenz Webbe-Maxwell’s ‘The Spirit Baby and Other Bermudian Folktales’, the Bermuda Book Fair, multiple writer-in-residence programmes and now, the publication of a second volume of a national poetry anthology.Published in 2006, the first volume, ‘The Bermuda Anthology of Poetry’, was well received by the community and visitors alike.This second anthology continues and progresses the work that began with the first.“We have the chance to observe how some of our more consistent and dedicated poets have developed, and we have the opportunity to hear the voices of some emerging writers,” Dr Dismont-Robinson said.The book is dedicated to writer Brian Burland, who died last year having earned national and international acclaim for his work which spanned half a century.Other poets included in this year’s anthology are Nancy Anne Miller, Ron Lightbourne, Andra Simons, and Paul Maddern whose book, ‘The Beachcomber’s Report’, was just published in the United Kingdom.Ask about the new poetry anthology in local bookstores.Useful websites: Poetry by Wislawa Szymborska: poetrying.wordpress.com/2009/06/07/museum-wislawa-szymborska; poetry by Spike Milligan www.poemhunter.com/spike-milligan/ .