Nancy Anne Miller left her native Bermuda as a teenager to live in the United States, but Bermuda has never left her soul. Today, she is a published poet whose newest book, ?The Sun in Three Countries?, celebrates elements of the Island that is still her spiritual home. In it, her poems are freeze-framed literary snapshots drawn from a kaleidoscope of images stored in her memory.

As with all her work, Mrs. Miller?s creativity begins with close observation of the world around her ? a legacy of her training as a painter. From her perceptions spring the genesis of her poetry: image metaphors which she then links to language.

?I begin to see like shapes or patterns in things, and that becomes very interesting to me,? she says. ?From the likeness of one shape to another I create image metaphors. I dig into the metaphors and then try to find language to unite them.?

It is a formula advocated by British poet laureate C. Day Lewis, who said in part: ?The poet?s task is to recognise the pattern wherever he or she sees it, and to be able to put his perceptions into poetic form which, by its urgency and coherence, will persuade us of their truth?.

Mrs. Miller?s poem, ?Banana Bunch?, is one example. In it, the poet saw shapes and patterns which she likened to a catcher?s mitt in one verse; a fat woman?s glove with split seams in another; and the moon?s finger in a third.

Ironically, in preparing to write poems about Bermuda, her chosen theme for ?The Sun in Three Countries?, Mrs. Miller had to turn to the work of Caribbean poets, including Derek Walcott, as part of preparing to write about an island subject.

?One of the pleasures of writing this book was to put into text island subject matter.

?Not many people have written about it in poetry, so there is a joy in terms of putting one?s experiences in Bermuda into poetry. It is almost like one?s duty as a citizen to carry it on, and pass it on.?

Asked how she was able to sift through so many memories of her homeland and distil them into 30 poems, Mrs. Miller says writing from ?exile? was an advantage.

?Being away from the subject matter makes you select memories in a very pure way. When you live in Bermuda you take it for granted, but when you are away you seek to remember and then recreate it. I am creating what I lost (through living abroad). It is a very powerful, emotional desire.?

What has emerged is a kaleidoscope of everyday subjects with which her fellow citizens can readily identify ? everything from elements of nature such as bananas, sun poisoning and bay grapes, to personalities including a former school teacher and the Sisters of Mercy; landmarks like the town clock and the lighthouse; and such peculiarities as damp, static cling, rumours and island time.

Also an artist whose abstract painting (one of her Tribe Road series) graces the front of ?The Sun in Three Countries?, and a photographer whose work has been exhibited here and abroad, Mrs. Miller says she writes poetry ?to stop reality ? what is fleeting and embody it; and also to speak for mute phenomena ? things which are dead. Then there is the whole idea of how to write?.

During annual visits to England, where she is a published poet, Mrs. Miller has studied with British poet and critic George Szirtes for many years, and she has also written a group of poems about Devon.

The poet, who received a grant from the Bermuda Arts Council for ?Conch?, her chapbook of Bermuda poems, (the forerunner of the present edition), and funds from the Hibiscus Fund to publish ?The Sun in Three Countries?, confesses that she is ?obsessed with writing?.

?I am always thinking about poems, and I carry a handbook with me at all times. I will see an image metaphor and write it down, then I think, ?What poem can I write that into?? If I want to write about a particular subject matter, something that happened in my life, then I start to think of metaphors and work at it.?

Mrs. Miller and her author husband, Arthur (?Not that Arthur Miller,? she says) make their home in Washington, Connecticut, where both of them write daily.

?Arthur has his own life helping people to identify what their vocation in life is.

?He has an international company, and is a guru in his field who has written a couple of books,? his wife says.

?We have a writing life together, and we respect what it takes to do it, but we don?t mix in with each other?s work.?

The holder of a Bachelor Science degree in art, and a Master?s degree in studio art, Mrs. Miller always precedes her writing day by painting abstracts.

?I do it for fun to loosen me up,? she says. ?It is almost a physical activity. Meditating on colours gets me into a place of awareness.?

Explaining the title of ?The Sun in Three Countries?, Mrs. Miller ? born to Charles (Bud) Milani and Mary Diana Hutchings, and granddaughter of Bermudian architect Nathaniel Hutchings ? says it implies the influence of America and Britain on her writing about Bermuda.

?America is where I live and where all the energy is for me; where I do, do, do.

?England is the nurturing place to learn ? where the standards are in terms of what good writing is; and Bermuda is that really sensuous beginning, which is almost like a primal instinctive sense.?