dancing down the alley i tip aside the inner critic with my pointy toed shoes, and dance on past to introduce this blog as a dedicated space to grow my writing and water the roots of my creativity.

I began writing poetry in 2011. This is a blog to develop my journey of artistic expression and to showcase artists by pairing art with each poem. I write poetry to express the feeling of not belonging and now having written the poetry, because of it, I feel more like I could, that somewhere here I might just belong afterall.

I’m proud to be a two-time first-place and one-time Best of Show winner in the San Mateo County Fair’s Literary Arts competition. I lead the California Writers Club open mics at Reach & Teach in San Mateo. I have been a featured poet at local readings including: 2018 Alameda Island Poets in Celebration of National Poetry Month; 2016 Poet’s Salon, Pacific Grove, 2015 Rivertown Poets in Petaluma, 2014-15 Not Yet Dead Poet’s Society at the Main Gallery in Redwood City, the San Francisco Beat Museum in 2014-2016 and at Florey’s Bookstore in Pacifica in 2013. I am honored to be one of the seven poets selected for the 2014 Running of the Poets event, organized by Poet Laureate, Caroline Goodwin, at the San Mateo County Fair. Summer 2015, my poem Mendocino in an Eggshell debuted on the Devil’s Slide Ride campaign by Pacifica Poet Laureate Dorsetta Hale to include poetry on public transportation.

Publications include Aparagraha published on the Sonoma Fire Wall and poems in several editions of The Fault Zone, The Diploemat (2nd place in the Great War to End all War Contest), Poems from Conflicted Hearts by Tayen Lane Publishing 2014, Sandhill Press Fault Zone 2013, Loch Raven Review 2011, EskimoPi 2013, Volumes 1 and 2 of Carry the Light by Sandhill Press Review 2012 and 2013, and in SenSexual 2013 Anthology, Volume 1. Author of the blog Crudo Summer and has written articles for blogs and websites including a submission to the Williams-Sonoma blog, Taste.

Click Here for TwoLoose performing Meet Me in the Middle

Click Here for TwoLoose video performance of Moonlighters

Click Here to view One Saturday Night

Click Here for youtube of Maurine reading at Sue Munroe’s studio February 2013

Member and Past Board Member and Open Mic Host for California Writers Club, Events Chair for In Her Name Goddess Circle,  Administrator and Membership Chair, Imagery International.  My husband, Daniel Swetlik, and I form the duo, TwoLoose, performing original songs and musical spoken word. Less important is a B.S. in Business from San Francisco State, which I did mostly to convince my family I wouldn’t become an artist. I am a guided imagery practitioner and hypnotherapist. Learn more at headtoyourheart.com.
Click Here to Read Media Articles

It is interesting to note that Maurine is the first woman to parachute from space on her bicycle.