Melissa Barrett-Traister

About me

Gender Female
Industry Education
Occupation Teacher,Poet.
Location Scottsdale, Arizona, United States
Introduction I think. I feel. I create.
Interests I enjoy... Sylvia Plath's journals(have yet to finish), late night trips to the supermarket, winking at a stranger from across a crowded room, small concert venues, Coldplay, getting on a plane to return to England, Big Ben, oversized oak trees(the perfect place for a poet to feel small in a world so large), late night phone discussions, postcards, receiving/sending letters in the mail from friends, attending poetry readings several times a month, independent films, Charlie Chaplin at four in the morning, epiphanies, workshops, hummingbirds, cardinal birds, Palo Verde trees, crayola crayons, forests, pixie dusts, early morning mist, big buttons, learning about the guitar, pianos, jazz music, ambient music, learning a new language, learning to breathe each day, living through pain to find joy, soft breezes that move the hair away from my face, inspiring quotes, the Beat Poets, the Black Mountain Poets, maps, apples, pie, watches, glasses, hippies...
Favorite Movies 'Amelie', 'The Motorcycle Diaries', 'Definitely, Maybe', 'Into The Wild', 'P.S.I Love You, ' 'Baby Mama', 'Juno', 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall', 'The Secret Life of Bees', 'Love In The Time of Cholera', 'Once', 'Como Agua Para Chocolate', 'The Other Boelyn Girl', 'Sabrina', 'Casablanca' 'Ghost', 'Toy Story', 'Gone With The Wind', 'Dan In Real Life', 'The Wizard of Oz', Charlie Chaplin movies at four in the morning, 'Jerry Maguire', 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape', 'Sleepless In Seattle', 'The Royal Tenanbaums', 'Sense and Sensibility', 'Something's Gotta Give', 'I Heart Huckabees', 'The Basketball Diaries', 'Reign Over Me', 'Real Women Have Curves', 'Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants', 'Overboard', 'How To Lose A Guy in Ten Days', 'Pride and Prejudice', 'Garden State', 'French Kiss', silent films, 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind', 'The Color Purple', 'ET', 'Rush Hour', 'A Beautiful Mind', 'Little Miss Sunshine', 'A Lot Like Love', 'Orange County', 'Mary Poppins', 'The Sound of Music', 'Meet the Parents', 'Girl With A Pearl Earring', 'Meet the Fockers', 'Something about Mary', 'Finding Nemo', 'About A Boy', 'Roots', 'Almost Famous', 'Ray', 'The Wedding Date', 'Sylvia', 'The Hours', 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'(the original), 'Grease', 'Shrek', 'My Best Friend's Wedding', 'Pretty Woman', 'Mona Lisa Smile', 'Notting Hill', 'Bridget Jone's Diary', 'Edward Scissorhands', 'Benny and Joon', 'Mystic Pizza', 'The Outsiders', 'Father of the Bride', 'Reality Bites', 'Fifty First Dates', 'Frida', 'Duplex', 'I Am Sam', 'The Notebook', 'With Honors', 'Pretty In Pink', 'The Breakfast Club', 'Sixteen Candles', 'Dead Poet's Society'(for those poetry scholars), 'You've Got Mail', 'Beetle Juice', The Graduate', 'Fight Club', 'A Fish Called Wanda', 'Schindler's List', 'Good Will Hunting', 'Erin Brokovich', 'Shakespeare In Love', 'Mr.Holland's Opus', 'Liar Liar', 'Love Actually', 'The Virgin Suicides', 'American Beauty', 'Feris Bueler's Day Off', 'Wedding Crashers', and 'When Harry Met Sally'.
Favorite Music Bob Dylan, Coldplay, The Rolling Stones, Muddy Waters, Jefferson Airplane, Bjork, The Supremes, Gnarls Barkley, Prince, Green Day, New Radicals, The Verve Pipe, Bill Withers, Curtis Mayfield, Pete Yorn, Aaron Neville, Bon Jovi, Grover Washington Jr., Steve Miller Band, Pearl Jam, Lenka, Nirvana, Rick Springfield, The Impressions, Arvo Part, Blonde Redhead, The Indigo Girls, Cream, SIA, Primative Radio Gods, Everything But The Girl, The Isley Brothers, George Gershwin, Annie Lennox, Cat Stevens, Sublime, Radiohead, Ani Difranco, Audioslave, Peter Gabriel, INXS, Gwen Stefani, Carly Simon, Van Morrison, Train, Fiona Apple, The Doors, John Coltraine, The Wallflowers, Sophie B.Hawkins, Elliot Smith, Paul Simon, Enigma, Depeche Mode, Gin Blossoms, Robert Cray, 311, Magnet, Jimmy Eat World, Snow Patrol, Elton John, Sister Hazel, O.A.R., Dido, Keane, Joan Baez, Sarah McLachlan, Tori Amos, Cinematic Orchestra, Odetta, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks, Fleetwood Mac, Feist, Enya, Teitur, ACDC, Adele, Sugor Ros, Woody Guthrie, Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone, Sade, Counting Crows, The Police, U2, Mazzy Star, Pete Seeger, Carla Bruna, 10, 000 Maniacs, Journey, Boston, Chicago, CCR, Janice Joplin, Maxwell, Al Green, Jeff Buckley, Led Zeppelin, James Taylor, Live, The Shins, Death Cab For Cutie, The Eagles, Norah Jones, Tears For Fears, The Cure, Modern English, Tracy Chapman, Aerosmith, KT Tunstall, Duffy, John Lee Hooker, David Gray, Nickelback, 3 Doors Down, Iron and Wine, The Frames, Def Leppard, Carol King, Sun Kil Moon, Yael Naim, Dave Matthews Band, India Arie, Shawn Colvin, Bonnie Raitt, Boards of Canada, Ray Lamontagne, The Spinners, Peter Frampton, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Mommas and the Poppas, The Beatles, Paul McCartney, Metallica, Foo Fighters, Natalie Merchant, Lenny Kravitz, Alicia Keys, Cat Power, Jewel, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Elvis Presley, Joe Cocker, Santana, Beethoven, Bach, Chubby Checker, Art of Noise, Moby, Kate Bush, Queensryche, Victor Jara, Thelonious Monk, Incubus, Pink Floyd, Otis Redding, Neko Case, Paula Cole, Yoko Ono, Karen Carpenter, Etta James, Mozart, and so many more...
Favorite Books 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' by Robert Pirsig, 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being' by Milan Kundera, 'Learning To Breathe' by Alison Wright, 'Geography of Bliss' by Eric Weiner, 'The Color Purple' by Alice Walker, 'A Three Dog Life' by Abigail Thomas, ' 'Pleasure Dome' by Yusef Kumenyakaa, 'Seducing The Demon:Writing For My Life' by Erica Jong, 'Beautiful Boy' by David Sheff, 'Tweak'by Nic Sheff, Ernest Hemingway's short stories(especially "Hills Like White Elephants"), 'Clapton' the autobiography by Eric Clapton, 'Love In The Time of Cholera' by Gabriela Garcia Marquez, 'Girlbomb' by Janice Erlbaum, 'Eat, Pray, Love' by Elizabeth Gilbert, 'Running With Scissors' by Augusten Burroughs, 'The Lovely Bones' by Alice Seabold, 'Cornucopia' by Molly Peacock(poetry collection), Ai's 'Dread'(poetry collection), 'The Glass Castle' by Jeannette Walls, the dictionary, the thesaurus, Ted Kooser's philosophies on the writing process (especially 'The Poetry Home Repair Manuel'), Virginia Woolf, Charlotte Perkins Gillman's short story collections(especially 'The Yellow Wallpaper'), Sylvia Plath's poetry collection 'Ariel', Pablo Neruda's poetry collection entitled 'Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair', Maria Hornbacher's memoir 'Wasted', Mary Oliver's poetry collection 'White Pine', Marie Howe's poetry collection 'What The Living Do', Edgar Allen Poe stories, James McBride's 'The Color of Water', Stephanie Kallos' novel 'Broken For You', George Orwell's '1984', Natalie Goldberg's 'Wild Mind', 'James and the Giant Peach', 'Charlotte's Web', 'A New Earth'by Eckart Tolle, Anne Moody's 'Coming of Age in Mississippi', Lucy Greely's 'Autobiography of a Face', 'A Place to Stand' by Jimmy Santiago Baca. I also enjoy the following poets: Frederico Garcia Lorca, A.R. Ammons, Gwendolyn Brooks, Walt Whitman, Theodore Roethke, Robert Creeley, Allen Ginsberg, Langston Hughes, Shakespeare, William Carlos Williams, ee cummings, Sharon Olds, and so many more…

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”-Mary Oliver