The author I chose for my investigation is Carla Hartsfield. When Ms Parrish was giving away books in class, I came across a book of poetry and it automatically caught my attention because the book’s name is called ‘Your Last Day on Earth’. A few days prior to that, I had written a poem like writing piece about what you would do if tomorrow was your last day on earth in my journal, so once I saw her book I was interested to see what her poems would be about and if all of hers poems in her book are about last days. I was also curious to see her inspiration behind the title of the book because every time we write something, we have a reason behind it, I know I do. It turned out that all of hers poems did in fact have something to do with death and last days on earth. Some if her inspirations I found interesting was that Towering Hibiscus” was written because hibiscus bloom rarely lives for more than 24 hours, therefore, their only day is their last day. “Flowering”, she wrote because a Georgian poet, Edward Thomas was tragically killed serving England during world war I and “Lights Out”, was written while he was waiting to go into battle, and not only his last day on earth but how well he spent it. I love that she used real life stories and events as an inspiration to write her poems. A poem has so much more meaning when you know the reason behind it. It brings the poem to life.
I couldn’t find too much information on Carla Hartsfield but this is the best I could do. She was born and raised in Waxahachie Texas before she immigrated to Canada. She has both a bachelors and masters degree in Piano Performance from the University of Texas at Austen. She taught piano at a community school for 14 years and she currently teaches at Bishop Strachan, a private school in Toronto. She is a singer, song writer, recording artist, painter and a music teacher.
