Rob Casper interviews Cindy Shetler in Sturgis, SD

ROB: Alright, so just tell me your name and tell me a little bit about yourself.
CINDY: My name is Cindy Shetler and I live in Sturgis, South Dakota currently. I am a native South Dakotan and I’ve lived in South Dakota all my life. And I was an elementary teacher for 35 years teaching anywhere from kindergarten to eighth grade. 
ROB: Wow! So what’s it like to have the Poet Laureate come here to Sturgis? 
CINDY: It’s exciting and unbelievable at the same time because we don’t dream that people of such prominence would come to a small town in the Midwest, so it’s very exciting. 
ROB: I think you’ll see as Tracy talks that she works to try to break down those barriers, and that she does so through poetry. Can you talk a little bit about how you feel about poetry? Did you use poetry in your classes?
CINDY: Yes, I did. I used poetry with young kids as well as the older students that I worked with. When they got a little bit older we worked a lot on writing some of their own poetry. I really enjoy poetry, I like the language that is used in poetry and the pictures that can be painted through poetry. And for students who sometimes have a hard time writing prose and paragraphs, poetry gives them kind of a feeling of freedom to express themselves, and I really, really, really enjoy just the artistry of it. 
ROB: Do you read poetry yourself?
CINDY: Yes, I do. 
ROB: And do you write poems?
CINDY: No, I did when I taught just kind of as examples and to lead. And I would love to. And I can’t say I don’t write it, I have written it, but nothing that I would want anybody else to know about. I feel like through poetry you can sometimes express those innermost feelings that can’t come out any other way. 
ROB: Indeed, indeed. Well, thanks for talking to us. I hope you enjoy the presentation. 
CINDY: Well, thank you, I’m looking forward to it a great deal.