The poetry of Jane Downing gets to the very heart of Bermudian-ness, exploring everything from bay grape trees to "ship racks" of the heart.

"There's no rest for the lover of, Cherry Trees in Season" begins one of her eight poems published in the Bermuda Anthology of Poetry, released earlier this year. Her poems are all highly sensual, full of texture and humanity.

"This anthology is really good," she said. "It is so good to be able to pick something up that has its roots in Bermuda, and Bermuda's landscape and Bermuda issues. I really missed that when I was in school. I remember learning to read an ordinance survey map, and it was a part of England. We didn't even know where this area was. It really didn't have much meaning, other than the raw information about how to find your place on the map.

"I think a lot of my work is trying to understand what it is to be Bermudian, and what it is to live in this landscape. Bermuda is this isolated place that thinks it is the centre of the universe."

Many of her poems are inspired by Bermuda's natural world.

"Our landscape is a big trigger for ideas," she said. "I like words and I like textures and that sort of thing. I have a very vivid ability to recall things, and relive them in some way shape or form. I guess that is how it transfers itself onto the page."

She said, like Wordsworth, she liked to recollect things in tranquillity.

"There is an exploration to be had in reliving things and revisiting them, especially if something else has triggered a memory or interest in a particular place," she said.

Although there are 34 poets in the book, only a small handful had more than two or three poems accepted. To have eight accepted was an accomplishment, but during an interview with The Royal Gazett>, Ms Downing remained modest.

She has only ever submitted her work to one other publication, and that was the Caribbean Writer. They accepted her work also.

"I was surprised when they were accepted, because I thought I had submitted too many," she said. "I don't write poetry constantly, but I might do it from time to time. I don't put myself under any pressure to write poetry, that is for sure. If I am interested in something it is usually going around in my head for a long time. Then maybe a phrase emerges and I sit down and write."

She has thought about submitting her work to other publications, but is finding it difficult to find the right fit.

"It is difficult sometimes to find a home for your work," she said. "A lot of Bermudians may look and even sound like Americans, but we are not, are we? I had read the Caribbean Writer online for a long time, and I felt that there was a lot that I could relate to in Caribbean poetry. There is also a lot that I can't, but there is more there to identify with than in American journals and publications that I have read. My husband gave me a copy of the Poets Market, which has information about various publications accepting poetry, and I have looked through it several times, and thought about submitting."

She said her poems are a bit like puzzles she can't solve. She likes to pull them out, and look at them, and work on editing them.

"Sometimes I think something is fabulous when I write it, but later when I look at it again, I think hmmm, that line isn't working. Some poems I edit a lot, and some I don't."

She is one of the rare individuals who actually enjoys editing her work. She said she likes trying to figure out why one piece of work works while other pieces do not.

"I also like discovering that sometimes when you have written something, there are other meanings that have emerged," she said.

She is inspired by many traditional pieces of English poetry such as Keats' Odes or Shakespeare's Sonnets, but also has very much enjoyed the work of Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, and poets James Wright and Mary Oliver.

"I come across odd poems where there really isn't a body of work to accompany them," she said. "For example, there was a poem in the Caribbean Writer by Berkley Wendell Semple about his brother's death. I just think it is an incredible poem. I have read it and reread it. Recently, that poem has really grabbed me. I really liked it a lot. I would like to see more stuff by him."

She writes on a computer, but tends to make notes on whatever is handy. Inspired by the book 'Writing The Natural Way' she likes to brainstorm with bubbles on paper.

"I love doing that," she said. "For example, for years I have been thinking about coral, because it is a colonial animal. I have done lots of little bubbles with coral, and maybe someday I will write a poem about it."

She does not keep a journal, and hates the idea of chronicling her day to day life.

"I don't mind writing things down that catch my eye, but the idea of keeping a daily record of my life, internal or external, I could never do it," she said with a laugh. "Sometimes I am horrified when I read the published journals or diaries of people who have become famous. I always think, 'My goodness, they wrote it all down?' It gives me a feeling of horror, to think of that."

She tried writing short pieces of fiction for awhile, but found they were getting shorter and shorter. Finally, she decided to just stick to poetry, as it seemed she didn't want to write anything of great length.

She works as Collections Manager at the Bermuda Maritime Museum. Ms Downing has taken some online writing courses, including the Gotham Writers Workshop, based in New York.

"The Gotham Writers Workshop has been very good and makes me pay attention to poetry for a defined period of time," she said. "Otherwise, it just gets lost in the day to day life."