1. Who is Noris Roberts?

I am a simple, dreamy, cheerful, sensitive, restless, sensitive, sincere person who loves life and above all freedom. I strongly believe in God and I thank him to let me see every day with a smile on my heart. I love sharing and as the song says "I wish I had a million friends buttoned to my skin giving me relief and happiness". Laughter...

2. Lawyer, writer, Peace Ambassador, and also read that you are a designer. Being several things and combining the intimate life of Noris has to be complicated, but ... how being Peace Ambassador takes her to have a dream... for example.

I try, as best as possible, to distribute my time. Although sometimes it does get complicated, I always find a space and time to do everything I intend. As for my work as Peace Ambassador: I spend eight hours a week providing free legal assistance to persons with scant financial resources, done in legal clinics that were created by me, although they are not all in Caracas and fellow colleagues do collaborate with me.

Another activity that I undertake is to meet once a month, with groups of children that live in poor neighborhoods of Caracas. I read them stories and exalt the benefits of reading. I talk to them about the importance of the meaning of peace and coexistence. To further stimulate this concept, I ask them how they think they can help to bring a message of peace to mankind and they, with notebooks and pencils which I facilitate, write or draw what for them is and means peace. Then each child reads or shows what they drew and this is discussed among all of the participants.

As for my other facet, as a designer: I have painted since my childhood and also danced in front of the mirror, dreaming I was on stage. My dog was the audience that didn’t applaud, but barked. I got involved in fashion design during a special period of my life and this I openly confess for the first time. In my teens I had cancer, of which I am a survivor. To mitigate and forget everything that was going on, during that period, I entered and completed my studies in fashion design. I still design some of my "rags", as we say in Venezuela. Fashion design and writing, among other things, were my allies to overcome negative things and replaced them with positive and bright things. I fought it out and here I am, happy and alive.

For the project that I’m undertaking in YouTube, I count on Pro Bono collaboration of many people, which among them are radio broadcasters, poets, musicians, technicians and others to whom I owe my appreciation and feel very grateful because without their help it would have been impossible to do it. So far, in different languages, 31 video poems and songs that I have written have been uploaded.

3. Dreams?

I have many, but the primary one is that we have a world of peace, freedom and justice. Every morning I look at the sky and wrap myself up specifically in that dream.

My private life: Getting home with a smile even if I had a difficult day, and share with joy with the people I love most.

The rest of my time I use it for writing, reading and listening to music.

4. ¿Do you exercise practice as a lawyer?

Yes, I exercise my profession. I come from a family of lawyers although, ironically and in fact, I was always attracted to the arts in all its manifestations. As a teenager I wanted and longed to be a ballerina, but my parents gave the order "you are going to study law" and therefore studied law, I graduated and since then work as a lawyer. I think a lawyer must practice law and that’s what I've done. I never wanted to be a lawyer sitting behind a desk just signing documents.

5. How hard a task, is being a Peace Ambassador and what is this task?

Yes, the task is indeed difficult, moreover living in such a troubled country. Unfortunately Venezuela has become very violent, intolerant and ideologically polarized. It's a shame because the worst human blindness is the ideological one...

The situation requires me to get much closer to the people and every day brings a different challenge. Obviously this not only happens in Venezuela since humanity is going through a strange and visibly painful period. Clearly the political / ideological / dogmatic factor has great influence on everything. I think it is necessary to clarify, at this point, that I have no affinity or political or ideological affiliation whatsoever. I do not believe in politics or dogmas, but I do believe in human potential. It's funny, but some people tend to be confused about me. Some of my writings reflect what I see and what I feel, but there are individuals who take my words to different grounds, that are not mine, and seem to cause them an almost visceral reaction and I receive a string of expletives, insults and extremely aggressive comments. This usually happens from those who consider themselves as "illustrious poets" who think they are above all others, because their ideology lets them see things only in black or white, with no shades, only in white or black. I also noticed that there is a kind of tyranny, in our writers environment, of those who take things to one sole point of view because for them there is no room for another point of view. However, the positive side of my journey, sometimes rugged, is that it has allowed me to meet wonderful, humble, incredibly talented, sensitive and spiritually peaceful people. Through these encounters, sometimes pleasant and sometimes not so, has changed my life dramatically, but not my way of thinking. The hope that still radiates from my eyes still aims to seek out the best in people understanding that everything goes through tolerance, respect, peace and coexistence.

6. Well, now tell us about your literary life, where was you passion for poetry born?

My father was the culprit! My father had a great influence on me though, as I explained earlier, I always felt a great attraction and passion for the arts in all its manifestations. As a child I was always very close to my father. Every time he came home from work, he sat me on his lap and he read me a poem and then, in return, I would recite something I had written.

7. What is poetry to you?

Poetry is a translucent glow that comes from the depths of the soul.

It is a stanza of colorful metaphors; emptiness, a circle of pain, the sky, my body that seeks and wants to go on, although sometimes feeling exhausted.

Poetry for me is the light that makes my fingers throb and bristle and cannot avoid feeling, what I feel, because when I write it is all I need, since the words are those who have chosen me. The words awaken in me as fire and I let them fly in the wind, free and full of life.

Poetry, to me, is a heartbeat that has become a word.

A poem I wrote years ago reflects and summarizes what poetry is for me. That poem is titled "My poetry is".

8. What is the purpose and what do you want to accomplish with your writing?

I do not intend nor aspire to achieve awards of any kind. Nor do I believe in contests, as the first and only time that I wanted to participate in a contest, in my country, I was denied to intervene and my work was not admitted because I did not belong to the political party of the current government. For me the best contest and the major prize is life, the words that spring out from me and the people who read me. I enjoy writing and sharing.

9. How has your form of expression and use of language changed to over the years?

A lot, since as I write I read and reread each of my writings and think that I've matured since it is not the same as saying an idea that feeling it. I imagine my words on my nakedness, passing through my breath and my wounds. I feel them in my eyes, in my existence, in my tears; the sparkling feelings that woven together succeed to envelop my life.

10. How do you see the poetry of recent times?

It has evolved very much and the positive side of this is that it has become less academic, it has been democratized through and thanks to the Internet which expanded and disseminated it. More and more people express themselves openly. The diffusion of contemporary poetry fills more readers with colors, melodies and spirit.

11. What book do you recommend we read?

Mentioning one book is difficult since extraordinary writers abound and leave within their words, lasting, indelible effects. Naming only one book is also somewhat subjective.

I can mention some books, among many others, that motivated me, that left me impressions, concepts, experiences and feelings that sprang from the heart of their authors.

• Eduardo Galeano: Memory of Fire - The trilogy. The Century of the Wind
• Mario Benedetti: Love, women and life. The Loneliness of Babel
• Milan Kundera: The Unbearable Lightness of Being
• Fernando Pessoa: Book of Disquiet. Message
• Octavio Paz: Salamander. The other voice
• José Saramago: The Gospel According to Jesus Christ. The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis
• Wislawa Szymborska: True Love and Other Poems

12. Finally, do you want to add anything else?

Yes, I want to leave a message about peace.

Peace is not just a word, it is actions and deeds;

it is the space you occupy without intruding others,

it is a set of acts done with love and sincerity,

it is a full understanding of the meaning of tolerance,

it is to encourage the hope of having a better present and a better future,

it is the stream of the river that seeks the sea,

it is a voice that cries and does not obey restrictions

and will be the dawn of a new awakening for all mankind

I want to finally close with something for my fellow poets; words that have remained etched in my soul and were written by Fernando Pessoa:

"The poet is a faker

who’s so good faking

that even fakes his pain

the pain he really feels."

Thank you Noris. You’re welcome Noris

© Noris Roberts