I am a Romanian poet who works with clay. The two things are not as different as they sound. A poem is a small container for a feeling. So is a bowl.

I started pressing words into clay because I wanted to make something you could hold while you were feeling a thing that words alone couldn't reach. A plate that says “May It Be” is not a decoration. It is a prayer that has taken physical form.

Each piece is made by hand from air-dry clay, painted in deep forest green, and decorated with gold leaf botanical motifs. The words are pressed in before the clay sets — so they become part of the material, not something placed on top.

I write the poems alongside the clay. Sometimes the poem comes first, and the word finds its way onto a plate. Sometimes I press a word into clay and the poem writes itself later. The process is the same: choose one word, hold it, see if it stays.