Nancy K. Crevier returned to Newtown Senior Center last week, when she offered the first public reading from her third collection of published poetry, Somewhere Lightning Strikes.

A retired editor of this newspaper, Crevier has been prolific in recent years. Her first collection, The Peach Quartet and Other Poems, was released in July 2022. Pieces of the World followed in September 2023. Between continued explorations of the world, painting, and responding to the lucky few who call her “Nana” — three of the four things she has enjoyed most since retiring, according to her latest biography — Crevier has also hit her fourth goal of allowing more time to pursue writing.

“Things just keep coming to me,” she told those who gathered in one of the senior center’s meeting rooms last Tuesday afternoon. Of her poetry, she said some “are personal experiences, some are the experiences of others, and some celebrate places” she has been.

Among the latter is “Lessons from Africa,” a four-part poem that was among those she shared May 12. Crevier traveled with a small group through Friends of Kenya Rising last year.

“One of the things we tried very hard to do was not be the privileged white people traveling in Africa,” she said before reading the poem. Despite those efforts, she admitted, she nevertheless made a few missteps that left her with regret. Taking photographs of four young boys without permission, and then not even showing them her photo, are the backbone of “In Kakamega Forest” and “Hey Mezunga,” the first two parts of “Lessons from Africa.”

The third part, “A Cautionary Tale,” shares lessons learned while photographing animals in the African savanna, while “Traveling” provides closure of the trip.

Shared selections also included the title piece, about loss; “This Ancient Ash,” which found her during a walk in the woods; “Sweet Harvest,” celebrating thimbleberries; and “The Kiss,” “Lovely Love,” “Grief,” “Brush with Death,” and “Loss,” a humorous piece despite its title.

Crevier’s writing process is not a daily exercise, she shared. In response to a question from an attendee, she said many of her poems and ideas “come when I’m driving, doing yoga, or walking, being open to being able to see, hear, and process.”

She wished she was more practiced “at putting my seat in a chair — advice a friend has given me,” Crevier said, looking directly toward fellow resident and author Sydney Eddison, one of those in attendance.

Tuesday’s reading offered those the opportunity to hear 15 recent works, although one — “Minab Girls School” — was not from the pages of Somewhere Lightning Strikes. When Crevier had read other pieces, the room was respectfully quiet. As she read what she had written about the deadly missile strike in February that killed 100 schoolgirls in Iran, the room was absolutely silent as her guests absorbed her somber words.

Crevier turned things around for her next selection, “Looking For Good,” a hopeful poem that is also the final work in the closing chapter of the latest release.

She closed with “At the Reading,” which she offered after talking further about her writing process. The self-deprecating work shared the nerves and insecurities many writers possess, but drew smiles during its recitation and a rolling round of applause at its conclusion.

Somewhere Lighting Strikes features 53 new poems by Crevier, broken into five sections — Nature’s Melodies, Rising Above, After World, Stories, and A New Day. Deciding what to call those sections and then placing her work into those categories is one of the most difficult parts of the publication process, she said.

“It takes a lot of time, and a lot of shuffling around,” she said. “Some poems could fit into more than one, so I have to go back and decide what I was trying to say.”

That’s when it’s good, she said, to “sometimes let things rest and then go back and shuffling things around again.”

While that part of the process can be confounding for Crevier, her readers and fans don’t have to look between the lines to understand what she is writing about.

“If I write about a flower in one of my poems, it’s just about a flower,” she said, drawing additional laughs. “There’s no hidden meaning, although others have said they’ve heard or read something in my poems. I love that.”

Nancy K. Crevier has been scheduled for another local poetry reading. She and Newtown Poet Laureate Lauren Clifford will be featured at 7 pm Tuesday, June 9, at C.H. Booth Library, 25 Main Street. Registration is requested and available at chboothlibrary.org.

Managing Editor Shannon Hicks can be reached at shannon@thebee.com.