Mary Fox spent decades teaching at Lansing Community College. She didn't publish her first poetry collection until well into her late 70s.

Fox, described as one of the elders of The Poetry Room community in Lansing, has released "Erasure Mark," a collection drawing on grief, memory and the relationships that shaped her life. Poetry Room co-host Masaki Takahashi profiled Fox in a piece published in Lansing City Pulse on Tuesday, Aug. 11.

Fox told City Pulse she began seriously sharing her work at 65, after retiring from LCC. Retirement, she said, finally gave her the time and space poetry deserved.

That space opened after profound loss. Within a short period, Fox lost close friends, family members and her husband Ray to cancer. Doctors initially gave Ray two to six weeks to live, but he survived nearly another year. Fox remembers his cough more than anything. During that final year, Ray tended his garden and cooked for his family.

Poetry became Fox's way of processing grief and staying connected. She told City Pulse that writing gives her a voice because older people are often overlooked.

At one Poetry Room event, Fox performed a poem about needing her husband's signature to receive a bank loan, reflecting on a time when women were routinely denied financial independence. During the performance, someone in the audience shouted an expletive and walked out. The room fell silent. Fox finished the poem.

Takahashi, who hosts the open mic, called the moment proof of poetry's reach. "Not because someone walked out, but because the poem reached someone so deeply they couldn't stay quiet," he wrote in the profile.

"Erasure Mark" is available online and at Robin Books, located inside The Robin Theatre at 1105 S. Washington Ave. in Lansing. Robin Books is open Monday through Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Residents who want to hear Fox and other local poets can attend The Poetry Room's upcoming Season 9 open mic events, co-hosted by Claire Donohoe and Takahashi at The Robin Theatre. The season kickoff, themed "To the Younger Me," is scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 25. Doors and sign-up open at 7 p.m., with the show running 7:30–9 p.m. The events are donation-based and first-come, first-served. The following event is Tuesday, Sept. 29.