NIC English instructor publishes book of poems

English instructor, hay farmer, poet, emergency medical technician, artist – the varied and sometimes seemingly disparate segments of a life well-lived converged for Gala Muench in her first book of poetry, “Siren Song.”

The title is a play on words, reflecting the lure of nature as well as the insistent wail of the ambulance siren that calls to Muench.

“Siren is the muse, nature itself that helps us be the best person we can be … to go beyond our limitations,” said Muench, in her office at North Idaho College, where she teaches English. She also teaches at the satellite campus of Lewis-Clark State College, and in her spare time, volunteers 25-30 hours a week as an EMT with Harrison Community Ambulance.

Her poems are about nature itself, the clash between nature, man and technology and her experiences as an EMT.

” ‘Siren Song’ is kind of a collection of stories. They’re poems, but they’re also stories that deal with the passages in our lives,” Muench said.

“Some of it has to do with the celebration of nature and some of it with the interaction of human encroachment in the natural world … we all touch part of that by living in it.”

Muench, who writes primarily poetry, but also nonfiction and short fiction, has been writing since 1963. She wrote her first poem, a haiku, at age 13.

“I was impressed by the sudden moment of epiphany of the changing seasons,” she recalled.

She’s been writing and publishing since. She’s been published locally, regionally, nationally and internationally in a variety of literary journals and has had her work anthologized. “Siren Song,” which she self-published, is her first book-length collection.

She double-majored in English and art at the University of Washington. For many years, she and her husband, Chris Muench, who also teaches at NIC and LCSC, ran a company called Lunagrafix, in which they produced 2-D and 3-D illustrations for medical texts. That was her first introduction to the medical field.

Her second came when she and her husband volunteered with Harrison Community Ambulance. She’s been volunteering for 13 years.

“I wanted to help my community,” she said. “I wouldn’t want to be paid. I think it’s important to give freely.”

Working as an EMT inspires her. “I understand the preciousness of every moment. It’s an honor to be given a gift to intervene to help (someone) survive against the odds.”

Her poems inspired by her experiences as an EMT reflect “the incredible will to live and prevail against incredible odds (and) the ability of the human soul to reach beyond its physicality.”

Between NIC and LCSC, she teaches a full load of five classes. During the summer, she and her husband raise hay on their 140-acre farm in Harrison Flats.

She hopes that her poetry will inspire the reader to look at his or her world in a new light. Muench calls poetry “magical.”

“I found it amazing that you could see the world in new ways with such brevity in such a short form … (for) the story of our lives to be distilled in a 50-word moment.”