Patricia Mees Armstrong enjoys telling stories. Her eyes light up as she expounds on subjects ranging among travel, motherhood, education, journalism, health and the earrings her husband is making for her.
“You have to stop me,” she warns, “or I’ll just get completely off track.”
Sometimes, when Armstrong realizes she is going off on a tangent, she catches herself: “But that’s another story,” she says.
Fortunately, she puts her stories to good use. She has published numerous critically acclaimed short stories, and in January, she finished her fourth book of poetry.
Armstrong, 67, has been writing poetry for 55 years — her first poem was published in Seventeen magazine when she was 12 years old. The year was 1949 and she received $5 for her efforts.
Photographs of Ireland, modern art and pencil sketches of small boys decorate Armstrong’s east Eugene apartment. Irish folk music floats through the homey living room, while mugs of artificially sweetened tea steam on the kitchen table. The apartment is neat — even the desk where Armstrong composes her poetry and stories.
But somehow, the apartment seems temporary: Armstrong and her husband, Richard, have been married 46 years — and this is their 50th address. The couple have lived “literally around the world” in places as diverse as Guam, Crete, Nepal and California. Now, despite their dubious health, the Armstrongs continue to see the world.
“Now we seem to just gravitate between Ireland and Eugene,” said Armstrong, who holds citizenship in both the United States and the Republic of Ireland.
Armstrong was able to acquire dual citizenship because her father was born in Ireland, but for all her globe trotting, she didn’t visit the island until several years ago.
“I avoided Ireland, even though it was part of my roots,” she said.
The Armstrongs finally made the trip on a suggestion from a friend who is a professor of Celtic studies. What started out to be a simple visit to family members turned into an artistic and cultural journey.

“I finally found people who looked like me,” said Armstrong, who is an only child.
She also found an artistic community she could identify with. She described a group of friends who meet in the back room of a pub every couple weeks to play music, tell stories or, in Armstrong’s case, read poems. “They say, ‘Hey Yank! How ’bout a poem?’” she said. “I feel at home there; those people wrap their arms around me.”
This feeling led to Armstrong’s newest book of poetry, “On the Road to Laragh and Beyond.”
“Laragh is an actual village,” she said, “but in my mind it isn’t. I had the idea of composites for my characters.” So Armstrong’s book is fictional — but not entirely.
“I’m a little concerned that my Irish friends will think the poems are specific,” she joked.
Armstrong’s last book, “Daring to Dance, Refusing to Die,” chronicled her struggle and triumph over breast cancer. She donated all profits to breast cancer research.
Although Armstrong triumphed over breast cancer, she has struggled with other health problems ever since. Her husband also has health issues. But the couple aren’t deterred by health constraints: “We aren’t statistics,” she said. “I’m not my breast, and Richard isn’t his heart.”
Nevertheless, Armstrong included some poems about surviving cancer in “The Road to Laragh and Beyond.”
Armstrong’s writing has received critical notice from Oregon Literary Arts, Inc. and Willamette Writers. But readers enjoy her poems for the insights they offer into everyday life. Bob Welch, a columnist for The Register-Guard, said that “discovering the poetry of Patricia Mees Armstrong is like discovering an unbroken sand dollar on the beach. Armstrong’s poetry is lyrical reporting from one who writes, appropriately as both visitor to Ireland and one rooted deeply in its soil.”
Armstrong enjoys reading her poetry; she has given public readings in small bookstores for her previous books. The public will have the opportunity to hear Armstrong read her latest poems at Tsunami Books at 2 p.m. on March 17. For more information, call 345-8986.