Aaron Belz : part one

Aaron Belz has published four book-length collections of poetry, most recently Soft Launch, which D.A. Powell described as “a delicious set of inside jokes.” He posts new poems at http://belz.blog and daily observations at http://twitter.com/belzpoems. He lives with his wife and dog in St. Louis, Missouri. Visit http://belz.net for more information about Aaron and his work.

What do you find most difficult about writing poetry?

What I find most difficult is that I want too much validation for my work. Even after an evening of reading or performing at a festival or something, after which people talk excitedly to me, and I feel sated with good response—even then, it’s not enough. I go to bed feeling hollow. This becomes a practical difficulty for my poetry if I’m writing to be validated instead of writing to create something new, a new way of speaking or thinking that hasn’t happened before. That space is very different from the public space. It’s frustrating, and I feel vulnerable there.