Tim Moder : part one

Tim Moder is an Indigenous poet living in northern Wisconsin. He is a member of Lake Superior Writers. His poems have appeared in various publications, including Pittsburgh Poetry Journal, South Florida Poetry Journal, Penumbra Online and In Parentheses Literary Magazine. Find him on Twitter @ModerTim and Instagram @moder_poet_tim

How Does a poem Begin?

That’s really the question, isn’t it? The beginning could come from anywhere, an overheard comment, watching someone cross the street, a line in a song on the radio, organic natural life, what they call soft fascination. Something sparks a nerve, it gets your attention, it sounds different, or something you are more attracted to than usual. So you write it down. Sometimes just one or two words, or a sentence. On a napkin, a receipt, in a notebook. I’m in love with index cards. I use them for everything. So then when I get home I’ll add them to the notebook. THE notebook.  They go in there with all the rest and maybe get looked at again in a week or a month. Unless one comes all at once. But mostly the start is random.  Later comes all the hard work. Crafting it into a poem.  Initially it doesn’t appear to have very much to do with me at all. Then again sometimes I sit down to write a specific poem about something I’ve been thinking about.