Clayre Benzadón : part five

How do you know when a poem is finished?

I feel like this is a trick question; perhaps this questions can’t be fully answered, or others may find my answer an incomplete one. I don’t really know when a poem is finished, but I think I determine my piece land on two extremes of this process : Many times, once I write that last line, because I went through the mere process of writing a full poem, I revel in the newness and confidence of writing a whole draft, and automatically think, I finished! On the other hand, my perfectionism gets in the way of allowing me to finish a poem, so I’ll have a poem, with words on it, or with a part of it done, that I hesitate to come back to. I’ll give it days, then I get more and more discouraged with it the longer I give it time. In worse cases, I’ll doubt a poem to its entirety after all the time I spent on it.

Clayre Benzadón : part four

What do you feel poetry can accomplish that other forms can’t?

I’m only basing this off of my own experience, so this may depend on each person’s experience, and not on the genre itself (I hate the division of genre and binaries that are placed to categorize different writing forms)—but for me, poetry allows me to write fragments and raw lines that I might not be able to pull of in prose. I also feel like experimentation is a lot more possible in poetry, and the form of a poem lends itself to a bodily or more metaphorical understanding of the emotions laid out (or those which transcend) the page. Poetry helps in the process of trauma, and also reveals the hidden (even if not consciously to the writer yet). The revision process acts as a sort of therapy session (or sessions) that allow a writer to find the difficult truths for themselves.

Clayre Benzadón : part three

What do you find most difficult about writing poetry?

For me, starting a poem is the most difficult, daunting part. Once I am able to jump over that hurdle of self-doubt, even if it’s one word, I usually already start to gain a string of ideas running through my mind, whether it be a scene or topic I want to explore, or whether it be soundplay I want to play with, whether it be through etymology or finding words that sound similar and that guide me through an exciting surreal landscape to explore. Another aspect I find to be difficult in my own work is the fact that sometimes, I let language get the best of me—I’ll be so engaged in the sound-heavy features of my poetry, that readers can get lost or confused—this is something I’m always trying to work on, finding the balance between sound and a more complete comprehension of image / subject.

Clayre Benzadón : part two

What other poetry books have you been reading lately?

I’ve been in between many books lately, but I finally sat down to read with books from the library (having a deadline to read through a book helps, but I also have a stack of Four Way book titles I’m savoring as well). I just finished Megan Denton Ray’s Mustard, Milk and Gin (I wonderful inspiration for my own collection-in-progress), and just started reading Mia Leonin’s Braid. I’m in the middle of Morgan Frank’s Oh You Robot Saints!, and have Jose Olivarez’s Citizen Illegal at the top of my reading pile.

Clayre Benzadón : part one

Clayre Benzadón is a recent MFA graduate alumni at the University of Miami, former managing editor of Sinking City, and Broadsided Press’s Instagram editor. Her chapbook, Liminal Zenith was published by SurVision Books. She was awarded the Alfred Boas Poetry Prize for "Linguistic Rewilding" and has been published in places including MudRoom Magazine, 14poems, SWWIM, Fairy Tale Review, ANMLY, and forthcoming in Grist Journal. You can find more about her at clayrebenzadon.com.

What are you working on?

I’m currently working on my MFA thesis project, which is a manuscript-in-progress, titled “Moon as Salted Lemon”. This collection This collection of poems explores the transcendental, imaginative realms of identity, culture, family (including the mapping of Sephardic Jewish family history) and the self’s longing to connect more with them. The self also begins to find herself more empowered and coming to terms with queer desire and sexuality in general throughout the progression of this work. The constant delving of linguistic experimentation within the poems also allow for each theme to transform into more mythological, unconscious, and psychological entities that hold within them more subtle aspects of surrealism and wordplay. I am specifically interested in the concept of experimentation, especially with regards to messing around, translating, and including Spanish into my work.