KIRBY : part five

What other poetry books have you been reading? 

I do tend to read ‘professionally,’ manuscripts and forthcoming… that and I’ve been tits-deep in stacks of queer poetry of late. Travis Sharp’s I Am A Corpse Flower is nothing shy of a revelation (yes, I published it at KFB), the new Cavafy translations by Evan Jones (Carcanet Press), Dani Spinosa’s cheeky, spot-on manifesto, Visual Poetry for Women (Anstruther Press), Chad Campbell’s disarmingly elegant Nectarine (Vehicule Press), and I can’t put down Cassandra Troyan’s Freedom & Prostitution (The Elephants) <<< this. 

KIRBY : part four

What are you working on?

I’m currently pouring over the galleys of my newest, Poetry Is Queer out this fall from Palimpsest Press, prepping for a reading later this month called, “I Am a Professional Homosexual,” editing the next issue of KFB’s Not Your Best Series, and I’ve returned to my  work-in-progress, She, which feels about half-way there. 

Mostly, I’m tending to, enjoying my balcony.

KIRBY : part three

When you require renewal, is there a particular poem or book you return to? A particular author?

There are numerous poets I return to, Cavafy, Carl Phillips, Genet, Rechy, Rene Ricard, but when I require refreshment, it’s spaces I seek. There’s a room at the AGO I’m fond of, gallery spaces in general, open spaces, a park bench, a brook, a breeze. I require looking out much more than looking in. I re-materialize, connect to my vastness, in such spaces. 

There’s that great scene in DePalma’s Dressed to Kill where Angie Dickinson’s character is seated before a large painting taking notes, which turns out to be a grocery list. That’s very familiar to me.

KIRBY : part two

How does your work first enter the world? Do you have a social group or writers group that you work ideas and poems with?

The first time I read a poem out loud, usually to another poet, it’s entered. 

I’ve been attending poet/teacher Hoa Nguyen’s legendary Sunday afternoon poetics classes at her home for years now, just enough structure reading other poets to get a fair bit of writing done. She holds a lovely space. 

KIRBY : part one

KIRBY’s work includes POETRY IS QUEER (Palimpsest Press, 2021), WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE CALLED? (Anstruther Press, 2020), THIS IS WHERE I GET OFF (Permanent Sleep Press, 2019), SHE’S HAVING A DORIS DAY (KFB, 2017) and editor of GUEST #16 (above/ground), NOT YOUR BEST No. 2, (KFB, 2021). They are the publisher, purveyor of fine poetry at knife | fork | book and can be found at poetryisqueer.com 

How does a poem begin?

By sitting down to it. 

I take notes, write lines throughout each day, but it’s only when I sit down to it that the work gets done. Most mornings. 

Deadlines work quite well for me, because I'm a workhorse, and when I know something has to be done, I sit down to it.

I’m also really good at titles, strangely, they’ll often come first. Or a phrase, something I might’ve heard, seen, smelled, tasted, or read. Springboards. My poems can be quite conversational.