Kristine Snodgrass : coda

I have been thinking, for a while, on the idea of ecstasy. How it is fleeting and yet everlasting. The momentary phenomenon often that drives us into a poem or visual piece. I am addicted to ecstasy. I think that is the driving force in my obsessions (poets talk of obsessions so much, you know?). Even if I cannot find the ecstasy, that too is a moment that has to be brought into a poem, visual or not. The act of asemic writing is so founded for me in a present moment. There is “no meaning” semantically, yet I am thinking as I write. It is like a psychic connection that I hope the reader will get—maybe that is abstract expressionism. I used to think that asemic writing was really a dismantling of meaning, but it is so much more than that. The experience of the language is ecstasy. The hand, so gracefully (have you ever really watched anyone handwrite?) so sexually scratches and pulls. What a dream. When the piece is over, we move on to another, or even lament the loss of the past. I am always driven, in search of that.

Kristine Snodgrass : part five

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

I do have to pull myself up and back every now and then. I find with my constant creating I go in different directions which is good and bad. I love to experiment, but I still find solace in what I think of as a “base” style for my vispo and asemic work. I talk a little about this style in Brave New Word. When I am wanting to come back, not just with visual work, but to my soul, I look to these poets, mainly. I do love anthologies and will always turn to an anthology in a time of need. I think they are hugely underrated. We should all be reading anthologies daily. 

No More Masks: An Anthology of Poems by Women, edited by Ellen Bass and Florence Howe;  Levertov; Bachmann; Rich.

 

Kristine Snodgrass : part four

 What do you find most difficult about writing poetry?

I was in class today “teaching” a poem; I teach in a university and this is a Freshman course. After spending some time on the poem, at the end of the poem I said, “this is exhausting” and they heartily agreed shaking their heads. Then I was like, “this is our work”. The whole shebang is difficult. I have been so driven to create in the past years that I am exhausted yet exhilarated. In a lot of ways, I find it difficult to stop myself—to tend to normal life and to “rest”. I am reminded that there are a lot of artists out there like me, obsessed, and I am doing what I am supposed to be doing. That is all I can say. 

 

Kristine Snodgrass : part three

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

This is a big YES. I started my journey in asemics by joining groups like Michael Jacobson’s The New Post-Literate and connecting with people there. I knew a few folks since my husband is an avid asemicist. Facebook has been a great place (can you believe it?) for me to connect with like-minded people who are practicing now. In that light, I started a group, Women Asemic Artists and Visual Poets (WAAVe Global) and it has been a real source of inspiration and joy. I always post new work—pretty much daily—and that helps me to stay connected to what is going on and get feedback and also hang with friends! De Villo Sloan has been a big influence and supporter of mine for a while. He has really encouraged me to keep going and I value his feedback on my work. And, I am always inspired by what others (especially the women) are doing. I am just starting to get into Twitter. I am working on sharing there, too. 

Kristine Snodgrass : part two

Has your consideration of poetry changed since you began?

I think this is an important question. If we are not evaluating “what poetry is” on the regular (remember that Ashbery poem, “What is Poetry”?), we are not really doing the work. So, then, what does that journey look like? I started in “conventional” poetry 20 years ago and most recently (past two years) strayed to asemic (for good definitions of this see Wikipedia) and vispo (visual poetry). I think the asemic and vispo scenes have erupted. From what I can tell, the asemic and vispo scenes, for years marginalized, are just getting into the mainstream with a recent write-up in Art in America, for example. I say that to illustrate that what we know is always ever evolving (especially definitions), right? Of course. What is marginalized, will become defined, policed (gatekeepers), and create more revolutionary work. Working in asemics and vispo has really opened my consciousness in this way. I want to be fluid. In and out. Back and forth. 15 years ago, I was focused on getting my poems published in “good” journals. 

Now, I am especially drawn to and searching for the work of women. I (and many others) see the work of women to be leading the way in vispo and asemics. See Dona Mayoora or Terri Witek. We must give women the publications and gallery shows we have not received; we have been overlooked or pushed out. We are here. That is why I started WAAVe (Women Asemic Writers and Visual Poets). Amanda Earl is doing really amazing work on this front. Too much to list here. 

Ashbery’s poem has these lines: “Shut your eyes, and you can feel it for miles around. / Now open them on a thin vertical path.” Is this poetry?

I really don’t think this answers the question at all! Ha. 

Kristine Snodgrass : part one

Kristine Snodgrass is an artist, poet, professor, curator, and publisher living in Tallahassee, Florida. She is the author most recently of Rather, from Contagion Press (2020) and the chapbook, These Burning Fields (Hysterical Books 2019) Kristine’s asemic and vispo work has been published in Utsanga (Italy), Slow Forward, Brave New Word, and Asemic Front 2 (AF2). Her work was just featured in the Asemic Women Writers Summer Exhibition Online. She is passionate about collaboration and her collaborations with De Villo Sloan have been collected in the book, WHISTLE (Asemic Front Series, 2020).

What are you working on?

I am working! Some of it is editorial, some vispo and asemic, including collaborative projects. Andrew Topel and I have been collaborating for a few months. It has been a nice challenge to work with his bold letters—he makes me plan which is odd because most of my work is very intuitive and organic. I am also collaborating with the asemic artist, Karla Van Vliet. Her ink pieces are so exquisite that it takes real care to work with them. I am often spiritually drawn to her work which does make it very intuitive and feminine in a lot of ways. Collaborating is so exciting because working with another artist is full of variables. That is why it is my love and I am writing about it now. I am also, hopefully trying to get some collaborative poetry I have done with Maureen Seaton out and about.  Solo-wise, I am still working in vispo and asemic—doing a couple of projects. I am also editing a book of asemic and vispo work by women artists that will be published by Hysterical Books in 2021. More on that soon! So far, that project has really blown me away. There are some real heavy-hitters alongside fresh and emerging voices.