MLA Chernoff : part five

How does a poem begin?

With a shid n a fard, a whimper n a bang. But in all deliriousness, it begins with someone giving me a dang deadline. Hi: please Paypal me ur deadlines n let’s have some fun xo  

MLA Chernoff : part four

What other poetry books have you been reading lately?

I recently finished reading Divya Victor’s Kith and I’m honestly speechless.

When I’m not close-reading Joe Rosenblatt and A.M. Klein’s respective bodies of work (they’re the focus of the first chapter of my dissertation), I’m mostly reading friendos and/or acquaintances. The Metatron catalogue, for instance, is brimming with talented poets whom’st’d’ve I really admire, such as Liz Bowen, Alex Manley, and Sennah Yee. Bowen’s Sugarblood brought me to tears AND fears when I read it a few weeks ago. 

I’ve been revisiting a lot of work by Adeena Karasick. I highly recommend her Gap Riot Press chapbook, Salomé: Woman of Valor, which I felt the need to read quite a few times. Stylistically, it is in difference to older texts like Genrecide and Mêmewars, in the sense that it’s hyperbolically musical, and (for me personally) acts as a kind of guide to some of Karasick’s older works.

It wouldn’t be surprising if they were already sold out, but I’m really excited to get a hold of Dani Spinosa’s Chant Uhm (sound poem for Kathleen Hanna) and Incessantly (for Mariah Carey), as well as Kate Siklosi’s MAY DAY, each of which are available through no press.

I’m obsessed with Eric Schmaltz’s Surfaces––it’s a sensuous rapture, sounding touch and touching sound, neatly packaged into various states of visual disarray. You know?

Joshua Whitehead’s full-metal indigiqueer is, idk, one of the best books I’ve ever read? Just… WOW.

Whenever I’m anxious, I pick up Darcie Wilder’s literally show me a healthy person and skip to a random page. It’s a really good book to vape to.

MLA Chernoff : part three

Has your consideration of poetry changed since you began?

While I was on a writing hiatus during my early years of grad school, a famous white cishet male poet––who will remain anonymous here––drunkenly exclaimed that I’m “too ironic” for the “revolution.” Like, whose fuckn revolution do u think ur a part of, mate?! We’re both drunk at a Wayzgoose, u absolute fiend!!!!

Not long after this encounter, a begrudging fascination with the meaning of “irony” (amongst other things) prompted me to start writing again. The experience made me reevaluate the role of laughter and quirkiness in poetry, especially those poetries that claim to be experimental and/or highly politicized. “Comedy” is now integral to my process, though I don’t think of myself as a comedian in any capacity. Rather, I’m inclined to use writing as a medium which can accentuate the differences and similarities between irony and a more “earnest” humour (if there is such a thing).

Just between you, me, and Deleuze, I see irony as narcissistic––a means of maintaining the privileged position of the speaker/writer who knows better than you––while humour is a kind of groundless self-deprecation that rapidly and vigorously calls something into question using absurdity, instead of attempting to elevate a specific subject position or POV. I guess I’m thinking more along the lines of Sianne Ngai’s conception of zaniness. Most of the time, I feel as though my pomes are straddling the thin line between these modalities, but PLEASE let it be noted that all of my writing comes from the humour in my heart and the bile in my spleen. Frick me up tho: most of delet this was basically written to spite one mediocre white man, i.e. to spite all of them.

MLA Chernoff : part two

How do you know when a poem is finished?

I’m not sure if I’ve ever finished a pome tbh; the crux of my work comes from fragmented aphorisms, one-liners, and half-thoughts which I later expand into, like, two thirds of a thought; I’m always inclined to rewrite older pieces and turn them on their heads. As a result, I have a horrible work ethic that demands external deadlines, lest I keep writing the same lines over and over again. Ultimately, I’m hoping that a pome will one day finish ME!!!

MLA Chernoff : part one

MLA Chernoff (@citation_bb) thanks u for visiting their profile. A recovering flat-earther, MLA now lives a quiet LIEf in “Toronto” (awful condotown), where they collect and care for rare fidget spinners, which isn’t just a fad. They are a PhD candidate at The Neoliberal University of York University; the velocity of this bio is their dissertation––a morose serendipity in the key of “ooooo that’s a spicy discourse!!!” MLA’s debut collection of pomes, delet this, was recently published by Hybrid Heaven and is available everywhere fine books are sold (but hopefully not Indigo, I really don’t know lmao). If you’re in MTL, you can pick it up at Librairie Drawn & Quarterly.

Photo credit: Syd Lazarus

What are you working on?

Literally just myself. And my dissertation lmao *** shrug emoji holding multiple copies of Das Kapital and Let Us Compare Mythologies in each stinky hand ***

I’m hoping to start and finish a full-length collection of new, (un)original pomes this summer.