Michael Goodfellow : part five

What other poetry books have you been reading lately?

Fieldglass by Catherine Pond, Then the War by Carl Phillips, Short Journey Upriver Toward Ōishida by Roo Borson.

Michael Goodfellow : part four

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

It lands in the world usually as a .docx upload in some magazine’s Submittable account. I don’t share feedback with writers or solicit feedback, other than one or two close friends. 

Michael Goodfellow : part three

What poets changed the way you thought about writing?

William Blake, George Johnston, Robyn Sarah, Carl Phillips, Louise Glück.

Michael Goodfellow : part two

How do you know when a poem is finished?

It takes on the appearance of an old pine blanket box rubbed with beeswax polish.

Michael Goodfellow : part one

Michael Goodfellow is the author of the poetry collection Naturalism, an Annotated Bibliography, published by Gaspereau Press, and of a collection in draft titled Folklore of Lunenburg County, which is supported by a Research & Creation Grant from the Canada Council for the Arts. His poems have appeared in the Literary Review of Canada, The Dalhousie Review, The Cortland Review, Reliquiae and elsewhere. He lives in Nova Scotia.

How does a poem begin?

A poem begins by turning over a stone, hearing a brook far in the underbrush, finding a clearing pile.