Ty J. Williams : part five

What are you working on?

I am currently working on my first chapbook. I have been publishing poems over the last year and I have nonfiction writing credits to my name, and although writing poetry has been a lifelong imperative, publishing it is fairly new to me. I’m now putting together a chapbook to have a go-to collection of what I’ve been working on over the last year or so. I’m not sure if I’m going to try to shop it around to presses or if I’m just going to avoid that stress and self-finance and self-publish it. Either way, I should have a small collection of poems out this summer. Follow me on Twitter and IG if you want to keep up with that progress.

Ty J. Williams : part four

What poets changed the way you thought about writing?

In high school, I was invited to attend the Young Authors’ Conference at a satellite campus of Ohio University. There, I heard English professor Peter Desy (now retired) speak about poetry and share some of his work. That moment had a huge impact on how I understood poetry and how I wrote poetry. Desy gave the attendees of his session a packet of poetry, which included one of my all-time favorite poems, “My Father’s Picture on the Cover of a Buffalo Bison’s Hockey Program for 1934”. Since that transformative moment in 1987, the 90s introduced me to Jim Carroll, John Trudell and Def Poetry Jam, all of which expanded my understanding of what poetry was and could be. In recent years, I’ve come to appreciate the genius of my hometown, Columbus, Ohio. We have such fantastic, nationally known poets like, Rachel Wiley, Scott Woods, Maggie Smith, Ruth Awad, and Hanif Abdurraqib, to name only five. These folks and so many other poets in this city keep our scene humming; keep all of the poetry nights, workshops, and literary events happening continuously, year-round. I am a very small fish in this pond, but it is such a privilege to be able to talk to these folks and learn from them.

Ty J. Williams : 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?

I send out poems for publication, I publish some on my WordPress site and on Twitter. I also attend poetry workshops when I can, and share poems with friends and family. My favorite and the most impactful way (for me) of birthing my poems into the world is at my favorite open mic. I live in Columbus, OH, which is in some ways, one of the most generic, “everyman” Midwestern city you could imagine. But there is such a fantastic, vibrant arts scene and a wonderful poetry scene here (I boldly declare that it may house the best poetry community and scene in the state of Ohio). I regularly attend Writers’ Block Poetry Open Mic. WB has been running continuously for 20 years, every Wednesday at 8PM. I like to try different poems there and see how they sound coming out of my mouth, see how they land with an audience, see if my favorite lines get a reaction or crickets and talk to my fellow poets afterward. WB is my nuclear poetry family and bringing new poems there is a crucial part of my process.

Ty J. Williams : part two

Has your consideration of poetry changed since you began?

I started writing poetry in high school (some 30 years ago) and at the time, and through my 20s and 30s, I was trying to be witty and clever. Only in the last 5 years, or so, have I really started searching my gut to see what needs to be written. I’ve been mining childhood and young adult trauma, analyzing my life choices and reactions, and writing earnestly about that. I still long to be considered clever and witty, but I’m feeling the pull to become more honest about my feelings, and fears, and about my damage and record it. The pull comes as a sort of therapy and healing as well as having an honest conversation with my wife, my sons, and my beloved friends. My time here is limited and it’s time to start talking about real life and not trying to be a literary wise-ass.

Ty J. Williams : part one

Ty J. Williams is a writer and poet who has recently eschewed decades of corporate jobhood to seek his first undergrad degree from the Ohio State University. His poetry can be read in Black Bough Poetry, Neololigism Poetry Journal, Columbus Alive and Fourth & Sycamore, as well as his WordPress site, The Little-Known History of Brooding. He lives in Columbus, Ohio, USA, with his wife, 3 sons and dog. Follow Ty at tywrites1 at twitter.com and tywrites at instagram.com

Photo credit: Kate Chapman.

How do you know when a poem is finished?

Well, most of my poems are never “finished”, but all of them have an ending. I’m always editing and revising my poems, and that process is never really done. On the other hand, the endings of my poems are always intentional and well thought out. The last lines and the word choices in those last lines are probably the most deliberated and the most purposeful part of my writing. So, when I complete an initial draft of a poem, the endings are usually pretty solid and the least edited part of the poem. The rest will be tinkered with ad nauseum.