Tyler Pufpaff : part five

What do you find most difficult about writing poetry?

The most difficult thing for me when writing poetry is to not limit myself to my own experiences. I think often, “writing what we know” comes easiest, yet for me, roadblocks my creative process. When I first began, I only stuck to personal experiences, but after a dry spell I realized that I could indeed create from nothing. Now, I’ve only ever had one fictitious poem published… but at least it helps keep me writing. I think reaching outside a person’s perspective will inspire if not teach a poet to write in a way previously unknown.

Tyler Pufpaff : part four

How do you know when a poem is finished?

A poem is never finished. It is only temporarily adequate to serve a current purpose. Sure, often I will feel confident in a poem I have produced, not desiring to make any changes, but after some time, a few years later maybe, I may have come across a better way to express myself or perhaps I scrap half of it and elaborate taking a different route, creating another version of itself. I think a poem can exist in multiples and that because they could never full be explored – because the avenues are endless – that a poem is never finished.

Tyler Pufpaff : part three

What do you feel poetry can accomplish what other forms can’t?

Everything is poetry. That email, the fiction book you’re reading, the news, a word, a tree. I feel as though it’s like the relationship between a square and a rectangle. Everything is poetry, but poetry is not everything.

Seeing it this way, I believe that poetry can not accomplish what other forms can. If it could, wouldn’t we all just write poetry instead? I see other forms as poetic variations. Denying standard conventions, I instead focus on what the author said and how they’re trying to say it; I don’t care about “normal”.

Tyler Pufpaff : part two

How does your work first enter the world? 

I imagine it’s rather similar for others. Often there’s a monologue in my head, typically very brief, consisting of things that I might not say out loud in certain company, especially not knowing how they might take it. Of course, it slips out every now and then. Once a coworker had simply asked why my har was so gray when I was only 25 and I responded I’m just dying quicker than everyone else. She didn’t like that. I try to jot these things down: the thoughts, the unannounced dialogue, the marvelous, however it may appear. This is my poetry seeping out of my pores and entering the world.

Tyler Pufpaff : part one

Tyler Pufpaff: Poetry Editor at Variant Literature. English & Business student at UNCG. Lover of black coffee and the Godfather movies. Previous publications have appeared or are forthcoming in Torrid Literature Journal, Coraddi, and Poetry Diversified 2019: An Anthology of Human Experience.

How did you first engage with poetry?

I was taking a creative writing class in high school. Naturally we broached the subject of poetry – most of us dreading the assignments to come. My poems scored poorly but my friend, well, she was gifted. The competitive side of me came out, playfully, and I kept writing desiring to score better than her. I never did. A year later, far removed from home in my grandparent’s guest bedroom, I would write. I would stay up all night drinking whatever bottles my coworkers would buy for me (underaged) and I would just feel. Had I not had the introduction a year prior, I can’t even imagine what kind of misery I’d still be in. This is when it started. I haven’t stopped since.