Anita Dolman : part two

How do you know when a poem is finished?

I tend not to. I am an editor by trade and by instinct. Learning when to let a poem go is an ongoing struggle for me. I don’t believe a poem is ever finished, really. Not only may it eventually be adapted by the author again, it will certainly be adapted, in how it is seen and heard and interpreted, by every person who eventually reads or hears it.

Honestly, I don’t think any art is static as long as there is a person who may still stumble across it and bring it back to life by engaging with it.

Shannon Bramer : part five

What do you find most difficult about writing poetry?

I’ve been writing poems for decades, since I was a child. The hardest part is still just sitting down to do it. Writing involves sitting with my feelings, memories, ideas, fears—my confusion, my muddle. So it can be painful and exhausting! Also, finding the confidence to let the language loose, to let the poem off its leash and let it go where it needs to go. To let the poem be its own thing and somehow not mine anymore.

Shannon Quinn : part six

How does a poem begin?

It begins with listening.

Sanita Fejzić : part four

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

Poetry is a neighbour to thinking and language, according to Heidegger. He did not say prose; poetry is a neighbour to thinking and language—but why? It may be because poetry is heightened, experimental, musical prose—it is prose come to life, departing from the conventional, in the process of expanding our thinking and language. Poetry is the creative use of language. Poetry is always already in prose and other forms of writing such as playwriting. You recognize it in moments when prose becomes self-conscious or is no longer thinking about the traditional pillars of fiction such as narrative. When prose takes off into uncharted territories with words, punctuation, space and form, it enters the domain of poetry. I do not know if poetry wants to accomplish (or compete with) other forms; I would rather say that poetry is intimate with other forms.

Penn Kemp : part seven

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

Yes, books by friends who live far away but whose words I treasure. See above.  These are women writers I admire and share new poems with.

Kyle Flemmer : part five

How do you know when a poem is finished?

I’m not sure that I ever know a poem is finished, as in “complete” (I can tell when a poem is finished as in “dead”), and I’m always ready to open up a poem for further tinkering. I resist the idea that a poem has an absolute terminal, a Nirvana at which it arrives perfect and whole. That said, I often define constraints or parameters for my writing. These help me decide when a poem is sufficiently developed to start sharing, itself an experience which almost always pushes the poem to grow further, beyond where I thought the conclusion should be based on its parameters.

Manahil Bandukwala : part four

What other poetry books have you been reading lately?

I love reading chapbooks and books by people in my community, or people whom I’ve personally met. Readings and launches are a great place to find poetry books by people whose work you enjoy. Lately I’ve read Ayesha Chatterjee’s Bottles and Bones and Conyer Clayton’s For the Birds. For the Humans.