How did you first engage with poetry?
I believe I first started to seriously consider poetry through song lyrics. I loved the booklets that came with cassette tapes and CDs I was gifted or purchased. They were beautiful with their small pages and tiny fonts. I always open them up and peruse them as a body of work in themselves and felt terrible disappointment when the books did not feature written lyrics. Reading the songs as individual pieces, observing how the lines were broken, noticing the use or lack of punctuation, seeing how some rhymed and some did not — in whole, the way lyrics existed as written words unveiled a new understanding separate from the performative nature of the song itself. This exploration led me to perusing and picking up books of poetry at the library and discovering many new voices.
Friday, 30 November 2018
Alina Pleskova : part two
How do you know when a poem is finished?
When it's time to do something else. Jack Spicer: "Poetry ends like a rope."
When it's time to do something else. Jack Spicer: "Poetry ends like a rope."
Thursday, 29 November 2018
Nancy Jo Cullen : part four
How did you first engage with poetry?
I first engaged with poetry because I had a broken heart and I suppose they functioned as a diary of sorts, those poems. But then I realized I wanted to actually write something that was at least half way decent and I started reading poetry and thinking about poetry.
I first engaged with poetry because I had a broken heart and I suppose they functioned as a diary of sorts, those poems. But then I realized I wanted to actually write something that was at least half way decent and I started reading poetry and thinking about poetry.
Wednesday, 28 November 2018
Nisa Malli : part five
How does a poem begin?
My poems usually begin with a half line prompt drifting through my head that I discard later once I’m in the thick of it.
My poems usually begin with a half line prompt drifting through my head that I discard later once I’m in the thick of it.
Courtney Bates-Hardy : part two
How do you know when a poem is finished?
When the book is out. I didn't stop tinkering with my first book until it was already out.
When the book is out. I didn't stop tinkering with my first book until it was already out.
Tuesday, 27 November 2018
Dominik Parisien : part five
What do you find most difficult about writing poetry?
Fighting the narrative impulse. For poems dealing with disability: allowing for emotional vulnerability without letting it overwhelm the piece.
Fighting the narrative impulse. For poems dealing with disability: allowing for emotional vulnerability without letting it overwhelm the piece.
Connie Voisine : part four
What do you find most difficult about writing poetry?
Once I find the line of a poem, the rest of it all kind of slides into place. But until I do, tone is messy, the images don’t necessary cohere, and the poem floats around like some kind of amoeba with me twisting the focus this way and that, closing one eye to see better, walking away.
Also, I don’t enjoy being done with a poem. I feel as if it’s over, our sweet little troubled relationship, and I won’t have that experience again. I miss the poem when I am done
Once I find the line of a poem, the rest of it all kind of slides into place. But until I do, tone is messy, the images don’t necessary cohere, and the poem floats around like some kind of amoeba with me twisting the focus this way and that, closing one eye to see better, walking away.
Also, I don’t enjoy being done with a poem. I feel as if it’s over, our sweet little troubled relationship, and I won’t have that experience again. I miss the poem when I am done
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