Lennart Lundh : part three

Has your consideration of poetry changed since you began? 

I started writing poetry in the early 1960s, so, yeah. Of course. Right along with my short fictions. What I think poetry can and should do has changed. My subject matter has changed, my voice and craftsmanship have changed. As have my audiences. In part, to answer the unspoken question of influences, because every author, good or bad, of every poem and story I've read since I got my first library card in 1954 has taught me something about how to write. In part because how the world expresses itself and what it speaks about has changed.

Valerie Wallace : part four

How important is music to your poetry?

I want each of my poems to have the music they need to advance their meaning and emotion, and to be a pleasure to the ear. From a young age through my early twenties, I played piano and cello, and creating music on its own is such a distinct and difficult endeavor that it took me awhile to accept and really understand how poetry only truly works on the page when it can be lively in the ear.

Hasan Namir : part five

How do you know when a poem is finished? 

I usually stop the poem when it ends on a word or a verse that makes me say “Aha.” Then, when I revisit the poem, re-read it a few times, take some time off and come back to it again, I realize that it actually needs to end on another stanza or verse, so then I start to make changes based on my new reading of the poem. To reiterate, sometimes you know when it ends as you’re writing the poem. Other times, through revisiting the poem, then you know when it ends.

Kara Petrovic : part five

How does a poem begin?

A poem begins by inviting its reader (or listener) to embark on a journey. A poem begins by setting the scene of the universe in which it exists. A poet, on the other hand, begins by reaching into their heart and squeezing, until something worthwhile pours out.

Jessica Mehta : part one

Jessica Mehta is a multi-award-winning poet and author of over one dozen books. She’s currently a poetry editor at Bending Genres Literary Review, Airlie Press, and the peer-reviewed Exclamat!on journal. During 2018-19, she was a fellow at Halcyon Arts Lab in Washington DC where she curated an anthology of poetry by incarcerated indigenous women and created “Red/Act,” a pop-up virtual reality poetry experience using proprietary software. As a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and native Oregonian, place and personal ancestry inform much of Jessica’s creative work.

Jessica’s novel The Wrong Kind of Indian won gold at the 2019 Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPYs). Jessica has also received numerous visiting fellowships in recent years, including the Everett Helm Visiting Fellowship at the Lilly Library at Indiana University at Bloomington and the Eccles Centre Visiting Fellowship at The British Library. Visual representations of her work have been featured at galleries and exhibitions around the world including IA&A Hillyer in Washington DC and The Emergency Gallery in Sweden. Jessica is a popular speaker and panelist, featured recently at events like the US State Department’s National Poetry Month event, “Poets as Cultural Emissaries: A Conversation with Women Writers,” as well as the “Women’s Transatlantic Prison Activism Since 1960” symposium at Oxford University.” Visit www.jessicamehta.com to learn more.

What are you working on?

I have four books releasing in 2019, one in 2020, and am currently completing the seventh month of a nine-month fellowship at Halcyon Arts Lab in Washington DC where I’m curating an anthology by incarcerated indigenous women. I also just finished up a manuscript and am working on my PhD in poetry.

Bobbi Lurie : part four

How do you know when a poem is finished?

A poem is finished when another word would ruin it or a poem is finished when you can’t look at it any longer or a poem is finished because it feels “right” or it’s finished because it’s late at night and you want it all to end.

Or a poem is never finished. Once it’s published one still edits it in one’s mind. Last week I withdrew a just-published poem. I realized it wasn’t finished/ that maybe I’d never finish it. So I’d say a poem is never finished. The poet is finished. That’s why I’m finally sending this interview in to you after all these weeks/months. I’m done.

Ariel Dawn : part four

How do you know when a poem is finished?

After leaving the poem in the dark for a month, I’ll read it as a spell to open a gate to another dimension. If it won’t open I will revise and hide away for another week or month and so on until I’m inside and nothing is altered.