How important is music to your poetry?
I don’t usually listen to music when I write, but music must be integral to my writing process because the way my poems sound—their rhythms and cadence—is the element of craft I most prioritize.
Tuesday, 31 March 2020
Monday, 30 March 2020
Koss : part two
How does a poem begin?
No single way. Sometimes a poem’s a thing that rattles, a nagging, maybe for months, that suddenly shakes loose. Sometimes it’s an obsession, a repetitive thought or feeling that I have to interrupt and unleash through writing. Sometimes I hear a rhythm late at night while in bed, then a word or two or some lines, and I have to get up and let it unwind. I’m an inspired writer, not a disciplined one. And yes—it’s a crazy thing. I should do more planning, more jotting, and notetaking as future fodder. Fortunately, there is this persistent rattling . . .
No single way. Sometimes a poem’s a thing that rattles, a nagging, maybe for months, that suddenly shakes loose. Sometimes it’s an obsession, a repetitive thought or feeling that I have to interrupt and unleash through writing. Sometimes I hear a rhythm late at night while in bed, then a word or two or some lines, and I have to get up and let it unwind. I’m an inspired writer, not a disciplined one. And yes—it’s a crazy thing. I should do more planning, more jotting, and notetaking as future fodder. Fortunately, there is this persistent rattling . . .
Sunday, 29 March 2020
Lynne Schmidt : part five
Has your consideration of poetry changed since you began?
Deeply. I started writing poetry in elementary school, delving in a bit more in middle school, and then keeping notebook after notebook. In some capacity, poetry was like a journal to me that I didn’t mind sharing with the world. In undergrad, I landed my first publication and then sort of took a break. I’ve been taking myself more seriously over the last two years and it seems to be paying off.
Through the timeline of about twenty years, I’ve tried to expose myself to as much poetry as possible. Poets I’ve never heard of, poets I have, poets who died years and years ago. It helps me to get a well rounded base of knowledge and respect for the art.
With that said, I think I’ve shifted away from the journal-based poetry, but remain in the contemporary confessional agenda. Many of my poems are based in my real life and they tell stories of trauma and healing. But now, I put a lot more time and effort into them to make them the best they can be. I wasn’t able to offer that when I was younger.
Deeply. I started writing poetry in elementary school, delving in a bit more in middle school, and then keeping notebook after notebook. In some capacity, poetry was like a journal to me that I didn’t mind sharing with the world. In undergrad, I landed my first publication and then sort of took a break. I’ve been taking myself more seriously over the last two years and it seems to be paying off.
Through the timeline of about twenty years, I’ve tried to expose myself to as much poetry as possible. Poets I’ve never heard of, poets I have, poets who died years and years ago. It helps me to get a well rounded base of knowledge and respect for the art.
With that said, I think I’ve shifted away from the journal-based poetry, but remain in the contemporary confessional agenda. Many of my poems are based in my real life and they tell stories of trauma and healing. But now, I put a lot more time and effort into them to make them the best they can be. I wasn’t able to offer that when I was younger.
Saturday, 28 March 2020
Lannie Stabile : part two
How does your work first enter the world? Do you have a social group or writers’ group that you work ideas and poems with?
Simply put, I do my best to translate an idea to Google Docs, then beat the hell out of it. I’ll work it and rework it until I’m either terribly proud of the piece or sick of its face. In either case, I’ll often pass it on to some trusted friends. In fact, there’s a couple of guys, Jason B. Crawford and Rota, who give me incredible feedback. The three of us co-founded a poets’ group called The MMPR Collective, and I don’t think my skill would be half of what it is without their guidance. I also have to shout out Madeleine Corley, who is in charge of Poetry over at Barren Magazine. She’s a phenomenal editor and has gotten me through some tough writing moments.
Simply put, I do my best to translate an idea to Google Docs, then beat the hell out of it. I’ll work it and rework it until I’m either terribly proud of the piece or sick of its face. In either case, I’ll often pass it on to some trusted friends. In fact, there’s a couple of guys, Jason B. Crawford and Rota, who give me incredible feedback. The three of us co-founded a poets’ group called The MMPR Collective, and I don’t think my skill would be half of what it is without their guidance. I also have to shout out Madeleine Corley, who is in charge of Poetry over at Barren Magazine. She’s a phenomenal editor and has gotten me through some tough writing moments.
Friday, 27 March 2020
Sheldon Lee Compton : part four
What poets changed the way you thought about writing?
Honestly two come immediately to mind. In the order I discovered them I would say without hesitation Michael Robbins and Russell Edson. Prior to these two, Michael Ondaatje made a long-lasting impression on me, but that came through his masterpiece Coming Through Slaughter and not his poetry.
Michael Robbins had to have known when he finished writing his collection Alien vs. Predator that he had brought about a formidable shift of the poetic sensibility. Here’s a guy with a PhD. in poetry who is writing poems that every single person I’ve ever shown loves. Every single one. Memorable lines that unabashedly rhyme and take on other hyper-traditional structures and forms but have a kind of serious playfulness that is beyond what any other poet, novelist, essayist, short story writer, or playwright out there is doing. I’ll buy and read anything he writes forever.
But for total fearlessness, Russell Edson can’t be matched. Often called the godfather of prose poetry, the amazing thing is that he could have cared less about that. He didn’t care what was expected. Among many other blindingly imaginative poems, he wrote about a woman fighting a tree, a family having apes for dinner, farmers falling in love with hats. And in the midst of such faith in his own voice, there was his sense of adventure and risk. He is quoted as saying, “I sit down to write with a blank page and a blank mind. Wherever the organ of reality (the brain) wants to go I follow with the blue-pencil of consciousness.”
Honestly two come immediately to mind. In the order I discovered them I would say without hesitation Michael Robbins and Russell Edson. Prior to these two, Michael Ondaatje made a long-lasting impression on me, but that came through his masterpiece Coming Through Slaughter and not his poetry.
Michael Robbins had to have known when he finished writing his collection Alien vs. Predator that he had brought about a formidable shift of the poetic sensibility. Here’s a guy with a PhD. in poetry who is writing poems that every single person I’ve ever shown loves. Every single one. Memorable lines that unabashedly rhyme and take on other hyper-traditional structures and forms but have a kind of serious playfulness that is beyond what any other poet, novelist, essayist, short story writer, or playwright out there is doing. I’ll buy and read anything he writes forever.
But for total fearlessness, Russell Edson can’t be matched. Often called the godfather of prose poetry, the amazing thing is that he could have cared less about that. He didn’t care what was expected. Among many other blindingly imaginative poems, he wrote about a woman fighting a tree, a family having apes for dinner, farmers falling in love with hats. And in the midst of such faith in his own voice, there was his sense of adventure and risk. He is quoted as saying, “I sit down to write with a blank page and a blank mind. Wherever the organ of reality (the brain) wants to go I follow with the blue-pencil of consciousness.”
Thursday, 26 March 2020
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.
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.
Madeleine Stratford : part four
How does a poem begin?
As I speak and write in four languages, even now, it is as though I had multiple personalities, worlds colliding and merging within me. My poems have a life of their own. They are the ones that decide to be written in a given language, or to be written at all. I have never chosen what comes out when I write, and am often surprised with the result.
As I speak and write in four languages, even now, it is as though I had multiple personalities, worlds colliding and merging within me. My poems have a life of their own. They are the ones that decide to be written in a given language, or to be written at all. I have never chosen what comes out when I write, and am often surprised with the result.
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