Clayre Benzadón : part four

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

I’m only basing this off of my own experience, so this may depend on each person’s experience, and not on the genre itself (I hate the division of genre and binaries that are placed to categorize different writing forms)—but for me, poetry allows me to write fragments and raw lines that I might not be able to pull of in prose. I also feel like experimentation is a lot more possible in poetry, and the form of a poem lends itself to a bodily or more metaphorical understanding of the emotions laid out (or those which transcend) the page. Poetry helps in the process of trauma, and also reveals the hidden (even if not consciously to the writer yet). The revision process acts as a sort of therapy session (or sessions) that allow a writer to find the difficult truths for themselves.

KIRBY : part three

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

There are numerous poets I return to, Cavafy, Carl Phillips, Genet, Rechy, Rene Ricard, but when I require refreshment, it’s spaces I seek. There’s a room at the AGO I’m fond of, gallery spaces in general, open spaces, a park bench, a brook, a breeze. I require looking out much more than looking in. I re-materialize, connect to my vastness, in such spaces. 

There’s that great scene in DePalma’s Dressed to Kill where Angie Dickinson’s character is seated before a large painting taking notes, which turns out to be a grocery list. That’s very familiar to me.

Larissa Shmailo : coda

How does a poem begin?

With an insistence in my gut that I must write it or burst.

Alexander Shalom Joseph : part one

It's said in the Talmud that there are three ways to be a good Jew: study, prayer and acts of loving kindness– Alexander Shalom Joseph thinks of his writing and work as a teacher as a mix of all three. Alexander’s debut collection of short stories, American Wasteland, is forthcoming from Above Owl Canyon Press in late 2021 and can be pre ordered here. Alexander's poetry chapbook, Buttons and Bones, was published by above/ground press in 2021. His Novels and Short Stories have been short listed/finalists/or semi-finalists in the 2021 Autumn House Rising Writer Prize in Fiction, the 2020 Orison Fiction prize, the 2020 Paper Nautilus Chapbook Prize, and the 2020, 2019 and 2018 Faulkner Awards for a “Novel in Progress," have been published by Tulip Tree Press, Witty Partition, Zodiac Magazine, Lotus Eater Magazine, Bombay Gin and in Clover: A Literary Rag, and have received four honorable mentions in New Writer Competitions for Glimmer Train Magazine. His poetry has appeared in Blaze Vox, Boomer Lit Mag and in Dusie’s Tuesday poems. Alexander is the host of the podcast of American Wasteland, and writes a weekly prose poetry column in The Mountain Ear Newspaper in Nederland, Colorado. Alexander has an MFA from The Jack Kerouac School, and lives in a cabin in the woods of Colorado with his girlfriend and hundreds of books. 

What are you working on? 

I live in a mountain town with a population of around 2000, in which I write weekly poems for the local newspaper. These poems are brief ten to fifteen line mediations on natural beauty, working class rural life, fear of destruction from climate change as well as other poetic forays into concerns and passions. Over the last year and a half I have written about seventy poems for the paper and am compiling them into a book called “Our Mother the Mountain.” 

Craig Santos Perez : part three

What poets changed the way you thought about writing?

Since I teach Pacific Islander literature, many Pacific writers from older generations have deeply inspired me, including Albert Wendt, Haunani-Kay Track, Hone Tuwhare, Konai Helu Thaman, Epeli Hau’ofa, Grace Molisa, John Pule, Peter Onedera, and many more. 

Heidi Greco : part four

Do you have a social group or writers group that you work ideas and poems with?

Yes, I am part of a poetry group, and I am immensely grateful for the intellectual and spiritual connection it has offered. Oh yes, and the all-important input on the poems, of course! We each send out two poems a week in advance of our meeting so everyone can read and consider the work before the time comes for exchanging edits and ideas. Although the group has undergone a few adjustments over the years, the core remains intact. Especially during the pandemic, these poets have provided a lifeline that feels like sanity. Although Zoom has sometimes felt like it causes a particular kind of fatigue, these sessions nearly always energize me, as they always offer new perspectives on the words with useful feedback on my work. I can think of only one time when the others have told me to leave the poem alone without suggesting changes. And even though they said this (which pleased me immensely) I’ll admit that I still found myself fiddling a bit more. 

Annick Yerem : part one

Annick Yerem lives and works in Berlin. In her dreams, she can swim like a manatee. Annick tweets @missyerem and has, to her utmost delight, been published by Pendemic, Detritus, @publicpoetry, RiverMouthReview, #PoetRhy, Anti-Heroin-Chic, Rejection Letters, Dreich, 192, Eat The Storms podcast, The Failure Baler, Rainbow Poems and Wombwell Rainbow. She is currently working on her first chapbook, St. Eisenberg and The Sunshine Bus, which will be published by Hedgehog Poetry Press in 2022.

https://missyerem.wordpress.com. https://linktr.ee/annickyerem

How does your work first enter the world? Do you have a social group or writers` group that you work ideas and poems with?

I work in/with a writing group, The Flaming Flower Society. We are five writers from Scotland, England, the US and Germany and a lot of ideas and poems start in this group. It is a safe space and I trust them with everything I write. Am also a member of the German Stanza of the Poetry Society, where we share and/ or workshop poems. Whenever I can afford it, I get feedback from mentors/ writing coaches. I was lucky enough to work with Tara Skurtu last year and this month I am getting valuable feedback from Wendy Pratt on some of my poems. Wendy also facilitates wonderful online workshops and courses.