How do you know when a poem is finished?
I never feel like a poem is finished. I’ve been a nightmare for anyone who has ever published my poems, I’m sure, because I always want to keep tinkering. There are just so many possibilities within every sentence it’s hard––impossible––for me to imagine not at least having a go at as many of them as I can.
What other poetry books have you been reading lately?
Banana Bread (JD Scrimgeour), Battle of Sillicon Valley at Daybreak (Alex Peary), Imagine Sisyphus Happy (RG Evans), When My Body Was a Clenched Fist (Enzo Silon Surin), Her Kind (Cindy Veach), Uncertain Acrobats (Rebecca Hart Olander), My Tarentella (Jennifer Martelli), Rewilding (January O’Neill), Emblem (Richard Hoffman), after that (Kathleen Aguero), How Her Sprit Got Out (Krysten Hill), Pelted by Flowers (Kali Lightfoot), Cloud Pharmacy (Susan Rich), Threshold (Joseph Legaspi).
What other poetry books have you been reading lately?
Lately I have been reading: Ada Limón’s Bright Dead Things; Kate Camp’s How to Be Happy Though Human; Ryanne Kap’s Goodbye, Already; and Amanda Merpaw’s Put the Ghosts Down Between Us. Next on my list is Ryan Fitzpatrick’s Coast Mountain Foot.
How does your work first enter the world? Do you have a social group or writers group that you work ideas and poems with?
Typically, my work enters the world in my phone on my notes app. My mind is always racing, so when I get inspired or have something I think may be good for a poem or even just a stream of thoughts, I get it onto my notes so I don't forget and go back and edit. I have a close friend that has encouraged me and has helped me develop as a writer, which is really great!
What do you find most difficult about writing poetry?
Searching for an authentic subject. I don’t want to write about writing or about something that doesn’t mean a great deal to me. That’s why I like translation—it’s grounded in something vital.
How do you know when a poem is finished?
I used to think a poem or piece of writing was finished but sometimes, even when I see it in print, I’m still not sure it is! I think it’s an important skill to learn to let go of a piece of writing and it’s taken me a while, but I think I’m nearly there. I think the best we can hope for is that the message you wanted to portray has come across, even if it’s a more experimental piece and your intention was to challenge or surprise someone.
How does a poem begin?
So far, my project has compelled me to view every poem as an eddy mid-stream of an enormous social current, so I have a difficult time demarcating them, even by author. Of course they exist apart from me and separately, but I preserve them as odd, indelible phrases that swim together, whatever their attribution. Where my own writing is concerned, poems always begin musically, with a particular sonic effect of language that exceeds or precedes or even strengthens meaningful communication.
