Why is poetry important?
Language and communication is a precious gift. The more language is used and trashed by those who seek to manipulate, the more poets need to be attentive to their words, which give voice to that irreducible part of us that eludes rational explanation. Poetry is not a display of eloquence. It serves another, more sacred purpose.
What poets changed the way you thought about writing?
In order: Allen Ginsberg, Jorie Graham, Mei Mei Berssenbrugge, Nathaniel Tarn, Mary Oliver, Lee Bartlett, Charles Bernstein, Charles Olson, Larry Eigner, Lisa Jarnot, Robert Duncan, Kevin Killian, Maryrose Larkin and James Yeary.
How do you know when a poem is finished?
I suppose it’s finished when nothing or almost nothing about it irks me anymore, or when too much about it irks me to try to revise it. I’m not great at revision; I’m still trying to find a way to make significant changes to poems that I revisit after abandonment and find I like but aren’t quite working. Usually these are left to languish, and I just consider them drafts of the other, working poems.
How does a poem begin?
With a word, a phrase or a line, a photo, a memory, a conversation with a friend or a stranger, something I saw on my walk that caught my attention. Anything can spark an idea for a poem. I usually sit down to write with a rough idea of what I want, but I don’t fret too much about how it is going to turn out when I am in front of the screen (I save all the fretting for when I am editing!) I just jump in - with a word or a phrase. I then build on it and go from there.
What poets changed the way you thought about writing?
All great poets in their way change us in some way, but I can name a few who stick out. Change takes a long time, so these aren’t “new” writers (of whom several might change my thoughts.)
As a young person, Emily Dickinson changed all my ideas about what writing does and is; I return to her often, she still feels radical. I recited one of her poems (Much Madness is Divinest Sense) at my mother’s funeral (from memory.)
I’ve had a lifelong love affair with Wallace Stevens who writes about philosophy with great nuance. I was so infatuated with “Sunday Morning” that I wrote it out by hand, in a letter to a good friend before emails were de rigeur— it’s such a deep dive into thorny issues, and yet still lyrical (and in blank verse!)
Frank O’Hara’s sophisticated informal voice, and his ability to write about the visual arts and classical music, wow— Lunch Poems was one of the first books I bought for myself. He’s a city poet, and I am a city person— nature poetry, while beautiful, rarely moves me. He’s also one of the writers whose “happy love” poems never feel corny.
Philip Larkin’s acerbic mix of high and low, vulgar and lyrical, gave me a window into how writing can be alienated, and yet moving. His “Whitsun Weddings” remains one of my favorite poems, that ending gets me every time: “A sense of falling, like an arrow-shower/Sent out of sight, somewhere becoming rain.”
How did you first engage with poetry?
During middle school, I was very emotional and felt alienated from my parents and peers. I was spending a lot of time in the library when I should have been in class, and the kind-hearted librarian gave me a copy of Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s A Coney Island of the Mind. I started to draft my own poems, finding it both therapeutic and deeply engaging in a way nothing else really was for me, and I haven’t stopped since.
How does your work first enter the world? Do you have a social group or writers group that you work ideas and poems with?
When I first started writing poetry, I sent drafts to a few close family and friends for approval (they’re all still talking to me, which is quite amazing).
As I gained confidence and publication credentials, I joined Open Arts Forum, a forum of artists and writers, to get feedback from a more experienced community. I often run poems by them (especially the ones that I think I should bury six feet under), to determine if they’re publication-worthy.
When I’m happy with a poem after I write it, I’ll often submit without running it by anybody.
I also belong to two international group of writers through Twitter:
• One group is composed of people who write all sorts of stuff (short stories, poetry, romance, etc.) Every other week, we have an open-mic session, where we each read three works.
• The other group is composed of poets only. It’s a casual open-mic setup where we read 3-6 poems each.
