What do you find most difficult about writing poetry?
Oof, many things. Aside from the ever-present threat of cliché, an ongoing one is holding the tension between accessibility and mystery. Too much emphasis on the former can lead to poetry that reads more like statement or fact; too much emphasis on the latter can lead to obscurity for the sake of obscurity. I want to land somewhere in the middle: to say enough so readers aren’t lost but not too much that they don’t have to put any effort in. Poems are, after all, a conversation, a living thing. I gravitate towards narrative poems where I proceed linearly but I’ve been challenged to take more imaginative leaps. Emily Dickinson’s exhortation to “tell all the truth but tell it slant” is a good refrain to keep in my head.
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