John LaPine : part five

How does a poem begin?

Sometimes with a title, sometimes with an image. Sometimes I’ll say, hear, or think a phrase that feels like it belongs somewhere in a poem, so I’ll write it down and try to shape it into art later. Sometimes this works, but most of the time, the specific phrase will end up on the cutting room floor. In this way, a phrase works as scaffolding.

John LaPine : part four

What do you find most difficult about writing poetry?

Saying something that matters, and saying it in an artistic way. On one hand, an image isn’t [always] a poem. But neither are a handful of unresolvable questions. Finding the balance between art and inquiry. Finding the balance between knowing and unknowing.
  

John LaPine : part three

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

Poetry does what other genres do, but in an impossibly small package. If you want to devastate, you have to do it in 6 lines, instead of 6 pages. Poetry also lends itself to being a little more cryptic and experimental than other genres. When you know your reader can devote more time, each syllable and punctuation symbol becomes important. Poetry is very intricate.

John LaPine : 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?

I’m relatively new to poetry, so I’m working on building my first readers group. This summer, I met a group of fabulous poets at the Open Mouth Poetry Retreat workshop in the foothills of the Ozarks, and I would trust any of them with my work.

John LaPine : part one

John LaPine earned his MA in creative writing & pedagogy from Northern Michigan University (NMU), where he volunteered as an associate editor of creative nonfiction & poetry for the literary journal Passages North. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in: The Rising Phoenix Review, Hot Metal Bridge, The /Temz/ Review, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Under the Gum Tree, Rhythm & Bones, Midwestern Gothic, & elsewhere. He teaches English at Butte College.

What are you working on?

I’m currently sending out my first poetry chapbook which is derived from pieces I composed while writing my thesis (a creative nonfiction/poetry hybrid genre work). Many of the poems have been published individually, but it’s time to see if they can work as a collection.