How does a poem begin?
A poem begins as a puzzle of images—usually moored to an idea, a feeling, a memory, an experience, or a response to something read, viewed or listened to. Less frequently, a poem begins as a line (a beginning or an end)—and I’ll animate a world of images around it.
Why is poetry important?
Poetry is an ancient, sacred craft—one of the oldest forms of written expression. I think of poetry like a stream. This stream began thousands of years before me, and will continue for thousands of years after me. But poets of all eras are connected synapses, building on our predecessors, and moving our collective understandings of what it is to be human, forward.
When you require renewal, is there a particular poem or book that you return to? A particular author?
I am intimately inspired by magical realists and drawn to art that plays with possibility. I am reminded of a Robert Burton quote: “Finitum de infinito non potest statuere [the finite cannot decide about the infinite.]” I respond to magical realism because it dares you to suspend belief about what you think you know. Our knowledge is finite. A few authors I come back to are Márquez and Bolaño.
What other poetry books have you been reading lately?
I am reading the Mendelsohn translation of Cavafy (as well as the Oxford World’s Classic version with Greek text), the Keeley & Sherrard translations of Odysseus Elytis, Monochords by Yannis Ritsos and a smattering of poems for my MFA from Plath, Merrill, Walcott, Keats and Muldoon to name a few!
How do you know when a poem is finished?
If I am still thinking about a poem after it is written on the page—if I am still building images, teasing connections, arranging metaphor, changing words, coloring nuance—I know the poem is not done.
