Matthew Gwathmey : coda

What would you like to do that you haven’t yet done?

Write a poem about my grandmother’s tragic death. She was hit by a tree while driving her car home from church. The trees hug the byways in Virginia, but you still have to wonder about the chances. Anyway, a fairly local poet of some renown wrote a poem about it. Everyone loved it, the poem. Of course I always felt it was too detached from the person she was. So my goal’s to write a better one. Haven’t yet.

Matthew Gwathmey : part five

How does a poem begin?

A poem for me begins with a snippet of something, usually an image, however fleeting. I’m definitely a collector and arranger, definitely without some overall scheme or concept. Most times, I have no idea what a poem is going to be about when I’m in the thick of it, and then it turns out to be about my family! I was pleasantly surprised how many “family” poems worked their way into my book. They just appeared, like my kids.

Matthew Gwathmey : part four

How important is music to your poetry?

Music is of the utmost importance to my poetry. I’ll often sacrifice meaning for a good sound. As a failed jazz drummer, I believe in sound: rhythm, tempo, beat, meter, pattern, accent, stress, alliteration, assonance, consonance, euphony, cacophony, all of it. Reminds me of a bad joke. What do you call a musician’s best friend? A drummer. Get it? Because drummers aren’t actual musicians… So, what do you call a poet’s best friend? Music. Logic kind of falls apart here…

Matthew Gwathmey : part three

When you require renewal, is there a particular poem or book that you return to? A particular author?

Elizabeth Bishop’s Collected Poems and Prose. After reading the whole thing cover to cover to cover to cover, I read just a little snippet here and there, each time I return. Highlights include: the stories/memoirs “In the Village” and “Efforts of Affection: A Memoir of Marianne Moore;” the poems “The Man-Moth,” “The Armadillo,” “Crusoe in England,” and “One Art;” a note she wrote for a talk in Rio: “Writing poetry is an unnatural act.”

Matthew Gwathmey : part two

What do you find most difficult about writing poetry?

I find everything difficult about writing. I often wonder why I do it. But I do. A little bit. Each day. I haven’t dared to take the Rilke challenge and ask myself in the deepest hour of the night, “must I write?” I worry what the answer may be. Also, as an unsatisfied tinkerer, editing requires a computer, a printer, paper, pen, and a dart board behind a closed door. First drafts generally look nothing like final products.

Matthew Gwathmey : part one

Matthew Gwathmey was born in Richmond, Virginia and studied creative writing at the University of Virginia. He became a Canadian citizen in 2013 and lives with his wife and children in Fredericton, New Brunswick, where he is a PhD student at UNB. 

How did you first engage with poetry?

When I figured out that my first name could be found in my last name (gWATHMEy), I began a lifelong obsession with words and wordplay. Naturally, this led to poetry, particularly after discovering e e cummings. It was round about early high school when I first started writing my own poems. It was round about third-year university when I started getting serious about poetry. Only took me fifteen years to gather enough poems for a book.