Allie Marini : part thirteen

13. How does a poem begin?

I’m not sure, but I can usually tell you where they end.

Jennifer L. Knox : part nine

What other poetry books have you been reading lately?

Olio and the selected Bill Knott.

Lauren Brazeal : part four

Why is poetry important?

Poetry and art gracefully state what the news often obfuscates (either intentionally or unintentionally). Art—and I’m including poetry in this—is communication in its purest, most visceral form. As for poetry specifically, I feel it is often the most appropriate means of communication for certain kinds of messages. However, I don’t feel it’s more or less important than any other art form.

Sarah Venart : part five

What poets changed the way you thought about writing?

How far back should I go?  In the 1990s, I was into Alden Nowlan, John Thompson and Lowell, Plath, Sexton—I almost got a Sylvia Plath tattoo.  I am thankful I did not.  I go back to Elizabeth Bishop.  And Emily Dickinson. I feel intimately attached to them and to Nowlan and Lowell.  Currently I’m learning from Hieu Mihn Nguyen, Lucy Brock-Broido, Kay Ryan, Dorothea Lasky, Alice Oswald, and Marge Piercy. Their books have been on my desk the last two years.  Can I also add that Joy Williams, the story writer, is essential to me? I wrote a love poem about meeting her at the Cloisters in NYC. A girl can dream!

Matty Layne Glasgow : part five

How important is music to your poetry?

I’ve always loved playing with sound and rhythm in my work, but I’ve spent much of my short writing life seeking balance between the two. For whatever reason, I’ve always struggled with metre. Iambs, feet, and stresses frequently elude me, so my scansion is nothing to write home about. I do, however, generally strive for a lyric and musical line, and I pay careful attention to internal rhyme, word play, and different rhythms in the poem. I generally read a poem aloud as I’m drafting because I want to hear how the sounds meld together, how they echo. I practice reading aloud how I’d like the poem to be performed. I can’t read every poem in the same drone, so I try to figure out the tone and personality of that individual piece as I’m writing. Does it need a line break or a caesura to slow things town? Does it need to be over the top and have the same end rhyme throughout the entire poem? My gloryhole poem needed that. It really did.

Shaindel Beers : part two

How do you know when a poem is finished?

I think it’s an instinctive feeling. You just feel when a poem is finished; you don’t necessarily know. Of course, sometimes you’re wrong. Someone else might point out a suggestion to you that you’ve never seen before; maybe you don’t need the last three lines or maybe you need more. Maybe the language isn’t working hard enough in one spot. I trust my gut a lot, and then I send it out. If it gets published, I was at least a little bit right in someone’s opinion.

Jessica Morey-Collins : part eleven

How important is music to your poetry? This varies quite a bit. I have a minor auditory processing disorder, and sometimes struggle to enjoy sonic experiences without being overwhelmed. I tend to write with a lot of assonance, but rarely consciously use meter or rhyme lately. I probably should give meter another shot soon.