How does a poem begin?
These days it begins as a series of notes in my phone that then get dumped either directly on the computer or into a notebook and reworked. I have a tendency to group them by tone or voice or their shapes and then once I’ve accumulated enough first drafts in a folder I’ll pull them out and cycle through them nipping and tucking along the way.
Friday, 8 March 2019
Brian Kirk : part five
How does a poem begin?
Sometimes it’s a line you wake up with or a phrase you’ve heard. Mostly it comes from the real world. Other times it’s a cadence, a repetition of sound. The old diesel trains made a peculiar rhythm as they built up speed, and that sound was always in my head as a child growing up beside a railway station. All you need is a word or two to start and, for me, the form emerges as I go.
Sometimes it’s a line you wake up with or a phrase you’ve heard. Mostly it comes from the real world. Other times it’s a cadence, a repetition of sound. The old diesel trains made a peculiar rhythm as they built up speed, and that sound was always in my head as a child growing up beside a railway station. All you need is a word or two to start and, for me, the form emerges as I go.
Thursday, 7 March 2019
Siân Griffiths : part one
Photo credit: Megan Griffiths
How did you first engage with poetry?
When I was a high school student, I thought of poetry as I had been taught to think of it: a form of self-expression. I wrote accordingly, producing dreadful, angsty, abstraction-filled cries from the heart. At the same time, I kept a notebook in which I would copy favorite poems and song lyrics, including anything from Robert Herrick to Sylvia Plath to Depeche Mode. I think I started to sense the gap between what they were doing and what I was doing. I began to realize that poems needed to be about more than the poet. As a reader, I started thinking about how poems made me care, which translated into my writing as I started reaching for ways for my words to do more work. I’m still reaching.
Tina Mozelle Braziel : coda
What other poetry books have you been reading lately?
Mend by Kwoya Fagin Maples
The Wounded for the Water by Matt Miller
To Make It Right by Corrine Clegg Hales
Blood Writing by Sean Sexton
Wade in the Water by Tracy K. Smith
Mend by Kwoya Fagin Maples
The Wounded for the Water by Matt Miller
To Make It Right by Corrine Clegg Hales
Blood Writing by Sean Sexton
Wade in the Water by Tracy K. Smith
Wednesday, 6 March 2019
hiromi suzuki : part four
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 was a member of Japanese poetry magazine gui for six years. gui is run by members of "VOU" group, founded by the late Katsue Kitasono. (But all members of "VOU" had passed away.) By the way I had been a commercial illustrator. Kitasono was a poet, photographer and designer. And he had been exchanging letters with Ezra Pound. I left gui at the end of 2018. However, I will continue to make concrete poetry, visual poetry (also called "plastic poem" by Kitasono) as ever, taking over the gene of Kitasono. With my independent style.
I was a member of Japanese poetry magazine gui for six years. gui is run by members of "VOU" group, founded by the late Katsue Kitasono. (But all members of "VOU" had passed away.) By the way I had been a commercial illustrator. Kitasono was a poet, photographer and designer. And he had been exchanging letters with Ezra Pound. I left gui at the end of 2018. However, I will continue to make concrete poetry, visual poetry (also called "plastic poem" by Kitasono) as ever, taking over the gene of Kitasono. With my independent style.
Tuesday, 5 March 2019
Hana Shafi : part two
What do you feel poetry can accomplish that other forms can’t?
There's something really special about poetry as an art form. There's something fluid about it; I really feel like poetry almost has no rules, it's kind of a wild art form, where things can get as abstract or as literal as you want. I don't think other forms of writing are as free—you can't get away with odd or warped structures with essay writing or fiction writing, etc. Poetry is inherently experimental, in my opinion.
There's something really special about poetry as an art form. There's something fluid about it; I really feel like poetry almost has no rules, it's kind of a wild art form, where things can get as abstract or as literal as you want. I don't think other forms of writing are as free—you can't get away with odd or warped structures with essay writing or fiction writing, etc. Poetry is inherently experimental, in my opinion.
Shazia Hafiz Ramji : part five
How important is music to your poetry?
Great question! Poetry is quite close to music for me, but I haven't been able to speak about it in a way that makes sense. Often, when I'm overwhelmed by the need to write a poem, it manifests itself as a need to sing. I think this is why my poems begin with a choke-feeling in the throat, as if I were about to cry, or as if I need to say something urgently but can't say it. Sometimes when I feel a poem coming, I need to noodle around on the guitar and sing a bit, and then I'll write. The writing is often much clearer after I've played music.
Great question! Poetry is quite close to music for me, but I haven't been able to speak about it in a way that makes sense. Often, when I'm overwhelmed by the need to write a poem, it manifests itself as a need to sing. I think this is why my poems begin with a choke-feeling in the throat, as if I were about to cry, or as if I need to say something urgently but can't say it. Sometimes when I feel a poem coming, I need to noodle around on the guitar and sing a bit, and then I'll write. The writing is often much clearer after I've played music.
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