Darren C. Demaree : part five

How does a poem begin?

It depends on the kind of poem.  I do big research projects that require a lot of work before I write the first poem.  There are abstract sequences that really just need that first phrase or image to get going.  Sometimes it’s just listening to the right music.  If you can begin the poem with a burst of energy it can carry you deep into the work.  You might have to cut the lines that come with the energy in the editing process, but their value is undeniable in the process.  My favorite poems begin and hold on to the energy all the way through.

Adrian Ernesto Cepeda : part two

2.      Has your consideration of poetry changed since you began?

When I first started writing poems I would write when inspiration came to me. Now I realize, for me, being a true poet is to always be ready and not wait. My philosophy is akin to people who workout every day. The first thing I do in the morning is write poetry. I need to flex my creative muscle. My morning poems are not always a success but that one poem usually always leads to breakthrough a day or week later. Poetry for me is more than just a career, it is my calling, whenever I am stressed out or something seriously is troubles me, every time I pen a verse poetry gives me answers when I needed it most. It’s more than just writing. Poetry is my calling, my reason for living, every day on the page.

Emma Bolden : part one

Emma Bolden is the author of three full-length collections of poetry – House Is An Enigma (forthcoming from Southeast Missouri State University Press), medi(t)ations (Noctuary Press, 2016) and Maleficae (GenPop Books) – and four chapbooks. She received a 2017 Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. A Barthelme Prize and Spoon River Poetry Review Editor’s Prize winner, her work has appeared in The Best American Poetry, The Best Small Fictions, and Poetry Daily as well as such journals as the Mississippi Review, The Rumpus, StoryQuarterly, Prairie Schooner, New Madrid, TriQuarterly, Conduit, the Indiana Review, Shenandoah, the Greensboro Review, Feminist Studies, Monkeybicycle, The Journal, The Pinch, and Guernica. She currently serves as Associate Editor-in-Chief for Tupelo Quarterly.

What are you working on?

I actually just realized a few weeks ago that I’m apparently deep into two projects: one is a collection of poems about life in the deep, dirty south. The other started out as a series of found poems from true crime shows and has (apparently) developed an examination of the way our culture fetishes the female body in distress, danger, and death.

MLA Chernoff : part five

How does a poem begin?

With a shid n a fard, a whimper n a bang. But in all deliriousness, it begins with someone giving me a dang deadline. Hi: please Paypal me ur deadlines n let’s have some fun xo  

M. Stone : part three

What do you find most difficult about writing poetry?

I have to be careful that I’m not too overt with a poem’s meaning. When I’m revising, I find quite a few lines that are unnecessary restatements of what came before, and so I try to be diligent in omitting those. I don’t want to write a poem so opaque that the reader can’t relate to it in any way, but I also don’t want to dictate just how a reader will connect with its meaning.

Billeh Nickerson : part two

Has your consideration of poetry changed since you began?

It’s funny how folks use “music” to cover all types of music, though they have a very limited view when they say “poetry”. I’ve taken to saying “poetries” to remind folks of the multitudes of poetries and poetics out there.

While I may not write in all styles, I read widely and engage with orality and interdisciplinary works. I don’t think I’m as precious in my view of what can be a poem, though I’m not sure I was all that precious to begin with. I believe the earlier generations of poets, often my mentors, were more entrenched by poetics and poetic camps. The younger generations are much more fluid and open to hybridity.

Megan Burns : part three

What do you find most difficult about writing poetry?

That I have to work to make money and do other things that are not writing poetry.