Why is poetry important?
I believe poetry is important because a good poem allows a reader to briefly step into somebody else’s world, to see with other eyes, to love with another heart, to think new thoughts. A good poem allows for one to experience a whole new world in a few simple lines or maybe experience the same thing in a new way. Poetry is important because a good poem can show the reader that they are not alone in the world.
How did you first engage with poetry?
I first started writing poetry on the subway in New York City. I had an hour commute each way each day and during this commute I would simply sit and observe the sea of people around me. There was so much life there, so many details that made up those lives and I suddenly starting getting lines and turns of phrase in my head. I bought a pocket sized red notebook and in it I began to write my first collection of poems.
What poets changed the way you thought about writing?
I had a mentor named Dobbie Reese Norris who passed away about three years ago. I first met him at a public library’s open mic night at which he and I were the only two people pretty much every week for almost a year. At first I was embarrassed to be reading poems to just him each week, embarrassed that nobody showed up for the open mic, and I would show this by not putting all my energy into reading my poems. He pushed me on this, showing me that poetry is powerful no matter if one is reading it to an audience of thousands or to an empty room with just one old man sitting in a single chair. He taught me to read and write with as much passion and care as I could muster, for myself and for the sake of the writing first and then for the world after. This changed my relationship with writing deeply and gave me some permission to not be nervous or embarrassed or quiet in the way I engage with my own work, to always give it the emotion and energy it deserves.
How does a poem begin?
I was recently reading Songwriters on Songwriting in which hundreds of songwriters speak to their process. I was struck by some of what Neil Young had to say in that he detailed how the difference between him and other people is that no matter the situation, not mater the time or place or conversation, when he feels the urge to create, the split second of glory and heat, he stops and leans in. This resonated with me as I can’t say where the poems come from but I to try to lean in whenever a line seems to materialize out of nowhere. I’ll stop mid conversation, pull over a car, even find a pen and write on my own arm if paper is not available and let the first line take me where the rest of the poem needs to go. It is rare for me to have an idea of what I am trying to do, I simply stat with the line or turn of phrase which comes to me and let the rest flow through.
What are you working on?
I live in a mountain town with a population of around 2000, in which I write weekly poems for the local newspaper. These poems are brief ten to fifteen line mediations on natural beauty, working class rural life, fear of destruction from climate change as well as other poetic forays into concerns and passions. Over the last year and a half I have written about seventy poems for the paper and am compiling them into a book called “Our Mother the Mountain.”
