Kevin Carey : coda

Title poem from my latest book of poems.

Set in Stone

A rosary that was my mother’s
tucked in the glove compartment of his car
and a copy of Exile on Main Street
with instructions to play track 6
when he hit some lonesome desert highway.
I love him so much my chest hurts,
thinking of him riding off into his own life,
me the weeping shadow left behind (for now).
I know I’ll see him again but it’s ceremony
we’re talking about after all—
one growing up and one growing older
both wild curses.
A train blows its horn
the light rising beyond the harbor,
a dog barks from a car window,
and the nostalgia (always dangerous)
hits me like a left hook.
I’m trapped between the memory
and the moment,
the deal we make
if we make it this long,
the markers of a life,
the small worthwhile pieces
that rattle around in my pockets
waiting to be set somewhere in stone. 

Kevin Carey : part five

How does a poem begin?

So many things come to mind when I think of how poems begin. Sometimes for me it’s a story, something that happened to me, or to someone I know (after all I may not be much but I’m all I think about, ha ha). So I may begin with the details of a scene in that story. It could be a description of a place, a conversation, or an image in that scene. Perhaps an establishing shot of the scene. The memory expands from that initial spark, and drives me into the poem, writing down as much of that experience as I can remember, trying to recapture (and relive) the scene, then making some kind of narrative form out of it. I often write to the sound of my own voice, picturing myself reading the poem to someone, or to a group. Eventually I will do that, at a writers group I belong to, or to a fellow poet. Then there are times when a poem gets launched because I have the inspiration to write about a certain person. I’ve known some interesting folks in my life. They always seem to be waiting around to jump into a poem. 

Kevin Carey : part four

What other poetry books have you been reading lately?

Banana Bread (JD Scrimgeour), Battle of Sillicon Valley at Daybreak (Alex Peary), Imagine Sisyphus Happy (RG Evans), When My Body Was a Clenched Fist (Enzo Silon Surin), Her Kind (Cindy Veach), Uncertain Acrobats (Rebecca Hart Olander), My Tarentella (Jennifer Martelli), Rewilding (January O’Neill), Emblem (Richard Hoffman), after that (Kathleen Aguero), How Her Sprit Got Out (Krysten Hill), Pelted by Flowers (Kali Lightfoot), Cloud Pharmacy (Susan Rich), Threshold (Joseph Legaspi).

Kevin Carey : part three

How do you know when a poem is finished?

It’s not a consistent process for me. I’m sure there were many times when I thought a poem was finished, but fortunately I have some poet friends who have set me straight. In those instances, it’s probably been a case of over finished, trying to hard in the end to make a point, or to be too dramatic. There’s that idea that the poet Paul Muldoon brings up “about bringing the reader to the party and nipping out the bathroom window.” Getting out at just the right time, on the right line. Often in drafts I bury that end line somewhere in the poem and I don’t give its proper place. When I figure that out, knowing where to put that line for the most impact, or to leave the reader with something interesting, then it’s a finished poem, I think.

Another thing that tends to happen is usually I will begin later and end sooner than the draft version. Cutting back on both ends seems to be a constant. 

Kevin Carey : part two

What poets changed the way you thought about writing?

I was in my late thirties, having bounced around a bit and decided to take some creative writing graduate courses at Salem State College (now Salem State University). In one of those classes the professor (Rod Kessler) assigned a book of poems by Philip Levine, New and Selected Poems. I remember reading a poem called Starlight. When I finished all I could think of was my father. There was an immediate connection to Levine’s poems, their storytelling, narrative nature. Years later I read an interview with him and he said, "I want to bring poetry to people who have no idea how relevant poetry is to their lives." That was me. 

Over the years I’ve read so many poets who have lifted me up and inspired me. A few that jump out are Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Laura Boss, Gerald Stern, Niki Giovanni, Franz Wright, Afaa Michael Weaver, Naomi Shihab Nye and Ruth Stone.

Kevin Carey : part one

Kevin Carey is Coordinator of Creative Writing at Salem State University. He has published a chapbook of fiction from Red Bird Chapbooks, The Beach People (2014) and three books of poetry, The One Fifteen to Penn Station (2012), Jesus Was a Homeboy (2016) which was an Honor book for the Paterson Literary Prize, & Set in Stone (2020) all from CavanKerry Press. His poems have twice appeared on The Writers Almanac on National Public Radio and on The Academy of American Poets Poem a Day. Kevin is also a playwright and a filmmaker. He has co-directed & co-produced two documentaries about poets, All That Lies Between Us and Unburying Malcolm Miller, which premiered at the Massachusetts Poetry Festival in 2017. His first crime novel, Murder in the Marsh, from Darkstroke Books, was released in October (2020). A new middle grade novel Junior Miles and the Junkman will be published in September of 2023 from Fitzroy Books, an imprint of Regal House Publishing. Kevincareywriter.com

What are you working on?

I’m currently working on a chapbook of poems with a friend of mine, poet Colleen Michaels. It’s modern day versions of the Greek gods who now live in a gated community (Olympia Heights) with a guard shack, swimming pools and catered backyard parties.  

I’m also finishing a fourth poetry collection of my own. Working title is Waiting on the Love Train.

I have a second mystery novel in the works, a sequel to Murder in the Marsh (Darkstroke Books) and I’m looking to stage a play I wrote with poet/songwriter RG Evans. It’s a low residency MFA murder mystery called The Terminal Degree.