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 always show my work to friends before submitting it. The online writing community is incredibly talented—I learn new things all the time—and I can count on my friends to tell me whether something is effective or not. It can be so hard to see my own writing objectively, so I treasure their outside perspective, and my work always improves for it.
When you require renewal, is there a particular poem or book that you return to? A particular author?
Past Lives Future Bodies by K-Ming Chang: There are so many amazing, quotable lines in this chapbook, my favorite of which is “My mother says / women who sleep with women / are redundant: the body symmetrical / to its crime.” The line breaks are genius, and Chang’s use of language reframed my understanding of poetry and continues to inspire me every day.
Crush by Richard Siken: This is the book that made me fall in love with poetry—it fully deserves its reputation as a cult classic. There is such gorgeous rhythm and visceral emotion throughout, and several poems consistently make me cry.
Space Struck by Paige Lewis: I adore how human and tender this collection is, and so many lines deliver gut punches that leave me reeling days later. One I always come back to is “The moment I saw a pelican devour / a seagull—wings swallowing wings—I learned / that a miracle is anything that God forgot / to forbid.”
How do you know when a poem is finished?
It’s hard to say. Paul Valery said that “a poem is never finished, only abandoned,” so I guess the question is: at what point do I let myself abandon a poem so it can live on its own? Final lines/images tend to come quickly to me, whether they be a shift in a primary image or a conclusion of a thought. From there, I return the poem’s body to make sure the rest of it builds toward this ending—pruning redundancies and irrelevant lines to keep the piece moving forward. Once I feel like each line has earned its place, I put the poem down.
How does a poem begin?
Most of my poems start with a line or a strong sense of image that I feel an urge to explore. In the past, I wrote a lot more narrative poetry, and I would usually attach this line/image to a character to follow through the poem. However, I’m currently playing more with metaphor and incorporating personal experiences, so I like to use this initial image as an anchor point to circle back to through the piece.
How important is music to your poetry?
I’ve found that I write in a very rhythm-based way, even though I don’t usually use meter. I like to find an internal rhythm that powers the piece and dictates my phrasing. For example, when drafting, I might put “[three syllables]” or “[fragment here]” as placeholders if I know the rhythm but can’t think of the exact line.
Another aspect to consider is the resonance between different sounds and how this affects the reading experience. Every word has a unique sound, and I love to play with how they bounce off each other to create certain textures or moods. Predictably, I adore alliteration.
