How did you first come to writing
poetry? What is it about the form that resonates?
I did fieldwork searching rivers lost. There are many invisible small river in Tokyo. Also, in downtown such as Shibuya. The rivers were landfilled by concrete when the Olympics was held in Tokyo in 1964. As I walk through the town, I hear the voice of the groundwater at my feet (although I can't really hear it). The voice of water is a theme in my first poetry collection Ms. cried - 77 poems by hiromi suzuki (2013) .
How does your visual work interact with your text?
When I write poetry as a text, I draw landscapes in my mind. When I create my visual work, I am conscious of dialogue. Sometimes, I confuse what I have experienced in this real world with what I create. Both of my visual work and my text interact with deja-vu And deja-vu is like a mirage for me, I can recognize it as my creation clearly after I've finished making.
How does a poem begin?
My poem begins when I wake up in the morning. There is always post-it at my bedside. I write down the stories and words which I dreamed while I was asleep. Keeping my eyes closed. I wonder if I open my eyes, everything disappears. Of course, the words in the post-it are just the cue to writing. I sit in front of my computer on the desk and will try to work seriously. An enormous zelkova tree (reminiscent of Yggdrasill in Scandinavian mythology) outside my window suggests time and seasonal changes and provide inspiration with me.
With numerous published collections, how are you finding the process of learning how to put together a manuscript? What have the challenges been?
Fortunately, I've been suggested to compile and publish my collections by publishers. And there were pieces of my work by my side that came together from my own project that I happened to work on. Only the first collection "Ms. cried - 77 poems by hiromi suzuki" (2013) written in Japanese, I gave myself the challenges, edited it myself, and asked a Japanese publisher to publish it.
Have you a daily schedule by which you work, or are you working to fit this in between other activities?
In particular, I don't have a daily schedule. Conversely, almost every day, almost always, I think about poetry, create something. Almost obsessive. However, my obsession is easily warmed up but just as easily cooled down. So I'm feared that the day will happen when I don't write or make one day.
What are your favourite print or online literary journals?
I often check Empty Mirror and 3:AM or many online literary journals. When I was a teen, my father subscribed to The New Yorker. So, after he passed away, I subscribed to it myself. The cover illustrations of The New Yorker are especially excellent. I cherish those scrapbooks.
Who are some of the writers you are reading lately that most excite you?
Kazuo Ishiguro. Recently, I've read his short story collection Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall (2009) in Japanese. In fact, I only read Ishiguro's novel Never Let Me Go (2006) several years ago. Nocturnes is a music-themed elegant and humorous beautiful short stories, it is a memorable collection.
hiromi suzuki is a poet, fiction writer and artist living in Tokyo, Japan. She is the
author of Ms. cried - 77 poems by hiromi suzuki (Kisaragi Publishing,
2013), logbook (Hesterglock Press, 2018), INVISIBLE SCENERY (Low
Frequency Press, 2018), Andante (AngelHousePress, 2019). Her works have
been published internationally in poetry journals, literary journals and
anthologies.
Web site: https://hiromisuzukimicrojournal.tumblr.com
Twitter : @HRMsuzuki
Selections of her work appear in the first, second and third issues.
I did fieldwork searching rivers lost. There are many invisible small river in Tokyo. Also, in downtown such as Shibuya. The rivers were landfilled by concrete when the Olympics was held in Tokyo in 1964. As I walk through the town, I hear the voice of the groundwater at my feet (although I can't really hear it). The voice of water is a theme in my first poetry collection Ms. cried - 77 poems by hiromi suzuki (2013) .
How does your visual work interact with your text?
When I write poetry as a text, I draw landscapes in my mind. When I create my visual work, I am conscious of dialogue. Sometimes, I confuse what I have experienced in this real world with what I create. Both of my visual work and my text interact with deja-vu And deja-vu is like a mirage for me, I can recognize it as my creation clearly after I've finished making.
How does a poem begin?
My poem begins when I wake up in the morning. There is always post-it at my bedside. I write down the stories and words which I dreamed while I was asleep. Keeping my eyes closed. I wonder if I open my eyes, everything disappears. Of course, the words in the post-it are just the cue to writing. I sit in front of my computer on the desk and will try to work seriously. An enormous zelkova tree (reminiscent of Yggdrasill in Scandinavian mythology) outside my window suggests time and seasonal changes and provide inspiration with me.
With numerous published collections, how are you finding the process of learning how to put together a manuscript? What have the challenges been?
Fortunately, I've been suggested to compile and publish my collections by publishers. And there were pieces of my work by my side that came together from my own project that I happened to work on. Only the first collection "Ms. cried - 77 poems by hiromi suzuki" (2013) written in Japanese, I gave myself the challenges, edited it myself, and asked a Japanese publisher to publish it.
Have you a daily schedule by which you work, or are you working to fit this in between other activities?
In particular, I don't have a daily schedule. Conversely, almost every day, almost always, I think about poetry, create something. Almost obsessive. However, my obsession is easily warmed up but just as easily cooled down. So I'm feared that the day will happen when I don't write or make one day.
What are your favourite print or online literary journals?
I often check Empty Mirror and 3:AM or many online literary journals. When I was a teen, my father subscribed to The New Yorker. So, after he passed away, I subscribed to it myself. The cover illustrations of The New Yorker are especially excellent. I cherish those scrapbooks.
Who are some of the writers you are reading lately that most excite you?
Kazuo Ishiguro. Recently, I've read his short story collection Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall (2009) in Japanese. In fact, I only read Ishiguro's novel Never Let Me Go (2006) several years ago. Nocturnes is a music-themed elegant and humorous beautiful short stories, it is a memorable collection.
Web site: https://hiromisuzukimicrojournal.tumblr.com
Twitter : @HRMsuzuki
Selections of her work appear in the first, second and third issues.