How did you first come to writing poetry? What is it about the form that resonates?
Short, intense lyrics grabbed me first. So intensity of emotion and language were, and are, primary with me.
But the possibilities of poetry are almost endless, especially now, and we don’t have to stay where we started. Given that enormous range of possibilites, it makes sense to try to experiment with at least a few of them. The poets whom I love most let their work change and evolve over the years, or even from book to book.
That said, whatever I do, intensity of language always seems to drive any project I’m working on, so I haven’t come far from my beginnings.
How does a poem begin?
For me, always with language. And it continues and finishes with language. Everyone is different, but I try not to consciously drive the strategy of the poem. I prefer to follow the words where the words lead me. I’m hoping that, perhaps if I surprise myself, perhaps I can surprise the reader.
You’ve published multiple full-length poetry collections. Do you see your writing as a single, extened project, or a series of self-contained units?
To be honest, I love extended
projects, and I also love series of self-contained units. Both seem to me to be
absolutely valid ways of making poetry, and I take great pleasure in both,
probably for different reasons. In my most recent book, to whom it may
concern, the last section (which has the same title as the book) is very
much a project, conceived based on definite rules and very much a sequence. The
first section, americana (originally published as a chapbook by rob
mclennan’s above/ground press) is a collection of self-contained units that
appeared over time out of nowhere, and only became a collection when I decided
to let them come together.
Have you a daily schedule by which you work, or are you working to fit this in between other activities?
I now have the luxury of writing when I want to write, but that wasn’t true for most of my writing life, and it isn’t true for most poets. So for a long time I did have a schedule—though not usually a daily schedule—because everything else was scheduled and writing wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t been scheduled. Now that I have the freedom to write whenever I want, it’s a great joy just to let the writing happen wherever and whenever it happens. I’m well aware that this doesn’t work for everyone, and I know many wonderful writers who keep a schedule because that’s what works best for them. I’m also a great fan of creating occasions for writing, with friends, with my wife, or on my own, just for the pleasure of writing, and to find out what will happen.
What are your favourite print or online literary journals?
I hope it’s ok to say this, but one of my favorite online journals is talking about strawberries all the time. I think where is the river: a poetry experiment also does great work. In print, definitely Touch the Donkey and New American Writing, which has done so much for the poetry community for so many years. I’m not objective, but my wife Valerie Coulton and two friends, Emilie Delcourt and Harriet Sandilands, and I edit a print journal here in Barcelona called parentheses which I think is interesting, partly because we always have poetry in several different languages, always with English translations.
Who are some of the writers you are reading lately that most excite you?
It’s hard to confine the list to lately. There are a number of poets whom I return almost compulsively, with Lorine Niedecker and William Carlos Williams at the top of the list.
And far too many contemporaries to list; Stephen Hemenway, Doug MacPherson, Pattie McCarthy, rob mclennan, Elizabeth Robinson, Barbara Tomash, and Laura Walker come to mind, but there are so many inspiring poets writing, far too many to list. I have the great good fortune to live with my favorite poet, my wife, Valerie Coulton.
I also should be honest and say that I find reading the many, many poems that I see as an editor truly inspiring—so many poets are doing so much interesting work!
