How
did you first come to poetry?
I started out just writing prose and was very into prose, but I have a problem with formatting stories which haunts me to this day. I just really hate structure, and while poems have structure, you can be more open and interesting with the form, so that is part of the reason. I am sometimes drawn to poems just simply with how they look, and the words come after. I keep thinking of Sylvia Plath's poem Edge, or her Mushrooms poem. I don't know why. I am also just a very visual person--I learn visually by watching how people do things. I feel like poetry is a visual art in a way. I would go to an art show of just large poems on the wall, because you read and make your own pictures.
I also just started writing scraps of things I heard when I got into the writing program at York University and I had the absolute joy of learning from Priscila Uppal, who I will always consider the reason why I love poetry so much. Something popped into my head, I would write it down, and try to expand it into a poem. Also walking around the city I would see bits and pieces of the city, in graffiti or some other art thing and want to somehow turn that into a poem.
I think these are the reasons why. There are probably more.
How does a poem begin?
I think I might have partially answered this just a second ago, but it begins maybe with an image. A mom pushing her baby by a big garage door where someone has graffitied the words GRAND CANYON in yellow and red letters. A man all dressed in red velvet. Someone making something out of a lot of purple textiles. A refrain you might have heard, like an ear worm that you can't get out of your head. Something your friend said while licking kechup chip powder off their fingers. It can begin watching a mini pizza spinning in a microwave while realizing you are spinning around the sun. In a notebook, waiting for the sink to drain, waiting for the bath bomb to dissolve.
How did publishing your first book change your writing?
I started thinking about collections, and what a collection of poems can be. It made me think more thematically, in a more structured way which is totally not how my brain works at all. I`m writing a second book right now and I think doing the first book helped ground me and gave me some confidence that I have never had before. Because I have always tried my best to recieve anything that has happened to me, and it has been hard but in ways I am lucky, because, and I have said this before, and have had people say "yeah right!" in a teasing way, but I never thought I would have a book or being writing these words to you, but in a way I think in a way, writing this book saved me from myself and has brought so many positive things and people into my life I would have never met. I have met so many people I have admired from a distance: David O'Meara, Arielle Twist, Karen Solie, Doyali Islam—I hear and meet so many new writers, and I think for me that is the most rewarding and biggest take away—meeting these absolute geniuses.
Have you a daily schedule by which you work, or are you working to fit this in between other activities?
I wake up in the middle of the night and write poems, or I will write down stuff while I am steaming milk at this coffee shop I work at in the Annex. When I am typing up poems to send out or to add to a new manuscript, I go to a place with air conditioning if it is summer. I love to go on walks and look at things, up alleys or go look at graffiti. I love to wander and then I let my mind wander.
I like to go to readings because I feel they can be really special and give me the energy to continue, and be real in my writing, and not be afraid to write what I need to write.
What are your favourite print or online literary journals?
I love Bad Nudes—I love their total look and aestetic (spelling) so much. I love the green words. I love the website. I love The Malahat Review—their covers are always so thoughtful. I like The Fiddlehead alot. I like the shape of Arc Poetry. I liked the shape of Descant Magazine, but it now since retired. They published my first poem. I liked The Rusty Toque, they always published really cool writers. They finally published one of mine in their last issue which was a total honor. I have a soft spot for Prism international.
Who are some of the writers you are reading lately that most excite you?
I just finished Magical Negro by Morgan Parker, I really loved that book, it is so smart and full of pop culture references and uses them in really thought-provoking ways.
I just finished War/Torn by Hasan Namir, which I really loved because of all the emotions it has inside the book.
I heard a writer who has not been published yet at a reading and that poem she read really floored me.
I saw Amber Dawn read a new poem at an event at Glad Day in Toronto a few weeks ago, this long poem, which was so vital and I am looking forward to her new book very much.
I really like the work by Jillian Christmas, a slam and spoken word poet. She has this magical thing she can do where she can tap right into her audience, I have been hypnotized by her.
I am currently reading Cluster by Souvankham Thammavonsa, which is really amazing so far.
I really enjoyed Drolleries by Cassidy McFadzean, very cool poetry collection which reminds me of all these old paintings with the fruit and art galleries, and creatures, and drinking wine in the woods, and it's very colorful and dreamy—one of my other favourites.
I have a lot of favourites. I am leaving favourites out, for sure.
A selection of his poems appeared in the second issue.
I started out just writing prose and was very into prose, but I have a problem with formatting stories which haunts me to this day. I just really hate structure, and while poems have structure, you can be more open and interesting with the form, so that is part of the reason. I am sometimes drawn to poems just simply with how they look, and the words come after. I keep thinking of Sylvia Plath's poem Edge, or her Mushrooms poem. I don't know why. I am also just a very visual person--I learn visually by watching how people do things. I feel like poetry is a visual art in a way. I would go to an art show of just large poems on the wall, because you read and make your own pictures.
I also just started writing scraps of things I heard when I got into the writing program at York University and I had the absolute joy of learning from Priscila Uppal, who I will always consider the reason why I love poetry so much. Something popped into my head, I would write it down, and try to expand it into a poem. Also walking around the city I would see bits and pieces of the city, in graffiti or some other art thing and want to somehow turn that into a poem.
I think these are the reasons why. There are probably more.
How does a poem begin?
I think I might have partially answered this just a second ago, but it begins maybe with an image. A mom pushing her baby by a big garage door where someone has graffitied the words GRAND CANYON in yellow and red letters. A man all dressed in red velvet. Someone making something out of a lot of purple textiles. A refrain you might have heard, like an ear worm that you can't get out of your head. Something your friend said while licking kechup chip powder off their fingers. It can begin watching a mini pizza spinning in a microwave while realizing you are spinning around the sun. In a notebook, waiting for the sink to drain, waiting for the bath bomb to dissolve.
How did publishing your first book change your writing?
I started thinking about collections, and what a collection of poems can be. It made me think more thematically, in a more structured way which is totally not how my brain works at all. I`m writing a second book right now and I think doing the first book helped ground me and gave me some confidence that I have never had before. Because I have always tried my best to recieve anything that has happened to me, and it has been hard but in ways I am lucky, because, and I have said this before, and have had people say "yeah right!" in a teasing way, but I never thought I would have a book or being writing these words to you, but in a way I think in a way, writing this book saved me from myself and has brought so many positive things and people into my life I would have never met. I have met so many people I have admired from a distance: David O'Meara, Arielle Twist, Karen Solie, Doyali Islam—I hear and meet so many new writers, and I think for me that is the most rewarding and biggest take away—meeting these absolute geniuses.
Have you a daily schedule by which you work, or are you working to fit this in between other activities?
I wake up in the middle of the night and write poems, or I will write down stuff while I am steaming milk at this coffee shop I work at in the Annex. When I am typing up poems to send out or to add to a new manuscript, I go to a place with air conditioning if it is summer. I love to go on walks and look at things, up alleys or go look at graffiti. I love to wander and then I let my mind wander.
I like to go to readings because I feel they can be really special and give me the energy to continue, and be real in my writing, and not be afraid to write what I need to write.
What are your favourite print or online literary journals?
I love Bad Nudes—I love their total look and aestetic (spelling) so much. I love the green words. I love the website. I love The Malahat Review—their covers are always so thoughtful. I like The Fiddlehead alot. I like the shape of Arc Poetry. I liked the shape of Descant Magazine, but it now since retired. They published my first poem. I liked The Rusty Toque, they always published really cool writers. They finally published one of mine in their last issue which was a total honor. I have a soft spot for Prism international.
Who are some of the writers you are reading lately that most excite you?
I just finished Magical Negro by Morgan Parker, I really loved that book, it is so smart and full of pop culture references and uses them in really thought-provoking ways.
I just finished War/Torn by Hasan Namir, which I really loved because of all the emotions it has inside the book.
I heard a writer who has not been published yet at a reading and that poem she read really floored me.
I saw Amber Dawn read a new poem at an event at Glad Day in Toronto a few weeks ago, this long poem, which was so vital and I am looking forward to her new book very much.
I really like the work by Jillian Christmas, a slam and spoken word poet. She has this magical thing she can do where she can tap right into her audience, I have been hypnotized by her.
I am currently reading Cluster by Souvankham Thammavonsa, which is really amazing so far.
I really enjoyed Drolleries by Cassidy McFadzean, very cool poetry collection which reminds me of all these old paintings with the fruit and art galleries, and creatures, and drinking wine in the woods, and it's very colorful and dreamy—one of my other favourites.
I have a lot of favourites. I am leaving favourites out, for sure.
Matthew
Walsh is a queer writer from Nova Scotia. His poetry and
prose has been published in The Matador
Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Pulp Literature, The Malahat Review, Matrix,
The Rusty Toque, The Temz Review, and most recently in Train Journal. These are not
the potatoes of my youth is his first book of poetry, and he can be found
on Twitter as @croonjuice