Interview w/ Poet Marianne Szlyk

1. Who or what inspired you to write poetry?

I’ve lived in a number of places where local identity is important (or used to be important): New England, Oregon, Indiana, one beautiful and terrible year in NYC, and even Washington, DC, as its poetry scene flourishes within the cracks of this city of transients.  When I was growing up in New England, I spent time in both the country and the city, so both places inspire me.  Music has always been important to me although the type of music I listen to has certainly changed over the years.  I have also come to terms with the fact that I am more interested in character and setting than in plot, so poetry is more natural to me than fiction would be.  Also, it is very hard for me to make terrible things happen to my characters.  In any case, I am enjoying poetry this time around.  I have worked with inspiring teachers (Reuben Jackson and Chris Goodrich), and the poetry communities online and off have been quite hospitable.   Dr. Michael Anthony Ingram and the D.C. Poetry Project have been most welcoming, especially given our different backgrounds and approaches to poetry.  (They are more performative, and I am more of a print poet.)

2. Do you have a favorite place to write?

I generally like writing (and grading papers and so forth) in our not-so-new addition.  It has skylights, a beautiful picture window, a stereo, comfortable furniture, and cats.  I’m not a café writer because I feel too self-conscious; probably I am a suburban homebody at heart.  However, I will do my handwritten first drafts elsewhere, often at a poetry workshop but sometimes in a café or on a train. 

3. Who are your favorite poets, alive or deceased?

When I was younger, I immersed myself in the confessional poets, especially Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, and Anne Sexton, but I also enjoyed more observational poets like e.e. cummings or William Carlos Williams.  As one of my early teachers (Jane Shore) was a great admirer of Elizabeth Bishop, I have been influenced by her, too.  I am not a rhyming poet at all, but now I admire what Gwendolyn Brooks has done, balancing craft and observation of her community.  At this point in my life, writing about community and place appeals to me far more interesting than writing about self does.  I enjoy the Chinese poets (Han Shan, Li Bo, etc.) in translation although I realize that translation is never the same as the original, especially, as my Chinese students have taught me, when it comes to their culture’s poetry.  John Donne has always been one of my favorites, too, although I must say that I prefer the secular poems to the holy ones.  I also enjoyed reading Yusef Komunyakaa and Daniel Nathan Terry’s poems this summer.

I’ve enjoyed getting to know Felino A. Soriano, Mary Jo Balistreri, and Joan McNerney.  Felino’s work ethic and dedication to poetic evolution are particularly inspiring!  Charles Clifford Brooks III has a fabulous voice.  I have been intrigued by Martin Willits, Jr.’s poems on Celtic astrology.  I have a love-hate relationship with astrology, but I like seeing the Celtic signs’ ties to nature.  And, of course, I’m looking forward to getting to know other poets, especially through Poppy Road Review and Flutter Poetry Journal.

4. What five words best sum up your personality?

Nostalgic, contradictory, reflective, optimistic, close-to-the-vest.

5. Other than writing, what else do you love to do?

My husband and I enjoy going to concerts and plays.  We manage to listen to quite a bit of jazz by old and new artists.  We like eating at small, ethnic restaurants when we can although that is difficult since I really have to watch my weight.  I love walking to work in the morning through the neighborhood.  I love doing yoga, playing pick-up Ultimate Frisbee with the over-40 crowd, and going to the gym as I would not be around today without either.  I love exploring new-to-me neighborhoods in Washington, DC and elsewhere.  We love spending time with our cats Callie and Thelma. 

6. What are your current, and/or next projects?

During the school year, I am focused on teaching, but I take time to work on my blog-zine, The Song Is… promoting it, recruiting new poets, and coming up with different contests.  The fall contests honor Thelonious Monk and singer-songwriter Gene Clark.  In the spring, the contests will focus on women in music as well as swing music.  I am open to suggestions as long as they don’t involve me listening to music I dislike too much. 

This fall I’ve also published my first chapbook, Listening to Electric Cambodia, Looking Up at Trees of Heaven, with Kind of a Hurricane Press (Barometric Pressures Authors Series).  I want to promote it a little more, especially once the semester is over. 

When I return to writing over break, I would like to revisit some of the themes that have inspired me.  The Camel Saloon recently published a series of photographs from Newfoundland, a place I’ve never quite made it to, and I’d like to respond to a few more.  I would also like to put together a second chapbook with some of the poems I’ve published recently, but this chapbook will be more focused around either geography or music.

I am also open to different themes and inspirations.  Poetry must keep evolving as the poet’s life evolves.

Interview w/ Poet Mary Jo Balistreri

Who or what inspired you to write poetry?

I had been a concert pianist and harpsichordist for most of my life until in 2005, my youngest grandson died. He was seven and I couldn’t find a way to transcend grief. Music for the first time was not helpful. My daughter, a published writer, suggested writing, and she actually sat with me for encouragement. Why I chose poems is still a mystery, but I did, took a workshop and then began going to classes, etc. In retrospect, poetry provided the container that interpreting music did not.  It also gave me a way to give witness to this child’s life, and to be true to his spirit, of celebration. He loved his life. So I would have to say that the initial spark came from a seven-year-old boy.


Do you have a favorite place to write?

I write longhand at the kitchen table on a yellow legal tablet. I watch birds at the feeders and also on the small lake we live on. They are my inspiration. When I’m in Florida, I write at the beach at an open window with the sound of the surf my background music.


Who are your favorite poets, alive or deceased?

My favorite poets change but ones with staying power are Rilke, W.S. Merwin, Denise Levertov, Elizabeth Bishop, Olaf V. Hauge, Rolf Jacobsen, Tomas Transtromer, and Robert Cording. Recently, I have enjoyed Mary Szybist, Andrea Hollander, and the ghazals of Ghalib.

What five words best sum up your personality?     

enthusiasm, tenacity, spontaneity, determination, and compassion


Other than writing, what do you love to do?

I like reading, gardening, walking, and spending time with art


What are your current and/or next projects?

I am working on a book of personal essays and also putting together a manuscript for a 4th book of poetry.

Interview w/ Poet William Cullen Jr.

1. Who or what inspired you to write poetry?

I spent a year once when I was in the army reading the selected poems of Pounds, Eliot, Yeats, Frost and Dylan Thomas over and over again. I mean I was even reading their work out in the field in a pup tent by flashlight! 

2. Do you have a favorite place to write?

No particular spot.

3. Who are your favorite poets, alive or deceased?

deceased: Pound, James Dickey. alive: Ted Kooser, Robert West.

4. What five words best sum up your personality?

romantic . . . questing. . .death before dishonor 

5. Other than writing, what else do you love to do?

I have made it three times into the world championships of horse racing handicapping (similar to the round robin events that lead to the championships in poker as shown on tv).

6. What are your current, and/or next projects?

I hope to have a first chapbook of about 20 poems ready for submission by the end of the summer.  Most of the poems have been written already so the real work is in the selection and arrangement and finding a publisher..

Interview w/ Poet Jeanine Stevens

1. Who or what inspired you to write poetry?

So many factors go into one becoming a writer and poet. I think developing an ear for rhythm is important whether one writes in form or free verse. My parents were more singers than readers. Bedtime stories were songs. My grammar school was named after the Indiana state poet, so we had poetry at most school assemblies. The sign over the door of the library read, “There is no frigate like a book.” (Emily D.) I was impressed when a 6^th grade cousin’s regular reading list included a book of poetry, The Poet’s Craft. It was blue and had a silver Pegasus on the cover. She eventually gave it to me. My aunt read Emerson and my grandfather read Hugo and Twain. I always liked to write and would help friends with term papers. As a teen, my first poetry purchase was a double set of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s lyrics and sonnets. In college, a favorite course was English Literature, the Romantic Period. Also, I remember a poem by Amy Lowell, “Patterns,” as noteworthy because of her effective use of repetitions.

  

2. Do you have favorite place to write?

I prefer to write out-of-doors when possible, the parkway, the woods, Lake Tahoe. Usually though, I prop myself up in bed for first drafts handwritten on legal pads. On occasion I write with a group that has been meeting for twenty years. There is a different kind of energy when you sit next to someone whose mind is whirring away. Recently I started writing with St. Mark’s Scribes. We do brief meditations which have a different effect on my writing. For revisions, I clear the dining room table for a week or two and establish “poetry central.”  I find I can also revise in fairly noisy coffee shops. 

3. Who are your favorite poets, alive or deceased?

Favorite poets have changed over time.  When I first started reading and writing poems it was Mary Oliver, Gary Snyder, John Haines, David Young.

Presently: Denise Levertov, Jane Hirshfield, Anne Carson, Marie Ponsot, Wislawa Szymborska.  William Wordsworth (always), John Keats (always), Charles Simic, George Oppen, Eugenio Montale and the French poets.

  

4. What five words best describes your personality.

Curious, serious, social, sometimes impatient, introvert/extrovert. (I score right in the middle on the Myers-Briggs.) 

5. Other than writing, what else do you love to do?

I enjoy walking, seeing things up close and have written many walking poems. I think of Rita Dove’s line of observation: “the pinched armor of a vanished cricket.” I also enjoy Romanian folk dance. Tai Chi is essential for me, both for exercise and concentration. We are currently using Chinese fans with our movements and have progressed on to the sword. Any time I can travel to the coast or the mountains is a good day for me. In the past few years I have traveled to Turkey, Alaska and Italy. Travel definitely opens up new ideas. 

6. What are your current, and/or next projects?

I just completed a small chapbook of poems with Asian themes, Needle in the Sea. I’m in the process of completing two full collections, one based on French themes and the work of Simone de Bouvier, and another based on ecstasy in everyday life.

Interview w/ Poet Joan Colby

1.  When did you start writing poetry and why?
I’ve written poetry and stories since I was a child. I was always an avid reader; my father was a big influence, reading me Shakespeare, Don Quixote, Gulliver’s Travels, Ivanhoe and similar books from my earliest years. The first poems I remember were Longfellow’s Hiawatha as well as poems by Byron, Keats and Shelley. And Homer’s Odyssey.

2.  What is your writing process?
My process is pretty much Carpe Poetica—that is seize the poem before it escapes. I’ve been known to pull over on a roadside to write down some lines or (disclosure) even worse, to scribble frantically while steering.

3.  Which poets throughout time have influenced your writing?
Too many to note. My earliest loves were the classics: Shakespeare’s sonnets, Marlowe, Byron, Keats, Donne. Later, Whitman, Roethke, James Wright, Adrienne Rich, Louise Gluck, Elizabeth Bishop, Ted Hughes, Neruda, Yeats, D.H. Lawrence, Eliot, Dylan Thomas. If you mean influences in terms of preoccupations, it would be more the short fiction of Flannery O’Connor, Faulkner, Chekhov, Katherine Mansfield. The sort of epiphanies their stories provided were what I hoped to do in poems. Originally, I wrote a good deal of fiction, but over time found myself concentrating on poetry.

4.  What do you consider your poetic style to be? 
I think each poem finds its own best style. Most of my poetry is free verse with a lot of internal rhyme and meter. Sound is important to me. I also like to write sestinas, a form that is fun and challenging, that invites a certain amount of word play. For many years, I followed the fashion of upper-lower case prose style in poems, but over the past several years I have been capping first lines as the classical poets used to do. I like that it enables one to stress a particular word—and then, a friend once said it made my poems look “stately” and of course, I fell for that.

5.  What topics do you tend to write about?
Any and everything. I’ve had books with the themes of relationships (How the Sky Begins to Fall), crime and saints (The Lonely Hearts Killers), art (The Chagall Poems), country noir with horses (Dead Horses), nature (Properties of Matter), abstractions/surrealism (Bittersweet) and currently I have a chapbook forthcoming which addresses the muse of history (Ah Clio) and a ms. of body part poems (The Body in Question). Working as a journalist, trained me to be observant.

6.  What advice would you give to a novice poet?
Read. Read. Read. Not to imitate, but to set the mood for poetic inspiration. And of course, write. Revision is important; however one must distinguish between those poems that arrive full-blown and those that need work, to avoid ruining the former. Joining a writing group or taking classes is helpful.The feedback you get from peers can be invaluable. It’s also essential to hone your own critical judgement so you can be as objective as possible about your own work—which is why it is always a good idea to put a new poem on ice for a bit.

7.  What advice would you offer to someone who is frustrated because his/her work is constantly being rejected by journals he/she submits to?
Every writer gets rejections. Sometimes, a poem doesn’t fit a particular journal (helps to read an issue). Sometimes, it doesn’t suit an editor’s taste. I’m often surprised at which poem is selected for publication out of a group I’ve submitted. One must be persistent and not take rejection personally. As with any craft, practice is critical to improvement. You can’t get published if you don’t submit. Don’t be afraid to aim high if you believe you’ve got a really good poem. Again, don’t set impossible standards: The New Yorker or die.

8.  What is your ultimate goal as a poet?  Are there any specific awards or prizes you strive for?
My goal in writing has always been to find out what the poem will tell me. That’s foremost. But like most people, I like to see my work acknowledged. I’ve been published in journals like Poetry and Grand Street. That’s rewarding. I’d like to be in the New Yorker or American Poetry Review. I’ve received a fellowship in literature and several literary awards from the Illinois Arts Council. I’ve been runner-up in some major contests (I’d like to win one!). Having my Selected Poems—a compilation of over 40 years—published last year was extremely gratifying.

Interview w/ Poet John Grey

1.  When did you start writing poetry and why?

I started in my teens. For the usual reasons I suppose. Looming adolescence,  an urge to write and the fact that poetry came easier to me than prose at the time.

2.  What is your writing process?

These days, I write from 7.00 A.M. to 7.00 P.M. with breaks for lunch and exercise. It’s not all poetry. I write short stories also. And, of course, some of that time has to be set aside for what I call the secretarial work such as submitting and keeping track of work. 

3.  Which poets throughout time have influenced your writing?

The most influential poets remain the ones I encountered in my school days and more of a case of despite them being part of the curriculum. I tended to appreciate the classic dead white males at the weirder end of the spectrum such as Coleridge and Poe.  

4.  What do you consider your poetic style to be? 

I try to write at least four poems a day, more if possible. The only way I can do that is to try to take different approaches each time I sit down to write one. So my style and subject matter do vary a great deal and it’s difficult, from my perspective, to pinpoint any one in particular.

5.  What topics do you tend to write about?

See answer four. Anything is grist for my mill. From politics to relationships to genres like horror and sci fi.

6.  What advice would you give to a novice poet?

Read and then read some more. Write and then write some more. It helps to have a handle on how serious you plan to be on learning and practicing the craft.  And a thick skin is imperative. 

7.  What advice would you offer to someone who is frustrated because his/her work is constantly being rejected by journals he/she submits to?

Knowing what kind of material they accept is a must. But, if you’re comfortable that your material is appropriate, my philosophy is try to write something better than what you sent that was rejected.    

8.  What is your ultimate goal as a poet?  Are there any specific awards or prizes you strive for?

My goal is to continue to improve my work. Other than that, I just take whatever comes my way.

Interview w/ Poet Rose Mary Boehm

1.  When did you start writing poetry and why?

Apparently my first ‘poem’ was set to song (by me) when I was three (smile). Being German born and -raised, this happened in the German language, of course. Later, still in German, I wrote much angst and melancholy, mostly in rhyme. But I also did funny. After 15 years of living in London, I felt secure enough in my new language to write prose again. I took me another 10 years to feel I had the right to write poetry in English, because by then my mother tongue needed crutches from lack of use.   Poetry has a way of writing itself. I like that, but, of course, craft has to hone spontaneity.  I am passionate about language and ‘the word’, about ‘painting’ a scene, capturing those between the-line moments, and hopefully—almost like an impressionist painter—daubing my whitepage with words in order to then stand back and see the whole as it comes together.

2.  What is your writing process?

The technical part: I use the computer which allows me to correct easily, to change my mind, to replace one word with the other, see the poem emerge, swap stanzas, rearrange line breaks, to put a poem on the shelf, TO DELETE(!)… the computer has opened a new world for the way I work.

3.  Which poets throughout time have influenced your writing?

Again, coming from another language one brings a can of different worms to the process of creation with words. With every language you learn a different way of thinking, culture, obsessions, predilections, religion, prejudices, habits. Through time? It’s a looong list, among which stand out perhaps Tucholsky, Kästner, Morgenstern, Enzensberger, Plath, Thomas, Eliot and, of course, Blake & co… and here, in order not to fill three pages, I leave out more recent poets I admire tremendously as in Collins, Frost, Stevens, Cummings, Sandburg, etc…  There are also many present-day young and not so young poets who have not as yet achieved the fame they deserve who also rank very highly on my list.

4.  What do you consider your poetic style to be?

I really don’t know how to answer this question, since I don’t belong to a particular poetic group. I ‘do’ lyrical, speculative, political, even funny, whatever takes my fancy; and I tend to imagine that my style adapts to each subject matter. I mainly write free verse, but I have dabbled in form and rhyme, especially when I am ‘playing’.

5.  What topics do you tend to write about?

Anything and everything, but somehow Peru, where I live, gets a regular look in, as well as Germany during WWII when/where I was a child.

6.   What advice would you give to a novice poet? 

Read poetry. The classics, the romantics, the beatniks, whoever is out there now doing different stuff. Like a student of the fine arts, read and emulate, get the feel of what ‘they’ did, how they did it, what were their tools, what’s in their ‘trick’ box to make a poem memorable. Then let go and bravely swim away.  And: poetry is NOT ‘letting it all hang out’.  It’s that as well, but it’s not enough. Having confessed, you need to craft your confession and make a reader wanting to join you on your journey.  Listen to others, seek critique, cut your favourite lines (not always).

7.  What advice would you offer to someone who is frustrated because his/her work is constantly being rejected by journals he/she submits to?

Join a workshop. Ask those whose work you respect and trust for an honest opinion regarding your writing. If these persons confirm that you’re on the right path, submit, submit, submit and never mind the rejections. You’ll break the vicious circle eventually. But do yourself a favour: read the magazine/journal to which you’re submitting before doing so in order to suss out what they want. Don’t send a lyrical poem about spring to a magazine specializing in hard-hitting political commentary. 

8.  What is your ultimate goal as a poet?  Are there any specific awards or prizes you strive for?

It is nice to see one’s work recognized—of course it is. However, first of all I write for myself, then I would like my work to be read to share the experience. But one thing is writing and being read (and the satisfaction of being published), another it ‘striving’ for recognition. I am sure it would be welcome were it ever to happen, but totally unnecessary for my satisfaction and delight in a successful (as far as I am concerned) poem.  

  

Interview w/ Poet Michael Keshigian

1.  When did you start writing poetry and why?

You could say that I transitioned into poetry from music.  I've been a performing musician and educator for most of my life with undergraduate and post graduate degrees in performance and musicology.  The close relationship of both disciplines attracted my  attention to the written word, especially poetry, where musical characteristics are most prevalent.  It seemed natural therefore, to utilize rhythmic and melodic concepts within the concise and articulate format of poetry. That's been going on now for about 20 years, providing another gratifying creative outlet.

2.  What is your writing process?

The writing process begins with an appreciation for those poets and writers who have contributed to the growth of the genre.  I tend to do much reading, which I believe fosters a solid foundation for the creative process.  Beyond that, I tend to write about events with which I am familiar, personal experiences and interactions with interesting people.  That being said, I rarely carry a full blown idea with me to the keyboard, but rather plant a seed on the screen and work on it until it blossoms into something that is satisfying.  Although it is cliche, the words seemingly have a tendency to write themselves.

3.  Which poets throughout time have influenced your writing?It is difficult to name one or two poets as leading influences.  Usually I move from one poet to another and discover that poet's idiosyncrasy and the uniqueness he/she brings to the discipline.  With that appreciation come a synthesis of styles and influences that allows me to trickle out my own expression.

4.  What do you consider your poetic style to be?  Most of my writing is free verse though my earliest attempts were in more traditional forms.  I've also dabbled with haiku and other fixed line forms.

5.  What topics do you tend to write about?Almost anything can trigger an internal urge to write a poem, any single, momentary experience to a monumental event that has touched the lives of many.

6.  What advice would you give to a novice poet?

The process begins with becoming aware of oneself; tendencies, idiosyncrasies that are salient characteristics that offer you your perspective of life and the world.  Take that perspective and foster its growth on the written page.  But it is not all about inspiration.  Read and learn from those who have developed the technique to become successful.  Synthesize your imagination with familiarity and the technical ability to deliver your message.

7.  What advice would you offer to someone who is frustrated because his/her work is constantly being rejected by journals he/she submits to?
Identify the problem.  It might be as simple as finding the proper venue for your efforts.  If constructive criticism is offered, re-evaluate your delivery without sacrificing your intent.  There is an editor out there who will like your subject matter if you know of what you write and your technique sells the product.  Above all, be persistent.  Most times, it really does boil down to a matter of taste.

8.  What is your ultimate goal as a poet?  Are there any specific awards or prizes you strive for?

Just to keep on writing with the hope that those who read my efforts take a piece of my insight with them. An ah ha moment, if you will.  Awards and prizes can be satisfying by-products, but the ultimate goal is to get your message out and your perspective acknowledged, which essentially translates into continued publication.

Interview w/ Poet Richard Schnap

1.  When did you start writing poetry and why?
I was raised in a very literate family. My childhood was filled with books of all kinds and I began writing when I think I was in grade school, things like fantastic stories and comic books. In college I studied fiction and poetry as dual majors and produced the first of three self-published collection of poems augmented by collages. My three passions are art, music and writing and over the last three decades I've bounced between the the three at will but eventually settled to a combinations of poetry and collages. I create because it feels natural.

2.  What is your writing process?
One of my primary rules is to write about things I know as intimately as possible: people, places and events although I leave room for pure journeys of my imagination which usually are initially grounded in something I see in the world around me but can take off in any direction, almost as if they start writing themselves.

3.  Which poets throughout time have influenced your writing?     
I actually don't read a lot of poetry. I listen to the lyrics of a large collection of recorded music I own and the only poetry I regularly hear is that from a small weekly writing workshop I'm a part of.

4.  What do you consider your poetic style to be?  
I would say my style is the inherent musical quality of my poems which I've internalized through the hundreds of songs I've written for various musical groups over the years. Also, I place an emphasis on what I call the "architecture" of a poem, also derived from songwriting, where a typical poem of mine is designed in a set number of stanzas and lines with a definite rhythm to them. I have never been a big fan of free verse poetry which is why my poems are constructed in this way. Twenty years ago, though, I did write all my work in free verse.

5.  What topics do you tend to write about?
As I've said, things in the world, people I know or have known, experiences I've had recently from the distant past, anything as long as it's something taken in some way from real life.

6.  What advice would you give to a novice poet?
I believe a writer or any artist must find their own path themselves but some hints I would offer are to notice the world around you and within you, how it looks, sounds, smells, tastes, makes you feel. Experiment, try different things, different voices. Find other writers you like especially and analyze how they do it. This process can take five minutes or five decades, it's different for everyone.

7.  What advice would you offer to someone who is frustrated because his/her work is constantly being rejected by journals he/she submits to?
An outstanding resource I have used to great success is Duotrope.com.  It can help you identify journals that your work may find good homes in.  Plus, be aware that specific editors may like your work more than others.  I have a dozen or so magazines now I regularly submit to, people who i are what I consider friends, in writing and in life.

8.  What is your ultimate goal as a poet?  Are there any specific awards or prizes you strive for?
I just want to keep writing and hopefully keep getting published. I really don't care about awards or prizes but I wouldn't mind someday to have a book, or books, of my collected work published somehow, perhaps as an ebook for free download. But if I don't it doesn't matter. I have been blessed to have my work displayed on the Internet for billions to see.  That is enough satisfaction for me.