- Joined
- Apr 12, 2005
- Messages
- 21,856
- Reaction score
- 10,453
Continuing the tradition: Here are Trish's answers to the Twenty Questions. I've also posted them in the locked thread for posterity; read and discuss here.
Thank you, Trish -- and you're on a roll already!
=======================
1. When did you start writing poetry? At a very young age, probably 8 or 9. I would take my allowance and spend the money on notebooks so I could write poems. I continued through junior high and high school and college writing constantly.
2. What other writing do you do regularly? I write fiction - short stories and am working on my second novel.
3. Do you think of yourself primarily as a poet?
For a long time I didn't. I neglected it for a few years. Then I came to AW because I had finished my first novel and found the poetry forum, and the pull to it re-emerged. It has taken me this year or so to get comfortable writing poetry again, and to make some improvements on the work. I had forgotten the "voice" I had and needed to sharpen the tools a bit. Now, yes, I would say I am more comfortable in my poetry writing than story writing.
4. Why do you write poetry? Because I always have. Love of words. They are music to me. I have always been inspired by well-written words. Poetry is the outlet for that creativity, that, at least to me, is a story in its most powerful and distilled form. A lot can happen in a very small span of words, with the discipline to choose the right words and right form. It is a craft I want to master.
5. How does writing poetry relate with your other writing?
Description with metaphor, meter, inference and rhythm are all part of prose, too. Poetry hones those skills. It is an integral part of my other writing.
6. Beyond Absolute Write, what is your publication/performance history? I have 2 poems published and a third in June. I haven't been so great with submitting. I don't feel the skill level is where I want it to be and I have a fear of failure (and some would say fear of success). Though mostly the publishing part of it isn't so wholly important to me, its the writing, and study of the craft, and knowing that people read them and like them.
7. How often do you write poems? At least a couple each week. Some days I would write several in a day. I try to put pen to paper every day for poetry.
8. What goals, if any, do you have for your poetry? No particular goals other than to improve my own abilities.
9. Do you set out to write a poem, does it compel you to write it, or something else? It happens a lot of different ways, sometimes I set out to write and see what lands on the page, other times an idea comes to me that requires writing. Many times, in the writing about people (particularly writing about people at AW), I have thought of a person and chosen a metaphor that suits him/her and the poem flows from the metaphor. Really it happens in so many different ways it is hard to say.
10. What formal, semantic, or thematic traits do you prefer to use in your poems? I am lousy with form poetry. I am much better with free-form. Though I do try to make sure there is a union between the layout of the poem and its subject. Thematically, I tend to lean towards nature and elements. Subject matter tends towards characters. People are a driving force in most of my work.
11. Which usually comes first: Topic/idea, form, words? Other?
Sometimes a phrase will come to me. As an example Past Lives of Grass was written when the phrase "a sentiment from the past lives of grass" came to me. Sometimes I will think of a particular person, such as in the AW collection, that person + the metaphor that best suits them = the poem. Sometimes a memory triggers them. Form is never first. I never set out to write a particular kind of poem.
12. Do you revise? Right away, later on? How do you decide when you've finished with a poem?
I revise while I write, after I write, there is always a tweak or two. Sometimes I will consider it done and then weeks later go back to it to make more changes. The stepping away is a helpful tool for me so I can see it with fresh eyes. If I let go and just write, I do best with minimal revision. I can kill the flow of written words swiftly when I “get hacking” at it editorially.
13. How did you come to be interested in poetry?
I don't really think I know. My Grandmother always loved poetry. She had several poems around her house, on the refrigerator, in a frame with a picture, in books, etc. She is a big influence on me still. I think it was her love of poetry that made me want to write it. Then at an older age, my stepmother had a box in the attic full of notebooks and binders, and a lot of poetry in them. I read them constantly, and it focused the desire to write even more.
14. What particular poem or poet first attracted you to poetry? It was such a young age, I can't remember any poem in particular that attracted me to poetry. All of it I could get my hands on. Nothing stands out to me as "the first".
15. What poems, poets, movements or eras have influenced you as a poet: which do you particularly enjoy, admire, or aspire toward? Some influences for me include the Beat poets, Walt Whitman, William Shakespeare, I also love reading Sylvia Plath, Robert Frost, EE Cummings, Edgar Allan Poe, etc. I could go on and on. I am not biased to any particular style or poet.
We have a vast amount of poetic talent here and I would venture to say that I have also been influenced a great deal by our very own William Haskins, Poetinahat, Trumancoyote and KTC, to just name a few. I have made more improvement in this last year here with the guidance of good poets than I did in all my time reading them for years before I think.
16. What single poem of yours would you recommend to someone who had never read your work? My favorite work changes frequently. Right now the answer is Words Without Paper, tomorrow any number of others, but quite often I would recommend the newest.
17. What are your thoughts on poetry today: its function, future, direction, relevance?
Wow, this is a tough one. It is highly accessible now through electronic media, and shared by groups like this, though I wonder at how many people actually read and study it.
18. What, in your view, makes a written/spoken work a poem? Use of poetic tools such as metaphor (and the bazillion others that could be used as well), and the ever-present requisite of intention.
19. What do you like about your own poetry? My poetry is frequently emotionally driven and we all have those, so people can relate, I think. And the topic is generally accessible to the reader. I also like those elusive "perfect words". They don't happen too often, but occasionally I write a phrase that is a gem and it makes the whole poem around it worth it.
20. What would you say to someone who wants to learn to write poetry well? Practice. Keep writing, don't be afraid to try new things, take constructive criticism and give it to other poets. The evolution of a poet's body of work is so important. It marks the progress. Consider that what you write today is the stepping stone for the poet you will be in a year, or two, or ten. Read a lot of poetry, challenge yourself to grow.
Thank you, Trish -- and you're on a roll already!
=======================
1. When did you start writing poetry? At a very young age, probably 8 or 9. I would take my allowance and spend the money on notebooks so I could write poems. I continued through junior high and high school and college writing constantly.
2. What other writing do you do regularly? I write fiction - short stories and am working on my second novel.
3. Do you think of yourself primarily as a poet?
For a long time I didn't. I neglected it for a few years. Then I came to AW because I had finished my first novel and found the poetry forum, and the pull to it re-emerged. It has taken me this year or so to get comfortable writing poetry again, and to make some improvements on the work. I had forgotten the "voice" I had and needed to sharpen the tools a bit. Now, yes, I would say I am more comfortable in my poetry writing than story writing.
4. Why do you write poetry? Because I always have. Love of words. They are music to me. I have always been inspired by well-written words. Poetry is the outlet for that creativity, that, at least to me, is a story in its most powerful and distilled form. A lot can happen in a very small span of words, with the discipline to choose the right words and right form. It is a craft I want to master.
5. How does writing poetry relate with your other writing?
Description with metaphor, meter, inference and rhythm are all part of prose, too. Poetry hones those skills. It is an integral part of my other writing.
6. Beyond Absolute Write, what is your publication/performance history? I have 2 poems published and a third in June. I haven't been so great with submitting. I don't feel the skill level is where I want it to be and I have a fear of failure (and some would say fear of success). Though mostly the publishing part of it isn't so wholly important to me, its the writing, and study of the craft, and knowing that people read them and like them.
7. How often do you write poems? At least a couple each week. Some days I would write several in a day. I try to put pen to paper every day for poetry.
8. What goals, if any, do you have for your poetry? No particular goals other than to improve my own abilities.
9. Do you set out to write a poem, does it compel you to write it, or something else? It happens a lot of different ways, sometimes I set out to write and see what lands on the page, other times an idea comes to me that requires writing. Many times, in the writing about people (particularly writing about people at AW), I have thought of a person and chosen a metaphor that suits him/her and the poem flows from the metaphor. Really it happens in so many different ways it is hard to say.
10. What formal, semantic, or thematic traits do you prefer to use in your poems? I am lousy with form poetry. I am much better with free-form. Though I do try to make sure there is a union between the layout of the poem and its subject. Thematically, I tend to lean towards nature and elements. Subject matter tends towards characters. People are a driving force in most of my work.
11. Which usually comes first: Topic/idea, form, words? Other?
Sometimes a phrase will come to me. As an example Past Lives of Grass was written when the phrase "a sentiment from the past lives of grass" came to me. Sometimes I will think of a particular person, such as in the AW collection, that person + the metaphor that best suits them = the poem. Sometimes a memory triggers them. Form is never first. I never set out to write a particular kind of poem.
12. Do you revise? Right away, later on? How do you decide when you've finished with a poem?
I revise while I write, after I write, there is always a tweak or two. Sometimes I will consider it done and then weeks later go back to it to make more changes. The stepping away is a helpful tool for me so I can see it with fresh eyes. If I let go and just write, I do best with minimal revision. I can kill the flow of written words swiftly when I “get hacking” at it editorially.
13. How did you come to be interested in poetry?
I don't really think I know. My Grandmother always loved poetry. She had several poems around her house, on the refrigerator, in a frame with a picture, in books, etc. She is a big influence on me still. I think it was her love of poetry that made me want to write it. Then at an older age, my stepmother had a box in the attic full of notebooks and binders, and a lot of poetry in them. I read them constantly, and it focused the desire to write even more.
14. What particular poem or poet first attracted you to poetry? It was such a young age, I can't remember any poem in particular that attracted me to poetry. All of it I could get my hands on. Nothing stands out to me as "the first".
15. What poems, poets, movements or eras have influenced you as a poet: which do you particularly enjoy, admire, or aspire toward? Some influences for me include the Beat poets, Walt Whitman, William Shakespeare, I also love reading Sylvia Plath, Robert Frost, EE Cummings, Edgar Allan Poe, etc. I could go on and on. I am not biased to any particular style or poet.
We have a vast amount of poetic talent here and I would venture to say that I have also been influenced a great deal by our very own William Haskins, Poetinahat, Trumancoyote and KTC, to just name a few. I have made more improvement in this last year here with the guidance of good poets than I did in all my time reading them for years before I think.
16. What single poem of yours would you recommend to someone who had never read your work? My favorite work changes frequently. Right now the answer is Words Without Paper, tomorrow any number of others, but quite often I would recommend the newest.
17. What are your thoughts on poetry today: its function, future, direction, relevance?
Wow, this is a tough one. It is highly accessible now through electronic media, and shared by groups like this, though I wonder at how many people actually read and study it.
18. What, in your view, makes a written/spoken work a poem? Use of poetic tools such as metaphor (and the bazillion others that could be used as well), and the ever-present requisite of intention.
19. What do you like about your own poetry? My poetry is frequently emotionally driven and we all have those, so people can relate, I think. And the topic is generally accessible to the reader. I also like those elusive "perfect words". They don't happen too often, but occasionally I write a phrase that is a gem and it makes the whole poem around it worth it.
20. What would you say to someone who wants to learn to write poetry well? Practice. Keep writing, don't be afraid to try new things, take constructive criticism and give it to other poets. The evolution of a poet's body of work is so important. It marks the progress. Consider that what you write today is the stepping stone for the poet you will be in a year, or two, or ten. Read a lot of poetry, challenge yourself to grow.
