poetinahat
10-04-2007, 04:40 AM
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g133/poetinahat/funny/PBPoet.jpg
Paint
1. When did you start writing poetry?
I wrote love poems in High School, and kept them a secret. I have always kept a journal and through the years I have written poems in them as well. I may have to burn them someday, they are pretty sappy poems for the most part. I have never published any of them.
2. What other writing do you do regularly?
I write fiction short stories and have a couple of books written. One is actually edited and ready to go. It is a YA fantasy story I started in NaNo and finished. I am on the hunt for an agent, I send out queries occasionally.
3. Do you think of yourself primarily as a poet?
No, honestly I am a painter first.
4. Why do you write poetry?
I feel a poem first and then translate that feeling into words. Sometimes a poem will wake me and I keep writing materials by the bed. I always like those poems and have published some of them.
I write them because they are.
5. How does writing poetry relate with your other writing?
In Red Sea, my YA book (shameless promo) the MC is a poet. I like to incorporate the two. I like to write a story poetically and lyrical.
6. Beyond Absolute Write, what is your publication/performance history?
Not as much as I'd like--online journals, "Stories of Strengh" and "Finding Change" a handbook for creating change in your life. I self published a Chapbook of poetry and art at lulu.com "Star In A Darkened Sky" I loved that experience and had great fun doing it. I haven't made my first million yet.
7. How often do you write poems?
I write more poems in the winter than I do in the summer. They come in bursts depending on where I am and what I am doing in my life. I find I am greatly affected by the weather as are a lot of poets.
8. What goals, if any, do you have for your poetry?
Right now I am excited about the book we are putting together in the poetry forum. I take it as it comes.
I would like to do paintings that have poems included, but I haven't visualized it yet.
9. Do you set out to write a poem, does it compel you to write it, or something else?
I get a word or a phrase and I can see the whole poem for the most part. Then I get excited and want to write it. Compel, I guess is a good word. It is exciting to think someone will get a peek into my soul, same as painting.
10. What formal, semantic, or thematic traits do you prefer to use in your poems?
I don't like any restriction in my poetry. I write free form always unless it is a contest with rules I am writing for. Like I love limmericks, even they have rules.
11. Which usually comes first: Topic/idea, form, words? Other?
Words followed by a vision. I see what I am writing a poem about, like the Snapshot game, I paint a picture with words.
12. Do you revise? Right away, later on? How do you decide when you've finished with a poem?
Very little revision and some of my poems could use more! But I get too excited about them and want them out! out! out!
13. How did you come to be interested in poetry?
Wow--I think it was always in my head. School I guess, I had some inspiring teachers. I got good grades in Literature. I didn't like school for the most part. The teachers called me "dreamy." Imagine that!
14. What particular poem or poet first attracted you to poetry?
When I really got going on it I loved Carl Sandburg. He lived near me in Galesburg, Il and I related to his poems about our area.
Later I became interested in some of the darker poets.
My mother told me I was a descendant of Edgar Allan Poe. My people are from England (and Scotland,) and some of them have Poe as a middle name as was the custom back then. She swears by it but I have never pursued it. I have the moodiness, that's for sure.
15. What poems, poets, movements or eras have influenced you as a poet: which do you particularly enjoy, admire, or aspire toward?
I love Sylvia Plath, but would never want her life. I like Robert Frost too, and Emily Dickenson. Rather diverse, eh?
16. What single poem of yours would you recommend to someone who had never read your work?
"Black War Stone" from the "Blue Rock" collection.
It is a poem about a true story, written right from the heart. I like to write poetry about political issues and the Viet Nam War can always move me to tears. It's my people, my era.
17. What are your thoughts on poetry today: its function, future, direction, relevance?
I think poetry today is best described in RAP, Rythmic American Poetry. I get a lot of guff about this, but I think the young people of today are writing in RAP what we all think in our heads. They got the guts to say it. Maybe its not what we like to hear but the truth is the truth. I love RAP, but I don't have the booming speakers in my Pathfinder--
18. What, in your view, makes a written/spoken work a poem?
A poem can be one single word. If you see the story when you hear the word its a poem to me. Not always a popular view.
19. What do you like about your own poetry?
When it makes me laugh or cry. When it sends me straight to God like "Star in a Darkened Sky" it's best of all. I love the surge of joy I get when I have done well and the poem is my soul, written down for all to see and feel.
20. What would you say to someone who wants to learn to write poetry well?
Just write from the heart and often.
Paint
1. When did you start writing poetry?
I wrote love poems in High School, and kept them a secret. I have always kept a journal and through the years I have written poems in them as well. I may have to burn them someday, they are pretty sappy poems for the most part. I have never published any of them.
2. What other writing do you do regularly?
I write fiction short stories and have a couple of books written. One is actually edited and ready to go. It is a YA fantasy story I started in NaNo and finished. I am on the hunt for an agent, I send out queries occasionally.
3. Do you think of yourself primarily as a poet?
No, honestly I am a painter first.
4. Why do you write poetry?
I feel a poem first and then translate that feeling into words. Sometimes a poem will wake me and I keep writing materials by the bed. I always like those poems and have published some of them.
I write them because they are.
5. How does writing poetry relate with your other writing?
In Red Sea, my YA book (shameless promo) the MC is a poet. I like to incorporate the two. I like to write a story poetically and lyrical.
6. Beyond Absolute Write, what is your publication/performance history?
Not as much as I'd like--online journals, "Stories of Strengh" and "Finding Change" a handbook for creating change in your life. I self published a Chapbook of poetry and art at lulu.com "Star In A Darkened Sky" I loved that experience and had great fun doing it. I haven't made my first million yet.
7. How often do you write poems?
I write more poems in the winter than I do in the summer. They come in bursts depending on where I am and what I am doing in my life. I find I am greatly affected by the weather as are a lot of poets.
8. What goals, if any, do you have for your poetry?
Right now I am excited about the book we are putting together in the poetry forum. I take it as it comes.
I would like to do paintings that have poems included, but I haven't visualized it yet.
9. Do you set out to write a poem, does it compel you to write it, or something else?
I get a word or a phrase and I can see the whole poem for the most part. Then I get excited and want to write it. Compel, I guess is a good word. It is exciting to think someone will get a peek into my soul, same as painting.
10. What formal, semantic, or thematic traits do you prefer to use in your poems?
I don't like any restriction in my poetry. I write free form always unless it is a contest with rules I am writing for. Like I love limmericks, even they have rules.
11. Which usually comes first: Topic/idea, form, words? Other?
Words followed by a vision. I see what I am writing a poem about, like the Snapshot game, I paint a picture with words.
12. Do you revise? Right away, later on? How do you decide when you've finished with a poem?
Very little revision and some of my poems could use more! But I get too excited about them and want them out! out! out!
13. How did you come to be interested in poetry?
Wow--I think it was always in my head. School I guess, I had some inspiring teachers. I got good grades in Literature. I didn't like school for the most part. The teachers called me "dreamy." Imagine that!
14. What particular poem or poet first attracted you to poetry?
When I really got going on it I loved Carl Sandburg. He lived near me in Galesburg, Il and I related to his poems about our area.
Later I became interested in some of the darker poets.
My mother told me I was a descendant of Edgar Allan Poe. My people are from England (and Scotland,) and some of them have Poe as a middle name as was the custom back then. She swears by it but I have never pursued it. I have the moodiness, that's for sure.
15. What poems, poets, movements or eras have influenced you as a poet: which do you particularly enjoy, admire, or aspire toward?
I love Sylvia Plath, but would never want her life. I like Robert Frost too, and Emily Dickenson. Rather diverse, eh?
16. What single poem of yours would you recommend to someone who had never read your work?
"Black War Stone" from the "Blue Rock" collection.
It is a poem about a true story, written right from the heart. I like to write poetry about political issues and the Viet Nam War can always move me to tears. It's my people, my era.
17. What are your thoughts on poetry today: its function, future, direction, relevance?
I think poetry today is best described in RAP, Rythmic American Poetry. I get a lot of guff about this, but I think the young people of today are writing in RAP what we all think in our heads. They got the guts to say it. Maybe its not what we like to hear but the truth is the truth. I love RAP, but I don't have the booming speakers in my Pathfinder--
18. What, in your view, makes a written/spoken work a poem?
A poem can be one single word. If you see the story when you hear the word its a poem to me. Not always a popular view.
19. What do you like about your own poetry?
When it makes me laugh or cry. When it sends me straight to God like "Star in a Darkened Sky" it's best of all. I love the surge of joy I get when I have done well and the poem is my soul, written down for all to see and feel.
20. What would you say to someone who wants to learn to write poetry well?
Just write from the heart and often.