Caseyquinn's Poet Laureate Q&A
1. When did you start writing poetry?
About six years ago I started to try and put some structure to my writing. Had always taken notes, ideas in notebooks, but never knew how to express them as an end product. After reading a lot more of free verse poetry I enjoyed the outlet and gave it a try.
2. What other writing do you do regularly?
I try to write a few micro/flash and short stories a month. Usually in horror or science fiction genre and send those on in to some anthologies or collections I see marketed. I have tried to write out a novel a few times, have two written, but that is just not my thing. I know my limitations and it is about 3,000 words. They will collect dust.
3. Do you think of yourself primarily as a poet?
At this point, I would say yes but really think of myself as a writer. When I hear poet I think of someone who knows what they are doing. I am still very much in the learning stages of my development. I make more mistakes than I do have successes and so a novice writer I feel is a better way to think of myself.
4. Why do you write poetry?
Poetry is just what clicked with me. I do think that life is crazier than fiction. What people do in the real world is crazier than the greatest imagination can come up with. I think poetry gave me an outlet to write on what interests me and that is how people interact on a daily basis, our society, our relationships. Fiction creates this world of the writer but poetry involves the reader in the world they already live in. For me, that is more enjoyable, being able to relate.
5. How does writing poetry relate with your other writing?
Apples and oranges really. My poetry is more on personal observations while my short fiction is more horror and science fiction based. I think the only link between the two would be I try to apply the same minimalism in both. Not going overboard with descriptions but trying to get to the point of the story without beating it over the readers head.
6. Beyond Absolute Write, what is your publication/performance history?
To date I have had about 150 poems published in different anthologies, online and print publications. My first poetry chapbook was released by a small publishing company (Salvatore Publishing now bankrupt) it was called Snapshots of Life. My second chapbook was picked up by another small press run by the Boston Literary Magazine called Prepare To Crash and will be released in November 2009.
My short fiction has been included in 5 print anthologies and been published in about 10 – 15 print or online magazines.
7. How often do you write poems?
For a long while I wrote a poem a day at least a draft of one but lately the well has run dry and now back to taking notes. I try to jot down some notes each day and wait for some motivation to convert notes to a poem or realize my notes were garbage and delete. I try to produce something daily – garbage or not.
8. What goals, if any, do you have for your poetry?
To be honest, my goal is to have my poetry reviewed or read by poets I respect and hear they enjoyed it. I would like to get chapbooks published every so often; I would like to build a name for myself, but only if the basis for that name was quality and respect of output. Poetry isn’t like fiction where one novel makes a name for you. I think writers of poetry need to consistently deliver for decades before they have a name. My goal is to be able to keep doing what I am doing three decades from now.
9. Do you set out to write a poem, does it compel you to write it, or something else?
If I sit down to write a poem it always ends up like crap. Forced lines, cliché garbage that no one wants to read. Usually during the course of a day I will have some interaction that I thought interesting and I jot it down in a notebook or take a mental note of it. Whenever I have the time I open up the notebook and pick some notes or lines I enjoyed and try to develop them a little. Sometimes this results in an outpouring of many poems finished at once and at other times a dry spell where notes build up but no finished products in sight.
10. What formal, semantic, or thematic traits do you prefer to use in your poems?
The scope of my writing is usually very low level. A second of time or simple interaction/observation. I try to avoid like the plague abstractions or trying to solve the world’s problems with one poem. I try to avoid writing poems about love or death as too many have been written already. I don’t feel the need to look up new and exciting words to use in poems, common language is okay by me. I think less is best and so often I get called a minimalist more so in my descriptions of objects. I try different forms and styles though I think it takes years to develop a voice and so it is fun to experiment but unless you are committed to a style it is hard to become successful unless you stick to your developed voice.
11. Which usually comes first: Topic/idea, form, words? Other?
Content is King. Form is secondary. Too many people worry about how the poem looks on the page and not the words themselves. Form is to facilitate reading IMO – but if you write a crappy poem it doesn’t matter what it looks like, how it rhymes or what the syllable count is. No one will want to read it. Content is King.
12. Do you revise? Right away, later on? How do you decide when you've finished with a poem?
Like I mentioned above, I usually take notes and work them into a draft for a poem. I will leave it for a bit and come back and revise some more. Sometimes I think I got it right the first time I might run with it but usually those come back in the form of rejections. Best to let it sit for a while. I know I am done with the poem when it was accepted somewhere… but still, it might get tweaked if needed.
13. How did you come to be interested in poetry?
When I started to move off reading form poetry and more free verse. I have complete respect for form poetry, it is a discipline and skill set I will never have no matter how hard I try but to me the reading of it often times felt like the form was dictating the lines, the words. Free verse writers could say what they wanted to say, without needing to fit a mold. Gave the flexibility to be more honest I felt in the writing. It attracted me.
14. What particular poem or poet first attracted you to poetry?
I always have enjoyed ee cummings, Walt Whitman and Charles Bukowski - These guys pushed the limits a little.
15. What poems, poets, movements or eras have influenced you as a poet: which do you particularly enjoy, admire, or aspire toward?
Breaking of the mold. Free verse poetry, minimalists, experimental poetry, etc. Anyone willing to take a chance and do something different with quality. Over the last two years or more I have learned a great deal from a poet named John Yamrus. He writes in a very easy conversational style. Writes about down to earth topics.
16. What single poem of yours would you recommend to someone who had never read your work?
Damn. I have no idea. The title poem for my second chapbook is Prepare To Crash. That would be a good place to start most likely.
17. What are your thoughts on poetry today: its function, future, direction, relevance?
It serves as an outlet like it always has. Like any art form. I think the internet as much as it hurts the quality of poetry; it helps spread the good ones too. The issue I have seen is that poets don’t sell their own books. Your average chapbook sells 10 – 15 copies. Poets need to set up readings. Get motivated to sell books, push the heck out of their writing. Get known. Instead they lie down and say no one likes poetry, no one buys poetry, poor me. Poetry is fine and will always be fine. Poets just need to push their books harder to get more sales to support the small presses that backed them. Sales = Poetry Revival.
18. What, in your view, makes a written/spoken work a poem?
When the words go beyond the page. Prose tells a story where the reader takes each word at face value. Poetry needs to go beyond that. Each word needs to be selected for a specific reason. You don’t tell the reader what you want them to know, you show them images and let them draw a conclusion which may or may not be what you wanted but that is the gamble of writing poetry.
19. What do you like about your own poetry?
I hope that it doesn’t try to do more than document life a little. That it is simple and that those who read it can relate in their own life.
20. What would you say to someone who wants to learn to write poetry well?
It is a combination of two things. Reading and writing. Read a ton of poetry and find writers who you enjoy. Once you find a style you like, read a ton in that style and a range within that style. Write daily. Even if it is crap, just write. Each time you write something you develop your voice. You begin to recognize what you just wrote was crap and work to improve it. Don’t be afraid to try new things out; don’t be afraid to lay out your thoughts and feelings on the page. People want to read truth, don’t write what you think something would be like, write what you know, have experienced or can relate to in some way.
1. When did you start writing poetry?
About six years ago I started to try and put some structure to my writing. Had always taken notes, ideas in notebooks, but never knew how to express them as an end product. After reading a lot more of free verse poetry I enjoyed the outlet and gave it a try.
2. What other writing do you do regularly?
I try to write a few micro/flash and short stories a month. Usually in horror or science fiction genre and send those on in to some anthologies or collections I see marketed. I have tried to write out a novel a few times, have two written, but that is just not my thing. I know my limitations and it is about 3,000 words. They will collect dust.
3. Do you think of yourself primarily as a poet?
At this point, I would say yes but really think of myself as a writer. When I hear poet I think of someone who knows what they are doing. I am still very much in the learning stages of my development. I make more mistakes than I do have successes and so a novice writer I feel is a better way to think of myself.
4. Why do you write poetry?
Poetry is just what clicked with me. I do think that life is crazier than fiction. What people do in the real world is crazier than the greatest imagination can come up with. I think poetry gave me an outlet to write on what interests me and that is how people interact on a daily basis, our society, our relationships. Fiction creates this world of the writer but poetry involves the reader in the world they already live in. For me, that is more enjoyable, being able to relate.
5. How does writing poetry relate with your other writing?
Apples and oranges really. My poetry is more on personal observations while my short fiction is more horror and science fiction based. I think the only link between the two would be I try to apply the same minimalism in both. Not going overboard with descriptions but trying to get to the point of the story without beating it over the readers head.
6. Beyond Absolute Write, what is your publication/performance history?
To date I have had about 150 poems published in different anthologies, online and print publications. My first poetry chapbook was released by a small publishing company (Salvatore Publishing now bankrupt) it was called Snapshots of Life. My second chapbook was picked up by another small press run by the Boston Literary Magazine called Prepare To Crash and will be released in November 2009.
My short fiction has been included in 5 print anthologies and been published in about 10 – 15 print or online magazines.
7. How often do you write poems?
For a long while I wrote a poem a day at least a draft of one but lately the well has run dry and now back to taking notes. I try to jot down some notes each day and wait for some motivation to convert notes to a poem or realize my notes were garbage and delete. I try to produce something daily – garbage or not.
8. What goals, if any, do you have for your poetry?
To be honest, my goal is to have my poetry reviewed or read by poets I respect and hear they enjoyed it. I would like to get chapbooks published every so often; I would like to build a name for myself, but only if the basis for that name was quality and respect of output. Poetry isn’t like fiction where one novel makes a name for you. I think writers of poetry need to consistently deliver for decades before they have a name. My goal is to be able to keep doing what I am doing three decades from now.
9. Do you set out to write a poem, does it compel you to write it, or something else?
If I sit down to write a poem it always ends up like crap. Forced lines, cliché garbage that no one wants to read. Usually during the course of a day I will have some interaction that I thought interesting and I jot it down in a notebook or take a mental note of it. Whenever I have the time I open up the notebook and pick some notes or lines I enjoyed and try to develop them a little. Sometimes this results in an outpouring of many poems finished at once and at other times a dry spell where notes build up but no finished products in sight.
10. What formal, semantic, or thematic traits do you prefer to use in your poems?
The scope of my writing is usually very low level. A second of time or simple interaction/observation. I try to avoid like the plague abstractions or trying to solve the world’s problems with one poem. I try to avoid writing poems about love or death as too many have been written already. I don’t feel the need to look up new and exciting words to use in poems, common language is okay by me. I think less is best and so often I get called a minimalist more so in my descriptions of objects. I try different forms and styles though I think it takes years to develop a voice and so it is fun to experiment but unless you are committed to a style it is hard to become successful unless you stick to your developed voice.
11. Which usually comes first: Topic/idea, form, words? Other?
Content is King. Form is secondary. Too many people worry about how the poem looks on the page and not the words themselves. Form is to facilitate reading IMO – but if you write a crappy poem it doesn’t matter what it looks like, how it rhymes or what the syllable count is. No one will want to read it. Content is King.
12. Do you revise? Right away, later on? How do you decide when you've finished with a poem?
Like I mentioned above, I usually take notes and work them into a draft for a poem. I will leave it for a bit and come back and revise some more. Sometimes I think I got it right the first time I might run with it but usually those come back in the form of rejections. Best to let it sit for a while. I know I am done with the poem when it was accepted somewhere… but still, it might get tweaked if needed.
13. How did you come to be interested in poetry?
When I started to move off reading form poetry and more free verse. I have complete respect for form poetry, it is a discipline and skill set I will never have no matter how hard I try but to me the reading of it often times felt like the form was dictating the lines, the words. Free verse writers could say what they wanted to say, without needing to fit a mold. Gave the flexibility to be more honest I felt in the writing. It attracted me.
14. What particular poem or poet first attracted you to poetry?
I always have enjoyed ee cummings, Walt Whitman and Charles Bukowski - These guys pushed the limits a little.
15. What poems, poets, movements or eras have influenced you as a poet: which do you particularly enjoy, admire, or aspire toward?
Breaking of the mold. Free verse poetry, minimalists, experimental poetry, etc. Anyone willing to take a chance and do something different with quality. Over the last two years or more I have learned a great deal from a poet named John Yamrus. He writes in a very easy conversational style. Writes about down to earth topics.
16. What single poem of yours would you recommend to someone who had never read your work?
Damn. I have no idea. The title poem for my second chapbook is Prepare To Crash. That would be a good place to start most likely.
17. What are your thoughts on poetry today: its function, future, direction, relevance?
It serves as an outlet like it always has. Like any art form. I think the internet as much as it hurts the quality of poetry; it helps spread the good ones too. The issue I have seen is that poets don’t sell their own books. Your average chapbook sells 10 – 15 copies. Poets need to set up readings. Get motivated to sell books, push the heck out of their writing. Get known. Instead they lie down and say no one likes poetry, no one buys poetry, poor me. Poetry is fine and will always be fine. Poets just need to push their books harder to get more sales to support the small presses that backed them. Sales = Poetry Revival.
18. What, in your view, makes a written/spoken work a poem?
When the words go beyond the page. Prose tells a story where the reader takes each word at face value. Poetry needs to go beyond that. Each word needs to be selected for a specific reason. You don’t tell the reader what you want them to know, you show them images and let them draw a conclusion which may or may not be what you wanted but that is the gamble of writing poetry.
19. What do you like about your own poetry?
I hope that it doesn’t try to do more than document life a little. That it is simple and that those who read it can relate in their own life.
20. What would you say to someone who wants to learn to write poetry well?
It is a combination of two things. Reading and writing. Read a ton of poetry and find writers who you enjoy. Once you find a style you like, read a ton in that style and a range within that style. Write daily. Even if it is crap, just write. Each time you write something you develop your voice. You begin to recognize what you just wrote was crap and work to improve it. Don’t be afraid to try new things out; don’t be afraid to lay out your thoughts and feelings on the page. People want to read truth, don’t write what you think something would be like, write what you know, have experienced or can relate to in some way.
