Writing Poetry in the Dark, Roundtable 1: The Mystical

Hello Friends and Fiends--

As we prepare for the release of Writing Poetry in the Dark, I wanted to continue to educate and spread some more wisdom via the courtesy of our brilliant contributors, all of who have left their mark on the genre in the most magical of ways.

Today's Writing Poetry in the Dark roundtable celebrates Carina Bissett, Saba Syed Razvi, and Leza Cantoral. All of these contributors wrote about the fantastical in some way, whether it was fairy tales (Bissett), the importance of mythologizing our lives (Razvi), or how we can communicate with ghosts and channel them in our writing (Cantoral).

I hope you'll enjoy our conversations and maybe consider picking up a book or two on your way out. Also, please keep in mind that our Writing Poetry in the Dark event is being held October 8-10 and will include multiple live workshops and many fabulous presentations. Carina Bissett, folklorist extraordinaire, will be presenting a lecture titled "Fairy Tale Poetics: New Wine in Old Bottles," and I can speak from personal experience that Bissett is a phenomenal instructor so this is not something you want to miss!

Best,

Stephanie M. Wytovich

SMW: What is something you had to learn the hard way with writing poetry, i.e. a teachable moment in your career?

CB: I’ve only had one opportunity for a formal study of poetry, and that was in the third semester of my MFA at Stonecoast (University of Southern Maine) with the award-winning poet Cate Marvin. In fact, I strongly suggest readers pick up Oracle: Poems (2015) and her most recent release Event Horizon (2022). At the time, my poetry tended towards the abstract, but Cate urged me to connect my imagery with the grittiness of real life. It took me a couple of years before I took that advice to heart, but I’ve since rewritten and placed the poems in that first submission. It has been the most influential lesson I’ve learned so far when it comes to crafting poetry.

LC: People don’t really get excited about poetry unless you have a strong brand or persona. The other route is to win awards or just become beloved in a niche scene. But yeah, it’s tough as hell to sell a poetry collection. I did not generate much interest in mine when I published it (Trash Panda, CLASH Books). I plan to do another one in the future & hope that by that time enough people will know about me to be curious enough to buy it.

SR: The poem will be ready on its own timeline; sometimes, that means years, sometimes a moment. The poem is sometimes an expression of what we understand, but at others, it is a way to make a journey toward knowing — and when you’re stuck in a poem, that journey may reveal more than you expected. The mythos of the moment.

An example: In one of my first grad poetry workshops, I was studying with a poet whose works I really love. I submitted a poem that came as close to saying what I wanted to say as it could, but I knew something was missing. I didn’t want to disappoint the poet and I didn’t want to do a disservice to my own poem. The poet’s critique at the time, though kindly expressed, felt crushing because the poem felt like a failure: even though the vision of the poem meant a great deal to me, I couldn’t express it beyond the way I had, and their advice would have changed the poem in ways that betrayed it. So I just set the poem aside, letting it go. About a decade later, I revisited the poem while working on a book because something in the book felt missing and I wondered if that one poem could yield some insight. The initial line of criticism of something to remove in that poem turned out to be just the thing I needed to lean into: the poem went from seven couplets to seven pages. It wasn’t that the changes suggested would have made the poem better but that the changes suggested highlighted something about the inner working of the poem that I didn’t yet have the craft to articulate, but that I could see later on. In the decade between when the poem first appeared and when it found itself finished, I had understood how to make space for my own voice, how to own it in the context of that vision, and how to allow it to be wholly mine rather than something that enacts someone else’s poetics or vision. The poem unfolded in its own time — and it was both the product of a moment’s inspiration and the space of a journey from dreams to dreaming. I had to learn to trust the instinct of that poetic impulse, even if it wasn’t yet fully developed. Sometimes, persistence means letting the poem come to you on its own terms. And sometimes, looking not directly but sideways at a poetic technique shows you what it can be.

SMW: What poetry collection would you recommend to someone interested in studying poetry? This can be speculative poetry, literary poetry, classic, contemporary, etc.

CB: When it comes to speculative poetry, Anne Sexton’s Transformations (1971) is at the top of my list. However, my current favorite collection overall, when it comes to technique and style, is Ada Limón’s Bright Dead Things (2015), which was a finalist for both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

LC: Ariel by Sylvia Plath

SR: The temptation here for me is to suggest the best book of poems I know, or one that has had a big influence on me, but…that would just suggest that I recommend students of poetry take my path instead of their own — and paths tend to change, as we change. I think that those who are drawn to poetry already have a strong sense of what inspires them in the literature itself. Read anything and everything — and keep a record of what you love, what you hate, what turns of phrase delight you or annoy you, what things you want to change or replicate in your own voice. Have a conversation with yourself about it. But also, think about what writers have to say about writing. Build awareness.

What I’d suggest instead is Rilke’s “Letters to a Young Poet.” I think it’s a good choice mainly because it reminds us that poetry is part of a conversation with ourselves and others and with tradition and culture, that we are always changing as writers, and that seeking to understand the development of one’s art is a good thing, a thing which helps poets persevere and not feel like their genius inspiration has abandoned them on days when it isn’t easy.

Writers’ artistic statements, essays, and manifestos also sometimes give us an insight into our own engagements with the poetic process. A conversation with the self and an engagement with other voices — or vice versa, are what help writers transcend the immediate, personal, intimate need for self-expression that sparks a poem and help writers bring that poem into a larger sphere of being.

Of course, if you really want me to name some poets ai think people should read, I can oblige. Here is an incomplete list. Consider Rumi, Lorca, Baudelaire, Ghalib, HD, Mina Loy, Edna St Vincent Millay, Naomi Shihab Nye, Forugh Farrokhzad, Emily Dickinson.

SMW: One piece of advice for all our poets-to-be.

CB: I think it’s important for poets to continually challenge themselves by reading outside their selected genre(s). I also encourage poets to experiment with various poetic techniques and forms. 

LC: Do it for yourself & challenge yourself.

SR: Write for yourself, sell for the market, and don’t mix up those two domains when the going gets confusing. Poetry writing is not the same as the poetry publishing business. Writing for the market can be helpful in establishing your career, but if you also write for yourself, if you chase the big questions and curiosities that drive you, you’ll reach people you never expected to reach — and you’ll be satisfied more with your artistic journey than your CV. It’s important to get your work out there (so don’t ignore the market), but don’t forget that your art should also be a sanctuary inside of the chambers or your own heart. In a way, I suppose I mean that you should strive to believe in your vision — and create a space for that vision — that allows you to coexist alongside the highs and lows of publishing trends and realities. You’ve got to be able to love the poetry as much as seeing the poetry out there in the world, I believe.

If you enjoyed this interview and appreciate the work we do here in The Madhouse, you can show your support for the blog by "buying a coffee" (or two!) for our madwoman in residence: me! As always, I thank you for your time and support and I look forward to serving you another dose of all things unsettling and horrifying soon.