Writing Poetry in the Dark, Roundtable 4: Across Genres

 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 creative of ways.

Today's Writing Poetry in the Dark roundtable celebrates Michael A. Arnzen, Jeannine Hall Gailey, and Cynthia Pelayo. These contributors tackled genre in the book from different angles, whether that be by inserting humor, incorporating science fiction, or politicizing your work. 

I hope you'll enjoy our conversations and maybe consider picking up a book or two on your way out.

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?

MA: To put away the thesaurus. I used to enjoy the "game" or "puzzle" of working with rhymes and fancy words and trying to sound more eloquent than I am... in other words, FORCING things. And I didn't realize that it always sounded or read as forced -- to me, it sounded "fancy" or "literary" or just "sophisticated." It took me a while to quit playing and get serious. Now I strive to make the poetic voice authentically me, or authentic to the characters/narrators/scenario I'm writing about. There's still wordplay in my work, especially in the more humorous pieces, but what I "play" with more often is the tropes of the genre; the expectations and conventions of horror.

JG: Don’t be afraid to be weird! Many of my professors in my twenties, when I got my first Master’s Degree in English, wanted me to conform – be a formalist, write more like a white male, and keep pop culture out of my work because “poetry should be timeless.” Although I was young and lived in the very conventional and conformist midwest at the time, I ended up – despite pressure - cheerfully ignoring all their advice, and I think that’s what made my poetry unique back in the early 2000s – no one else was writing superhero poetry yet, or if they were, hardly anyone was publishing it. And then I found “my people” – that is, poetry who wrote horror and speculative poetry – because a few other older poets were kind enough to point me in their directions. What makes us weird also makes our work our own, and that’s what makes your poetry stand out from the crowd – and there’s almost always a group who will understand and support the kind of writing you do – it just may not always be your university professors.

CP: Learning that some people still do not consider what I do poetry. I’m not sure if that’s because I’m a free-form poet, or because I write speculative poetry. It has been an interesting critique I’ve seen, but I don't internalize that at all. If I say I’m a poet, I’m a poet. If I say this is a poem, it’s a poem. There’s nothing anyone can tell the poet or the poem otherwise. And as writers, as poets, we have that power to stand firm and tell the audience what our art is, and in this case, poetry.

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

MA: Collection means work by a single poet rather than an anthology, and there are too many books I adore and see value in, so this really is a tough one. But maybe everyone should read Strike Sparks by Sharon Olds. And maybe horror poets should read Death Poems by Thomas Ligotti. Of course, don't skip the classics and masters, like Poe.

JG: When I taught at a university’s MFA program, I just wanted to make sure that people had been exposed to poetry of all sorts – experimental, traditional, poetry in translation, poetry from different cultures, disabilities, etc. I stand by that – I could never suggest just one book, but if that person had never written or read much prose poetry, I would recommend picking up a book of prose poems. And I really hope people buy other poets' books of poetry – I know that there is, unfortunately, a tendency to read too little. Supporting your fellow writers will never be a waste of money.


(List of books I love to teach: Louise Gluck’s Meadowlands, Margaret Atwood’s Selected I &II, Ilya Kaminsky’s Dancing in Odessa, Jericho Brown’s Please, Eduardo Corral’s Slow Lightning, Matthea Harvey’s Modern Life, Karyna McGlynn’s I Have to Go Back to 1994 and Kill A Girl. There are many, many more: Dorianne Laux’s Smoke, Denise Duhamel’s Kinky, Melissa Studdard’s Dear Selection Committee, Kelli Russell Agodon’s Dialogues with Rising Tides, Lesley Wheeler’s The State She’s In, Oliver de la Paz’s Names Above Houses, Dana Levin’s Wedding Day…)

CP: All of them! I think it’s important to read a range of poets and poetry, and definitely, this includes areas outside of speculative poetry.

I still go back to the collected works of Emily Dickinson. I also go back to the poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca, Jorge Luis Borges, Pablo Neruda, Sylvia Plath, Rainer Maria Rilke, E.E. Cummings, Anne Sexton, Langston Hughes, and so on.

Yet, I’m very mindful of reading poetry by fellow speculative poets working in the genre today, Sara Tantlinger, Linda Addison, Donna Lynch, John Edward Lawson, Christina Sng, You! And so on.

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

MA: If you want to really make sure the words are right before you finish your final draft, do the opposite of what your impulse might be: sing your free verse; and read your lyrical forms backwards so the line ends don't rhyme. Whichever you try, it likely will sound like jazz and it will liberate you to think differently about your meter and verse.

JG: Be yourself in your poetry! Your experiences, your voice, the cadences of speech, the books, movies, and music you refer to – all of that will make your work stand out. And read widely – as widely as possible – to get an idea of the great big world of poetry out there.

CP: Don’t be afraid to experiment with voice, structure, and form. It’s wonderful to know what others are doing, but you don’t have to do what someone else is doing. This is your opportunity to establish your own process, and don’t be afraid of setting yourself apart from what others are doing.

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.