Back in August, the very wonderful Every Day Poets published a poem of mine that – to my amazement – turned out to be their most read poem of that month. And that means that the lovely Oonagh Joslin of EDP has now interviewed me about my poetry. Now this is all a bit odd, because I know very little about poetry. In fact, the technical term for what I know about poetry is “bugger all”. This isn’t false modesty, by the way: I really do know very little. I only had my first poem published in September of last year (by Ink, Sweat and Tears, as it happens – it’s here in case you’re interested, although I should warn you that there are some rude words in it). I haven’t even read a lot of poetry either if the truth were told and I’ve certainly never been taught anything about it since schooldays.
I guess the reason for all the foregoing is to excuse myself if I sound shallow. Ach the hell with it, make up your own minds.
(Ooh, one other thing – nearly forgot. The list of contributors for the forthcoming Shroud poetry anthology has just been announced here. I’m really quite massively chuffed to be in with that lot.)
Shallow? far from it. I found your answers most interesting. It’s far from easy to talk about yourself and your writing, I know. But it takes courage to be here doing that and everyone appreciates it when a writer makes that effort.
It wasn’t a bad interview. Not by a long chalk. And your definition of poetry, whether this is what you intended as one or not, i.e. an assembly of “some words that seem to work well together” is probably the way most people these days view poetry. If that seems shallow then live with it; it’s better than coming across as highbrow and inaccessible.
I also like how you define a good poem as one “where every word is earning its keep”, to quote you in part, and, again, that’s plain speaking, something that makes sense and I do wish a lot of younger poets would take that to heart and stop rambling on and on and cut to the chase. That’s why ‘Professionalism’ works – literally! – there’s a cut and then a chase (okay a dash, but you get my point).
I recently submitted a poem to the Goodreads monthly competition and, because of the nature of the beast, you get to see the other submissions. The length of some of them! Are there was my wee poem with its 23 words but 23 words that were working their butts off.
Thank you, Oonagh and Jim, for the kind comments. I should really add that the definition of poetry that I gave was a paraphrase of something that my fellow SlingInker/Cafe Doomer/TWIer Cathy Edmunds (see –>) has said on more than one occasion, and she knows a hell of a lot more about poetry than I do. But it’s certainly something that I believe in as well and try to put into practice as much as I can.
Nice to have your company in the TOC. And great interview.
Thanks, Barry. And I’m really looking forward to reading “The Terror …”