The Toad Chat Show: Paul & Marian

Marian: I’m really looking forward to talking with you, Paul. It’s cool that two poets who are new to one another are paired up to chat! So here is my burning first question for you: What is the relationship of music and the written word, for you? How does rhythm show up in your poems, assuming it does?

Paul: My instincts when thinking on this point go to the concept or idea of flow. Rhythm is such a natural thing to me. I don't have to think about it and being in it brings me very much into the present moment. It's the same with writing. Once I open the door it just comes and I find myself in a very similar mental state as when I'm playing music. Words just appear and I think because I am open to all the possibilities I tend to catch them in a rhythmical way. I hope that makes some kind of sense.




That’s interesting because I can really feel that flow in your writing, for sure. And I can imagine your writing coursing through an open door like a rhythm might. 

Thanks for that. So I’d like to know what does performing poetry bring to your writing practice and vice-versa?

I try to find and create lots of opportunities for poetry readings because it’s so energizing! Like sharing on our blogs, sharing by reading in front of an audience and being in community with other poets feels so good. Reading elicits an immediate response that I’d imagine would feel like performing in a concert. It makes me feel really high on my writing. And it keeps me going and attending to my regular practice. It’s hard for me to find time for readings or attending poetry meetings and events, but it is always, always a good thing.

I’ve never read to an audience but I imagine it’s exactly the same buzz as playing on stage. I’m completely with you on the time thing too. I’m slowly removing the things I don’t need or want from my life, to free me up to just do what I love. Music, meditation and writing.

Tell me about your writing practice. Do you have plans or goals? What motivates you to blog your poetry? 

My current practice really revolves around blogging and online communities like Toads and dVerse. Having regular prompts to write to helps to stretch me sideways and opens me up to other forms and that provides sufficient motivation. I don’t have a regular practice yet, in the sense that I do with music or say meditation. My writing schedule is fluid at the present and more so because I have recently moved off grid into a cabin in the woods. I would love to get into the habit of writing every morning, as I did throughout NaPoWriMo but it’ll come when it comes. I’m not going to force the issue. It’ll come. When did you begin writing and how has your journey unfolded?

Cabin in the woods, off the grid? That is so idyllic. Years ago I had a cabin in the woods but didn’t manage to get completely off the grid. How are you accessing the internet?

I’ve always been a voracious reader and wrote poetry at a young age. I was first turned on to poetry by the antics of Archy and Mehitabel, by Don Marquis. I wrote poetry in college and as a young adult, and then mostly retreated into private journals for a number of years. When my kids were very small I started a short-lived mom-ish blog that quickly re-kinded my poetry jones and the blog turned into the mostly-poetry creative writing endeavor that is the runaway sentence. Workshopping poems between the Toads community and my local poetry group and sharing online has really helped me grow. In terms of practice, it’s always changing and evolving, right? Lately I’ve been much less focused and have found it difficult to write anything at all. It’s partially because of the darkness here in the USA and around the world, which I struggle to hold, let alone address. And it’s also because I work so much (full time plus) and my kids are growing up… they are now 12 and 14 I want to be with them while they still want to hang out with me.

Also lately, I’ve started playing guitar again after many years. Like, 30+ years. And I’m fooling around with the idea of writing songs, but I have no idea what I’m doing. Maybe that is a good thing, we’ll see. I would love to know more about your music. Do you write songs in addition to drumming? Who and what are your music and writing inspirations? 

Thanks for that Marian. Such an interesting story. I agree it is an evolution and I totally get the ‘global dissatisfaction’ thing. It’s a big part of my choice to move off grid. I get internet via my phone but can’t/won’t write on it. Too fiddly. I tried tethering to my laptop but to no avail, so for now I access internet randomly via cafes and the like. My writing output has consequently slowed. I might need to experiment with pen and paper. I’m hoping a Tablet/different provider might solve the problem long term. The cabin is for the summer initially and then I move to Glasgow for 6 months to house sit for a pal. I’ll use the cabin at weekends and then Spring 2019 will be decision time regarding the cabin purchase. All part of a conscious transition to a simpler life.

I’m an OK guitarist and like a warble now and then round the fire with friends. I’ve only ever written a couple of songs and not sung them in public. Yet. I did wonder if any of my poetry might work with music and that might be a direction for me to explore. I recently recorded a poem with a fellow musician playing a Kalimba. Yet to blog but it sounds wonderful.

Musical and writing influences!! Oh my God. We’ll be here forever!! I’ll try pick some key ones. As a young fledgling drum kit player I was in awe of Stuart Copeland and Vinny Colaiuta. My drumming influences then moved into hand-drum players like Mamady Keita and Famadou Konate (West Africa) and Giovanni Hidalgo (Latin America). I have really eclectic music tastes and am happy listening to traditional Scottish/Irish music, Jazz (Coltrane/Davies),West African Kora, Highlife, Soul and Funk, Heavy Rock (not Metal), singer songwriters….I could go on for a loooong time.

I am trying to broaden my reading list but at the moment my main writing influences include ee cummings, Walt Whitman, W.B.Yeats, Mary Oliver, William Stafford, Pablo Neruda.

Yes, yes to all those. I note that Donald Hall passed away this weekend, speaking of influences. And I just came across this quote that resonates from Mary Oliver: “The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.” This is from her book of essays called Upstream.

It has been so lovely to chat and to get to know you some more. Final question falls to me so here goes. If you wrote a book about your life so far, what would you call it and why?

Paul, I’ve been sitting with this question for a week! It’s a hard one. So, my initial response seems lame but it’s true--I have three books of poetry, the titles of which I labored on and which do describe parts of my life or things about me. They are called Responsive Pleading, SUPERPOWERS or: More Poems About Flying, and Heart Container. Each of those titles, and the sections therein, carry meaning for me and slices of my psyche and heart. I guess if I were to endeavor to actually write a book about my life so far, it might be titled something like Serendipity as a Plan for Living, or maybe She Strives to Continue Learning, or She’s Doing Her Best. Or Please Don’t Talk About Your Diet. Or simply Yay!

An interview with Fireblossom

Morning Toads!

This week I talked to Shay Simmons, known among us as Fireblossom/Coal black, a devoted follower of Saint Creola, owner of a great mind and an incredible storyteller-poet. 

“Hates Haiku. Flies solo” - is it the shortest poem you have ever written? (smiles)

LOL yes!

How long have you been writing? Have you always written the same style? Do you have any formal education in poetry? 

My style has evolved, to say the least. I began writing poetry when I was a teenager, and had my first publication at age 18. I had about three dozen publications in small press magazines by the time I was 26, then stopped writing for twenty years before taking it up again in 2006. Even though a lot of those older poems got published, only about three of them are anything I would ever let see the light of day today. The thing that really helped me - besides writing writing writing - was losing my fear of taking on any subject, and learning to just be honest about how I feel about a thing, without worrying about reaction. I learned that the more honest I could be, the more people would identify with what I write. In other words, if I feel a thing, so do a lot of other people.

Writing is like anything else. If you have a little talent, that’s fine, but it is the constant working at it to get better, the constant working to improve, that pays off.  

Tell me a little about your family. Are you the fourth child of a hippie family? 

You almost guessed! I am the third child of a very conventional conservative family, and the youngest by nine years. My parents were the age of my friends’ grandparents. My father was a newspaper editor and I grew up in a house full of books. He used to read to me, and instilled in me a love of words, and of American history. He always wanted to write novels, and completed three, but they were never published. He once said to me, “If there is a writer in the family, it is probably you.” 

My mother always acted like my writing was a foolish waste of time. She is a very practical woman, not warm and fuzzy by any stretch of the imagination. She basically has always tried to get me to be like her, and I’m just not.

I have two brothers, both children of the 50s and early 60s, both successful, both much older than me. I’m a child of the 70s, and a creative type to the core. 

I’ve been married twice, the first time for just a few months. I have a son who is 28 and the apple of my eye. Really, if I have done one lasting thing right, it is whatever I may have done to have such a fine son. I have been single now since 2001.  

I have a dog, an Australian Shepherd named Bosco. He is the star, around here!

I read many stories told by Fireblossom. How much of Shay is there in these stories?

In my story collection “Night Blooms”, there are really only two that contain a lot of things that actually happened in my life: “Emeraude” and “Blood & Promises”. However, there is something of me in most of my stories and story poems. The “soul” of it, you might say. “All stories are true” is one of my favorite quotes, attributed to many.

You spread science fiction in your poems whenever you have the chance to. How much do you like Science Fiction? 

I love science fiction, as distinct from science fantasy, which I don’t care for at all. To me, the best science fiction relies on character, on human complexity, not mechanical complexity. When I write science fiction, I am really just writing about people, but sci-fi allows me to isolate them, stress them, and expose them to extraordinary situations. I love science fiction that includes important female characters. My sci-fi stories are never shoot ‘em ups. I think the most interesting conflicts happen within.

Which three poets, dead or living would you like to have over for coffee and conversation?

Emily Dickinson, of course. I feel a personal connection with her ever since visiting her home in Amherst, where I felt her strongly. She wrote her own way, ignoring contemporary “rules”. She listened to, and honored her own voice. And she was in love with a woman she couldn’t have, but who lived right next door. I feel like we would have lots to talk about!

Edgar Allan Poe, because he had such an amazing imagination, and was aware of his own genius, which I find interesting. He invented whole genres of writing, and had such an eye for the bizarre and strange, not to mention the sheer beauty of his poetry. He always seemed to need a muse, a woman to appreciate his creations, and his life was never easy. I don’t see how he could be anything other than fascinating.

And Stephen Crane, because his poetry is so ahead of its time, so blunt and visceral and thought-provoking. I am including him for his poetry, but I think it is interesting to note that, at the time he wrote “The Red Badge of Courage”, he had never witnessed a battle. He had the big imagination, the courage to say what he thought and to write what he felt in the way he wanted to write it. 

I’ve always been REALLY curious about the hands in your banner. Are they your hands?

No, that’s just a picture I found on weheartit.com, that I felt expressed me. Until pretty recently, I wrote all my poetry longhand, in notebooks, as she is doing, and I like what she’s wearing, including all the rings and what-have-you. I am basically just an old after-the-fact hippie chick. 

I love reading your poems because you’re among the best storytellers I’ve ever read. Is there a story you’d like to tell and still haven’t found the best words to?

Yes. Yes. I’m sure there are dozens, hundreds, but there is one particular one that I want to tell, that I just haven’t found the perfect words for, yet. As the song says, sometimes I feel like a motherless child, and I’d like to express that mother-hunger in poetry, but it’s very tricky to express exactly what it is, and to do it unguardedly.  I haven’t managed it, yet. When I was a child, I got this National Geographic magazine for kids, and one issue was about these monkeys that some idiot scientist studied to determine if they needed mothers. The cover picture was this little monkey holding onto a wire mesh “monkey” with cloth wrapped around it, and the little monkey looked so destroyed. I stared and stared at it, thinking wow, it’s me. I may never find the words for that.

Do you follow any writing ritual?

Yes! I have to slowly get into the zone. I use prompts, pictures, music, a hot bath, anything that will allow me to let my mind wander over a particular situation or emotion until a line or a phrase comes to me. Once I have that, I’m on my way. Also, I need quiet, to write. I can’t write if there is noise. My street is as quiet as the library, fortunately!

Do you write every day?

Pretty much. There are days when I am simply too tired, or something, but generally speaking I do write every day. And I READ every day, too.

What would your friends tell me about you if they could say anything?

Oh goodness, probably that I owe them ten dollars or something! I guess I would hope they might say that I have a good heart, that I’m loyal, funny, hard-working, and stuff like that. They might also say that there is a little of the drama queen in me sometimes. I’m always wanting things to be stories, and also, I don’t keep my emotions inside. It’s a difficult question to answer! Someone said that each person is really three people: who they are to themselves, who they are to others, and who they really are. You should ask Mama Zen and Hedgewitch, my talented co-authors. They know me as well as anyone.

Is there a poem you wrote you’d have liked more people had read? 

Poem On January 1st

I adore your poem "For young poets":

First, stop banging away at silence 

like you would with a snow shovel against the ice.

A poem is not a dancing dog,

summoned to perform on its tiptoes at parties.

Put away all spirituous beverages.

Those who write while pitching in a sea of booze

do so in spite of such idiocy, not because of it.

If you haven't the imagination to see things differently without such props,

then become a mail carrier or a bus driver. (continue reading)

There are a few other quite famous poems written on advice to writers/poets like Bukowski's 'so you want to be a writer'. Has there ever been a piece of advice on writing you received/read about and it proved to be totally bullshit?

Oh gosh yes, where do I start? One is "write every day". Yes, if a person wants to be a writer then they obviously need to write, but I find that the Poetry-Making Machine needs breaks, at times. The PMM is a racehorse, not a plough horse, and some days there is a big race, and other days just a walk around the track, which might be reading other people's poems, or spending time outdoors, or just recharging by plopping on the couch and watching a movie. One must write regularly, but not daily. Trying to write daily is abusing the gift, in my opinion.

Another is the old chestnut "write what you know." While it's true that a person can't write about a subject they are ignorant about, let's leave room for imagination and for research! Maybe you don't know your subject YET, but there have been countless, countless times when I have wanted to write about something I didn't know much about, and so I researched it first, until I DID know about it. Some things don't even need that... imagination alone is enough, when combined with basic life experience. I've never been on a space ship or visited another planet, but I can imagine it.

One bit of advice that I DO agree with is "read,read,read." I can't tell you how many blogger poets I run into who say they don't read. It shows. To learn any craft, study those who have mastered it. Read the best poetry you can find, and by that I mean, the poetry that moves you, astonishes you, makes you wish you had written it. There are plenty of famous names who don't move me, and plenty of unknowns who do. I read what moves me, inspires me, and challenges me to be better.

Thank you very much for your time, Shay, it was really delightful to talk to you. 

Increase the Light--An interview with Kim Nelson

A sampling of works from Kim Nelson.  Image copyrighted, Kim Nelson.

Empowered 
By Kim Nelson

I see the flare
of illumination,
the semi-auto sparks

I hear dark silence set in,
move toward me
as anxiety arcs

I smell the fat
from too-lean bodies
burning a block away

I taste death
acrid, biting, bitter
this cold January day

I feel the trigger
of my M4, comfort,
in a frightening way

I envision
the future, just minutes ahead,
know a choice can now be made

I settle the muzzle
just under my chin
squeeze hard, my last card played

Empowered, I didn’t let them kill me.

Greetings Garden Dwellers:

We were first introduced to Kim Nelson a few weeks back for a Sunday Mini Challenge, wherein we learned of her creative process and were privy to some of her poems and paintings.  Kim Nelson is the award-winning author of dozens of magazine articles as well as three non-fiction books and a poetry collection. A Desert Gardener’s Companion, Southwest Kitchen Garden,  Mommy I’m Still in Here and Woman’s Evolution are available at her etsy shop and at Amazon.com.  Also a visual artist, Nelson works with various media including encaustic, acrylic, watercolor and pastels.   To view currently available pieces visit her website,Kim Nelson Creates, or her etsy shop.

Today, Kim has stepped into the spotlight once again to answer my pesky and meandering line of inquiry.  Without further ado…l present to you a conversation with Kim

Izy:  First round is on me, what are you having?

Kim:  I love it when someone else pays for the first round. I’ll take a Gin Ricky on the rocks with a salted rim… YUM!

Izy:  Free drinks truly are the start of a great friendship!  I can’t wait to learn a little more about you.  I understand you live in Tucson, Arizona.  Can you give us an idea of why you have chosen to live there?

Kim:  The Good Husband has a good job, and nearly 20 years ago he was told he could keep that good job if we left Southern California and moved to Tucson. Needless to say, we moved. After a few years the place grew on us.

Izy:  Your profile states, “Give me words and some hues. Magic will ensue.”   I admire your confidence! Would you care to expound on this?  How do you know the magic will ensue?

Kim:  The magic has never disappointed me, so I simply know.  I believe.  And it’s not so much confidence, Izy, as it is faith in the process. I don’t claim that the final product will be wonderful, marketable, or even good; but I do know that the process of creating, either visual art or with written word, is magical. I become centered. I am in my own best place as my best self. I AM creator. If others like the product, even better.

Izy:  I see!   One can accomplish amazing feats when they believe in their own abilities.  You are an accomplished painter and writer, can you speak to that duality:   in specific how do you know when a painting is a painting and not a poem and vice versa?  Also, which medium (writing versus painting) do you prefer at the moment?

Kim:  The word “accomplished” gives me pause, but I thank you for the compliment. I have both written and sketched since I was very young. Words seemed more powerful, so I honed that craft and have been lucky enough to work in the field. I know I could support myself, albeit meagerly, with my writing; but I also love to make art.

A few years ago I yearned to paint again, and pulled out the set I received from Santa when I was about eight. I committed to an art journal practice that required a daily creation. After a few months, I realized the visual art often prompted a poem, so I began combining the two. There is never a confusion or question about which method of expression a piece requires. My ideas (compulsions?) seem to categorize themselves.

Now, as has been the case my entire life, I write every day. I keep small Moleskine notebooks everywhere… in the car, in my handbag, my nightstand… so as not to lose a line or whisperings from the muse. I paint nearly every day as well. I am currently focused on a series of female muses for each chakra color: Good old ROYGBIV.

Izy:  Moleskine is also my preferred journal of choice.  The little folio in the back where I can stash my scraps and scribbles is my favorite feature.  I am always impressed when artists can keep a daily routine.  Coming from someone who does work “in the field”…love your phrasing of that...In the best case scenario, what will a reader take from your writing and why?

Kim:  I’ve been called a Pollyanna or an Eternal Optimist for most of my life. In my youth those labels made me uncomfortable, felt negative. As I got older I embraced the role. With that in mind, I want others to feel hope, comfort, and encouragement when they read my work. I want them to feel understood and appreciated. I want to uplift and enlighten. I believe, and I know this sounds hokey, that it’s my role to “increase the light.”

Izy:  “Hokey” is more a word I associate with velvet Elvis paintings, not someone‘s personal artist vision!  Lately, in job interviews, I have listed my top strength as fearless enthusiasm…you’d be surprised how unhokey it can sound when said earnestly.  In the best case scenario, what will a viewer take from your painting?

Kim:  I want others to look at my visual art and feel. I don’t really care what they feel, I just want my paintings, collages and encaustics to cause a bit of a physical shift.

Izy:  I know you don’t want to use the word “accomplished,” but I do want to point out you  have published a book of poetry and three other nonfiction works.  What are the biggest misconceptions about your writing that you have encountered?

Kim:  Biggest misconception? Probably that I am simple or simpering. That my work is fluff, not edgy, not pithy enough, and therefore less relevant.

Photo from Kim's Studio.  Image Copyrighted, Kim Nelson.

Izy:  Speaking of less relevant….it’s time for my quick fire questions where we learn more about you in form of ridiculous hypotheticals or one word answers!

Izy:   You are about to drive from Tucson to Bar Harbor, Maine, on a cross country trip.  You can take 2 Literary characters with you...who are they are why?

Kim:  First, I’d invite Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird because the lively discussions of society, justice, aide and empirically proven solutions to problems would be expansive, educational and exciting. Then, depending on who was available, I’d include either Janie Crawford, from Their Eyes Were Watching God or Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. Each of these women possesses an ability to retain dignity and integrity despite great challenge. They also understand the value of love and honest relationships in this existence.  Oh My Freaking Heck, we’d never stop talking!

Izy:  Let’s hope there’d be a camera crew a long, I’d want to watch the entire thing.  What is your favorite curse word?

Kim:  Shit! Nothing better suits the stubbing of a toe, a bad college basketball play or tea spilled on the work table.

Izy:  Do you write rough drafts in pen, pencil, or electronic format?

Kim:  All of the above. A bit of a hermit, I spend a lot of time in my studio, so I usually have my computer open to a new page or post, just in case. But I also jot notes in pen and pencil ALL THE TIME. They are, as I suggested earlier, everywhere.

Izy:  An alien race has invaded earth in order to learn more about poetry.  Which poem of yours would you share with them and why?

Kim: I’d offer up the poems I’ve tagged with the word Gram. By reading these, they’d experience the better aspects of humanity, of relationships, of living in this realm.

Izy:  Sugar coma or sleep deprivation?

Kim:  Sleep deprivation. Sugar coma would be preceded by extreme bitchiness, neither rational or productive.

Izy:  What is your favorite thing to do on Sunday evening?

Kim:  Glass of wine in the right hand, The Good Husband holding the left, sitting in the cabana as the sun sets, painting the Sonora sky with shades of unbelievable intensity.

Izy:  I have a brand new Mustang and 1,000,000 Marriott reward points....where are we going?

Kim:  We’ll start in Vancouver and follow the Pacific Coast down to San Diego. Then we’ll take I-10 to Pensacola  before heading north along the Atlantic Seaboard. I want to see every inch of coastline and try the food and drink in major cities along the way. And we’d write about it.

Izy:  Alarm clocks-- don’t use one, hit snooze repeatedly, or wake at the first chime?

Kim:  Don’t use one. Never have. When I go to bed I decide what time to get up; and then I do.

Photo by Kim Nelson.  Image Copyrighted.

Izy:  Another planet is going to crash into earth.  You have time to play one song, what is that song?

Kim:  Louis Armstrong’s “It’s A Wonderful World.”

Izy:  What is your favorite word (non-cussing variety)?

Kim:  Clearly.

Izy:  What was the last book you read that you really hated?

Kim:  The Fifty Shades trilogy. Despite the intriguing subject, I could not get beyond the shitty writing.

Izy:  What is your least favorite day of the week and why?

Kim:  Wednesday. Because none is really out of favor, but all the others have brighter highlights. And I have to drag out the garbage dumpsters.

Izy:  Three things you never write about?

Kim:  Domestic cats, instructions for destruction, and ingrown anything

Izy:  One quote you’d like to end the interview with?

Kim:  “Never underestimate that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world.” ~ Margaret Mead

Izy:  Lastly, anything I haven’t asked or anything you’d like to discuss?

Kim:  Just want to say thank you. First to you, Izy,  for your interest, enthusiasm and kind support. And to this international, virtual community which has expanded my vision, enriched my life and encouraged me to do what I want to do. Those are huge gifts!

About the Work and the Words: an Interview with Stacey Gruver

Hippo.  Image used with permission.  Copyright, Stacey Gruver.

CHROME

The chromium was a gift

from your mother,

passed from her breast to

lodge in your bones,

each vertebrae plated

until it gleamed like the links in

the chain encircling your wrist.

Your body buries your treasure

as it grows,

but despite the years

my fingers find them–

the rows of ingots rising against

your skin, ready for

erosion to rub them free.

–Stacey Gruver, 2011

Garden Dwellers, this week’s interviewee is a painter and writer who hails from Baltimore, Maryland.  In her paintings, she focuses on abstraction, and in her writing....well, that’s a little more difficult to describe.  In my humble opinion, Stacey Gruver is a starry dynamo.  She is beatnik, punk rock, steam punk, Monty Python, and quantum physics as influenced by comic books, science fiction (the good stuff), and video games.  Her poems are crafted to present new avenues of the every day, each piece edited and whittled down masterfully until it sits just as it needs to be.   That's just this toad's opinion.  I encourage you to form your own impression after reading her work at her blog Two Dead Swans. 

Last Friday, Stacey kindly humored my interview request and answered my questions over the phone.   I am proud to present the conversation which ensued:

Izy:  All right lady, I’m buying the first round, what are you having?

Stacey:  If you are paying for it, the most expensive Scotch they have.  

Izy:  I really appreciate you taking full advantage of the Real Toads imaginary budget, anything else you’d like to order as long as the tab is open?

Stacey:  [Laughs] ....Yeah, I gotta look over the menu.  I’ll have the most lobster-y entree available.  I am only going to eat half of it, though.  And later, I’ll probably want some of that outrageously priced chocolate mousse crap, but I am only going to have a few bites.

Izy:  But of course, I would expect nothing else!   Here is where we talk about your writing and ask serious questions about your work.  So what serious statements do you want to make about your poems?

Stacey:  They are never about me or anybody I know.  There are bits of me in there, but not about me.

Izy:  Why do you avoid self referencing?

Stacey:  I want to be able to discuss the things I make without discussing myself.  I want it to be about the work and the words.  It doesn’t mean that I don’t care about the poems.  I am not trying to be a disconnected robot.  I want there to be a separation, a filter.  

Izy:  What sort of dialogue do you want to have with the reader?

Stacey:  I like ambiguity.  And unreliable narrators. I am interested in exploring the complicated nature of reality:  the self and conflict.   That’s what I am about.  

Izy:  With such broad concepts, how do you pick where to start?

Stacey:  The sweet spot of writing is the ability to take these big concepts and reveal it.  To bring it into everyday life in a concrete way so that it is recognizable.  I know what I write is often confusing,  but what I am aiming more for is something that some one can interact and dialogue with in a meaningful way.  It starts with applying something I am interested in and bringing in my view point.

Izy:  That seems like an incredibly easy recipe to follow, but I know there is a lot more involved.  What are some pitfalls you’ve experienced?

Stacey:  The language.  Word choice and tone are very important to me.  I often try to find a balance between communicating what I want to say and making something interesting to read from a poetry standpoint. I basically try to say something without out actually saying it, like I think space is really cool and terrifying, but I can’t just say that.  I have to build to that.  My own aesthetic is very minimalistic.   I don’t want to write just prose with line breaks but I don’t want to write formalism either.

Izy: How do you balance ambiguity and the concrete so that the poem is interpreted correctly?

Stacey:  People will come up with their own interpretations, and I am interested in that.  I want to people to think about it and have their own emotional response.  The reactions are interesting and some are way out in the left field.  Some times that’s my fault, and sometimes it’s not.  I don’t want to tell people how to interpret my poems.  That’s boring and if it’s boring for me, it’s boring for my audience.  It’s fun and a source of pleasure to figure out and analyze poems.  You gotta have faith that your audience will do that.  Literal poetry has a place and a time but I am not interested in that.  

     

  

Stacey's paintings often focus on abstraction.  Above is an image from her Cutmaps series.  Copyright, Stacey Gruver.  Image used with permission.

Izy:  So we are on to fluff and filler part of the discussion.  Sugar coma or sleep deprivation?

Stacey:   Sleep deprivation.  Because that’s what I do.  Sugar coma takes more effort.

Izy:  We’ll visit Melancholia next.  Another planet is going to crash into Earth.  You have time to play one song, what is that song?

Stacey:  I don’t know....my answer would change from day to day.  At the moment, I would say Grown Ups by the Whiskers.  

Izy:  I’ve got a million Marriott rewards points that will get us a lavish hotel room anywhere in the world, where are we going?   

Stacey:  Somewhere in rural France, where there’s a farm house where I can lie down.  I don’t speak the language, and I can barely read it.  I would be in perfect peace.  We’d also go to Mont Saint-Michel.  It is beautiful.  The part of me that took medieval art classes wants to see the cathedrals.  We’d go in the off season and eat great seafood.

Izy:  We don’t have to go in the off season. I have so many Marriott points, we could go whenever.

Stacey:  I know.  It’s better in the off season because there are less people.  They got lots of medieval narrow streets and poky stair cases.  Too many tourists would ruin it.  In the off season we could have the whole town to ourselves.  

Izy:  When you open the newspaper, which section do you read first?

Stacey:  I don’t open the newspaper.  I used to get the New York Times weekend edition.  I’d read the arts section.  But that is all.  I am very mono-focused.  I would read the news headlines but not the articles.  I am interested in the world, but it’s too much to take in the morning.

Izy:  My mom is worried about the things she reads in papers or sees on the news, too.  She keeps telling me the world is falling apart (surprise, it isn’t).  What do I tell her?

Stacey:  Well, my only comfort is that history shows us that we have always been incredibly fucked up.  Civilization has always been on the verge of collapse in one way or another.  Look at history and the things we have done to those around us:  we are getting better.  We can’t enslave people anymore.  We can’t murder without consequence.   It’s hard to see sometimes, but we are getting better.  Maybe in 5000 years we’ll have a glorious Utopia.  Hang in there!  

Izy:  What are three words you avoid using in poetry?

Stacey:  Soul.  That word is very vague.  Ambiguity is good, but vagueness is bad.  Dream.  It reminds me of my 16 year old self writing poetry, and I can’t handle that.  Again this word is too vague.  It becomes like shorthand.  Heart.  Sometimes when poets want to describe a feeling or emotion, they describe it by referencing their heart instead of the feeling.  That’s a cop out to actually exploring the emotion through images.  But there are some solid uses of heart, like the actual organ.

Izy:  An alien lands on earth and asks you “What is poetry?” ...which poem of yours would you share with the visitor?

Stacey:  The goat poem, Can I make a request.  Because it’s a poem, and I remember writing it.

Izy:  So you’re picking this because it’s the most recent thing you’ve produced?

Stacey:  Yes, I can remember what it’s called.  See I have problem remembering what I write.  

Izy: Which poet should any writer read before writing their next poem?

Stacey: Diane DiPrima.  She’s accessible and she’s really good.

Cutmaps 9.  Copyright Stacey Gruver.  Image used with permission.

Izy: Dinner with Lou Reed or David Bowie?

Stacey:  Lou Reed.  I got a lot of questions to ask him about the Warhol days.  What was his life like back then and why did he make Transformer the way he did?

Izy:  You’re going to the disco.  Who do you take with you:  Lou Reed or David Bowie?--By the way the rest of the interview is fifty more questions about who you’d rather hang out with in certain scenarios--Lou Reed or David Bowie...

Stacey:  [Laughs]  At the disco, I’d pick David Bowie.  He’d be more fun.  He’d probably get you arrested in New York.  Lou Reed would be a little too self conscious and would internalize everything.

Izy:  Time to go to the laundromat!   Do you bring Lou Reed or David Bowie? 

Stacey:  I would bring David Bowie because I want to see David Bowie standing in a laundromat waiting for clothes to dry.

Izy:  The power is out for four days, do you want David Bowie or Lou Reed staying in your guest bedroom?  

Stacey: Lou Reed I think? We could play Uno.

Izy:  The next question is a hypothetical scenario which does not involve Bowie or Lou Reed:  There has been an unlabeled tin can in your kitchen cupboard for years, do you open it?

Stacey:  No.  It lives there now.  I’d be afraid to open it.  Whatever’s in there is going to be horrible, so it’s there for the rest of my life or as long as I am in the house.  If I move out, I’d leave it behind.  

Izy:  What’s your favorite curse word?

Stacey: Fuck. Fuck.  Fuck.  Fuckity fuck.  It’s best the word in the English language.  It feels good to say.   It satisfies the throat with its gutturalness.

Izy:  Next we’ll go for a Misfits scenario:  A freak lightning storm over London has given you a very specific and rare super power, what is it?  Here I am looking for something a little more interesting than “the power of flight” or “to be invisible.”

Stacey:  I would choose to have photographic memory.  But that could be a curse as well.  I can see the angsty comic book now about an artist with a photographic memory:  I did a terrible painting, now I can’t stop seeing it. OMG.

Izy:  I would totally buy that comic by the way!   Last question...what is one thing you'd like to ask the Real Toads Community (and of course, they'll leave their responses in the comments!)

Stacey:   I am interested in finding out what contemporary poetry publications you all are reading.  I am talking about the professionally edited magazines, journals, etc.  I think it’s really important that poets read and support these places, you know, go beyond the blog. I’m a fan of Poetry is Dead.  [A Canadian Poetry publication], and I am looking for more to read.  Recommend something!