I always wrote, whether it be songs, poems or short stories, but I didn’t realise I was a poet until I went to college in West Virginia and specialised in it. I was 18.
I like working in short forms. My attention span works better in short prose or poetry.
Poets are a strange breed. My mum always calls me her watcher because I pay so much attention. I got more nerdy the older I got. I always had a lot of friends, but it wasn’t till I got to college and focused on my studies that I stayed in my dorm room a lot working and never going out.
I’m a scatterbrain. I’m not the kind of writer who can plan my day and say: “Right, I’m gonna write from 10 until 4.” I need distraction. I tried turning everything off and just doing it, but it doesn’t work for me.
I do write every day, even if it’s only a couple of lines. If I don’t write, my skin crawls.
Poetry is like a drug. You don’t know what you are going to write, or when you are going to do it, but when it comes out, it comes from nowhere. Your theme is selected for you. The best part is when you get to the imaginative place.
If I have a dry spell, I go to museums and I write lines down, or titles of works or I just observe people.
There are so many poets I like. When I started my master’s, I felt really lost because there was so much literature I hadn’t studied. I had a really good professor who told me I needed to find my dead poets, so I found Philip Larkin. He was someone I could really grab on to. I liked erotica too, like Anïas Nin.
I started the poetry brothel here after seven months because I needed to join a poetry group. I had been a part of the one in New York and I’d also tried to start one in Texas, when I was staying with my parents for a while, but it ended up being banned. They did a protest and everything.
Latest Comments
THE TRAVELING BROTHEL
Posted by kiely sweatt July 15, 2010 14:03:12
daring
Posted by Mark Gorman July 10, 2010 17:38:16
Thanks
Posted by kiely sweatt July 09, 2010 15:53:50
Inspiring
Posted by Timothy Grayson July 07, 2010 20:11:27