Eryn lives in South Germany with their family but is originally from Oxford, UK. They work freelance as a translator and a teacher. When not writing, they’re out on their bike in the forest or dreaming up new ideas to write about. They are obsessed with vinyl, fountain pen ink, dragons and cheese. Preferably not all together. Their current favourite thing is spring blossoms against the white clouds. They are working on two new poetry collections which will be released this year, Masquerade Me and Death by Sugar, and two fiction works, a Dystopian Scifi novella called The Dust Collector and a Gothic Horror called The Black Cat Bookshop.
As a huge fan of your book, which features illuminating poetry on PTSD, I feel like I have to address that. How did you overcome your initial fears and write about a topic that is still so taboo in so many places?
I didn’t want to write something hard, or dark, and I really didn’t want to write a poetry collection that is largely autobiographical. But I found that on occasion when I shared an individual poem, that people really resonated with it. I saw that there’s a lot of poetry about anxiety and depression, but hardly anything for PTSD. And ultimately, sometimes, it is on you to begin it. It was on me to say, this is what PTSD looks like. So it became a collection. It was, and I think will remain, the most difficult collection for me to complete and publish. But I don’t regret it.
Do you sit down with a poetry idea in mind or does it slowly develop as you sit in front of the page or monitor? In other words, what is your process?
I should probably mention that I am an aphant, which means that I have no visual landscape. I cannot conjure a memory and play it back as if it is in glorious technicolour. If someone asks me to imagine a box, I cannot see the colour or texture. I see a nondescript box. So when it comes to poetry, you could say that I am a blind poet.
My visual landscape is layered with music notes and quantum physics. I hear a concept of a poem, a shiver of something, and I have to follow it through to the end. It happens a lot with a phrase, an overhead conversation, perhaps, and then I have to chase the thread to the end. I do not always know where it will turn up.
It’s cliché, but each person’s answer is uniquely their own: what is the best writing advice you have received?
Don’t lose your own poetic voice.
What are three words you would use to describe your poetry?
Lyrical Layered Whimsical
Why do you write poetry?
I have been writing poetry since I was 16, and really, have never stopped. I never intended to make something from it, I never intended to call myself a poet. I studied both poetry and playwriting at University but poetry was the one that survived the grind of assignments, of life getting in the way, and it kept coming back. I write poetry because I need to write it. It is cathartic, somehow.
Is there a common motif in your writing that you find yourself returning to?
There are a few, yes.
In Of Swans and Stars I explored the ideas of my own North Star, that place that calls you home, the direction on the compass that we follow. So swans and stars, are very important to me, and you see amber, being cast in amber, featuring often. I write a lot about Druidry, mythology and folklore. Dragons will always be in my poetry. But at the heart of it all, is always love. Love for who we are, for where we have been, and where we are going.
If you could attend a poetry writing conference taught by any author, lyricist, poet, etc., living or dead, which two to three people would you choose and why?
Larkin. I love him, I love how he writes, his raw energy. Peter Gabriel. His wordsmithery is without equal. WH Auden. I want to hear him read and see how it is reflected in his eyes. I want to see how he writes.
A thousand cranes Paper art flying For peace in the world A thousand cranes Countless painstaking Paper folds For peace in the heart A thousand cranes Flying their dance On white string For peace in the eyes A thousand cranes Quiet time Each repetition A healing caress For peace in the soul A thousand cranes Origami sorcery Peace in the world Starts with ourselves.
This weekend, I’m interviewing author and poet ML Stevens. She is extremely talented and kind. When I told her it was my birthday, she gave me an autographed copy of her poetry book “Caged Heart”.
When she’s not writing, or listening to the characters that live in her head rent free, ML Stevens can be caught with her nose in a book or running when the weather permits it. She wrote her first “novel” at a young age after looking out her window one summer day and deciding it would be cool to write a book. Since then she hasn’t been able to put the pen down. She has many more projects planned, including (hopefully) more poetry to come.
Why do you like writing poetry, and how is it different from writing fiction?
It’s where I go to when I need to get something out then and there without writing a novel. Often times, it’s where I go when I’m upset about something that has been weighing on me. Secondly, it flows easily. It’s never hard for me to know what to write into a poem.
Poetry for me is easier than writing fiction. I can whip out a poem anytime and anywhere while with fiction, I can come up with an idea like that, but it takes a lot more time and work to get it written on paper.
Where is your ideal writing space?
I have always felt weird about this question because I don’t have one ideal writing space. I enjoy writing in a coffee shop or at my desk just as much as I enjoy writing on my couch or even outside.
If you ever were to hold a poetry reading, where would you hold one?
I never have held a poetry reading but would love to do one in a cozy library like the library rat I am.
What is your biggest inspiration?
I think for poetry my biggest inspiration is life. the ups and downs of it as well as the people who are part of it. Life itself is artwork, much like poetry, and and there’s so much that I draw from it when I’m writing a poem.
Specific scenarios of hate, anger, sadness, happiness, love, friendship – even nature and all it has to offer can be found in my poetry.
What’s your favorite thing about writing poetry? Your least favorite?
My favorite thing is how quick it is for me. It’s something I can turn to when I’m in a meeting and struggling to stay awake. It looks like I’m taking notes. It’s also there when I want to write something but I am not sure if I want to start a novel or a short story.
If I had to pick a least favorite part about writing poetry, for me personally, it would be how damn personal it comes out ninety percent of the time. It’s a little more difficult for me to write a poem that isn’t personal in at least some way.
When did you begin writing? How has your poetry evolved since then?
In general, I have been writing since I was eight. I didn’t writing poetry until I was twelve or thirteen. In fact, I had never even read a lot of poetry until my middle school Creative Writing teacher made an assignment for us to write thirty different types of poems. I enjoyed writing poetry after that.
My poetry then was simplistic and not as deeply personal as it is now. As I continued to write poetry, it became more complex for me and much more personal. Many of my poems are based on my own experiences and emotions.
What’s your favorite word? Least favorite?
I can’t say I have a favorite word, but I am fond of the words scintillating and surreptitiously. I really don’t know why. For my least favorite words, I have a few that make me cringe. Gyrating is one of them.
Something long gone That can’t be recovered A broken world Filled with greed A shattered soul The pieces scattered A dreadful tempest Roars inside A tender heart That barely beats A soft voice whispers,
Dallas, Texas Poet J.G Gibson is a first time author with his debut book, ‘Feelings’. He is known among the poetry community as clever, poignant and creative in an original way. Most of his work, surrounds the themes of heartbreak, loss, depression, and death but are not limited to those categories.
Upon reading J.G. Gibson’s poetry, on first glance, I was deceived into thinking it was aphoristic writing – somewhat simple and with a clear message. Then, I read it again. And again. Until I realized there is so much more to his poetry than what appears.
What are three words you would you use to describe your poetry?
Clever, lyrical, and entertaining are usually three words that come to mind when I think of my poetry.
From quick wit to rhythm and rhyme, I tend to leave the reader entertained and amazed.
When did you begin writing poetry and what was the impetus?
At age 16. I like to blame music for me becoming a poet. I remember always searching for the lyrics of songs and reading them in my head, without the music playing in the background.
Some of my favorite artists today, are Taylor Swift, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar and The Weeknd.
What are some of your writing habits? How do they affect the content of your poems?
To say I have any writing habits would be a fib. I write sporadically, there’s no schedule or direct process. I do not write everyday.
All I know for sure is I write most frequently when I am emotional – good or bad.
With that being said, most of my themes surround relationships of all kinds – whether it’s death, the downfall of one, weddings, or meeting parents.
My choice of content allows me to highlight different moments and aspects of a relationship.
What is the most difficult part of the poetry-writing process?
For me personally, it is finding subjects I can personify or use as metaphors to elaborate the story that I’m trying to tell. It drives me insane trying to write the perfect-worded poem.
I find in my writing, I include little metaphors or references that only certain readers will understand. Having said that, do you ever include similar references?
Yes, in my upcoming book, “Feelings”, there will be references throughout the whole book that connect poem by poem. I like to think of it as, a loosely episodic structure of a poetry collection.
Why do you think so many readers find poetry inaccessible?
Actually, I do think it’s accessible, but I think it’s been watered down, or modernized. In today’s climate, I always see poems as a caption: it’s a one-line, witty attention grabber. Or it’s substance when posted in other places is cliché. So I do believe poetry is accessible, I just think the people who really love it, don’t really appreciate the statuses which are aka, “the new poetry.”
Carousel
Farewell, carousel that takes me back to you. Round after round thinking, you’ll go around too But you just add change, and yet stay the same, and around I move.
William Goldspiel is a poet by passion; though few of his works have seen the public eye, he has been writing since he could hold a pen in his hands. As a young child, he wrote a page a day in his book after school. He is in the process of rewriting his current works.
William’s style can be considered unconventional at first glance, but when you read more of his poetry, you begin to understand his rhythm and cadence. He can have a polarizing presence – in fact, when I first talked to William, he infuriated me because of a purposefully poorly written poem. Little did I know, it was purposeful, and he is actually a very talented, if sometimes obscure, poet. His poems remind me a bit of e.e. cummings, in the vein that I have to reread them often to fully understand them.
I know it’s a cliché, but what inspires your poems? How do you know what direction you want them to go in?
Most often, I find myself hit by a line or a series of words, an image, or a concept from out of nowhere. Often, it comes out in a long first draft, though sometimes it starts and stops for a while (years) as I work out what they mean. Generally, what inspires my poems is the same thing that inspires all the forgotten notes files on my PC. There’s not really a rhyme or reason as to why something works or not.
Where I intend to take a poem and where it goes depend on the poem really. I remember while writing B. Solid/Liquid/Gas I had to hit three different story beats, but the beats themselves came as I was writing them. I would say that I mostly find the direction when I’m there.
A lot of poets seem to think that because poetry is a form of self-expression, it should not be edited; otherwise, it censors the poets’ intention or somehow convolutes the message. As a poet who clearly puts effort into his work, what are your thoughts on this?
When I was a kid, I didn’t know how to edit. So I just wrote and when it was done, it was done. When I learned to really go back and fix my writing is when I became a better writer, and it’s the part I stress to anyone starting out. [Emphasis my own, not William’s.] It’s why simple things like a spell check can make such a huge difference in the quality of your (and not you’re) writing.
What do you do when you feel blocked? What are some of your favorite subjects to write about? Least favorite?
Distraction is basically all you’ve got. Back when I was routinely productive, I would take breaks between writing to play Civilization. I actually wrote a book that way.
I have a core group of people who have followed me from story to story, so no matter if my book takes place in 1980s Colorado or after the sun has gone nova in an extire galaxy away it will probably be about how they would respond to the situations. I also like writing indecipherable metaphors, a unified theory of everything, the words “you” “fuck” and sometimes “duck”, and nonsense. I dislike actually doing any writing at all, as it’s not only emotionally and mentally taxing, but I never have any idea if I’m doing it right.
We’ve discussed how you use George Carlin as an inspiration for titles. What poets, lyricists, comedians, etc. inspire your poetry? What do you take away from each of them?
I got the idea for the structure of matingsong [William’s in-progress poetry book] from misremembering a Kafka story that completely slips my mind at the moment. He (or the translation) used indentation to great effect in the story and it created the B, etc. [William’s structuring device in his poetry book.]
Here’s the place where I admit that I haven’t read any poetry and everyone outs me as a fraud. I do enjoy Vonnegut, Bradbury, King, Kafka, and Douglas Adams.
Despite the fact that I name-dropped them in a title, I’m not inspired by Daft Punk.
What’s the most difficult thing about being a poet?
Trying to force it when it isn’t there. Especially when you have something and then it stops. You like what you’ve got going and now it’s just not there any more. Then you push and make it work and you question if anything you’ve ever written has ever been good.
Why do you write poetry?
When I get that thought, that image, it’s something that I want to make real.
What emotions elicit the best poems in you?
Longing. Plummeting, pit in your stomach rising, endless falling. Not hopeless, but certainly about to crash. Also, Sardonic glee. Triumphant wonder. Peevishness. Love.
B. Snowfall Frost clings to your eyelashes sending diamond rays across your sight. You’re the ideal vision of a makeup advertisement 1)A perfection untouchable a)even if they’re using the brand the makeup is still applied by artists and you can never hope to achieve the effect at home b)much too beautiful for the average person to ever hope to attain and that’s only starting with your eyes. I’m in wonder at your hair, something that can pool underneath your lying form to create a black canvas that hides all manner of linen; strung tight coiled rope down and up your back, into your hands, nervously fidgeting with icicles on clinging strands. It’s like a slowly moving snap fan, with seamless transition. You stand on a fire exit, broad enough to turn into a porch. Are you smoking? I don’t know. It’s cold enough out that your breath mists around you anyway. You’re leaning on a railing overlooking the entrances to a few lower built buildings yet still high enough to see most of the city. 1)Why are you always up high? I’m terrified of heights. I wish you would move so I could describe your motion. It’s melted metal flowing into place with mechanical precision. There’s the smoothness the liquid perfection, with this robotic touch that gives every motion a feeling of finality to it. When you fly you’re a rag doll tossed around by those behemoths in your back, if you let go of your iron will your limbs jerk with each metal wing beat. – William Goldspiel
Sakshi Narula is a poet, author and an artist from India who lives in Muscat, Oman. She is the author of four poetry collections and also a spoken word artist. Her words center around love, loss, healing, grief and femininity. Some of her poems have been featured in the Survival Anthology by Magesoul Publishing, From One Line Anthology, Book One by Kobayaashi Studios and in Yellow by Yellow Penguin NYC.
I have been reading Sakshi’s poetry for a couple of years now, and she is incredibly gifted. Her poetry is the kind you can find yourself immersed in for hours and not even notice the passing of time. It surpasses the standard of contemporary poetry and should be recognized for its unique and profound style.
Sakshi, your poetry book is unlike any I’ve seen before, and your poems are so refreshingly different from a lot of what we see on social media. Where do you get your inspiration? Have you ever been compared to any other poets? If so, who? If not, who are some of your favorite poets and why?
I have been through a lot of ups and downs like any other person. My writing is a reflection of the things that happened in my life in some form or another. Music and books have always been my steady companions and have inspired a lot of my work too. Yes, I have been compared to a lot of poets in certain reviews purely because I write love poetry and poetry that centers around loss and heartbreak. It would be really boastful of me to state their names so I am going to refrain from doing that, but it has been rather overwhelming and flattering. To answer your last question, my favorite poets are Ada Limon, Andrea Gibson, Sharon Olds, Pablo Neruda, Wendy Cope, Leonard Cohen, to name a few.
When did you begin writing poetry and what was the process like?
I started writing poetry seriously around five years ago. I used to be a blogger and used to ghost write articles before that. It was really surprising to me how organic the process of poetry writing was for me. It was like being in a second skin, like I was meant to do this. I always say poetry found me and helped me heal when I needed it the most. It almost always would start with a line and I would spend hours building and rebuilding a poem obsessively. There are days I would be surprised at how I even ended up writing something that I actually liked reading. In that sense, it has helped me realise that this is a gift, that it has the power to comfort another and I need to use that gift in the best possible way.
How important is revising to you and your writing? Which pieces end up needing the most revisions? Why?
It is extremely important. I think to add layers to your poems, you need to be meticulous with editing and revising. That is what separates a good poet from a great poet. For me, it is going through every line and every word to make sure it is essential to the poem as a whole. Most pieces that are long form and usually poems that I use for spoken word require the most revisions. There needs to be a flow, a rhythm, the ebbs and the flows, the crescendo in the end, a punch in the gut, a feeling that remains with the reader, that takes the most effort.
What subjects are absolutely off-limits to write about?
I don’t write about mental health. I did try, but it takes a lot out of me to write about my struggle with depression and anxiety. I don’t write about certain aspects of my life because it brings a lot of things to surface.
What is your favorite poem? (Of another poet’s? Of your own?)
My favorite poem by me is 41 , A Love Poem To Me. Of another poet… True Love by Sharon Olds, Maybe I Need You by Andrea Gibson
You ask fascinating questions on social media – ones that challenge your readers and fellow authors/poets to think outside of the box. How important do you think it is to think outside of the box as a poet? Do you ever use your fans’ answers as a jumping off point for a poem? If so, what question was it that inspired the poem?
Never really used any answers from Twitter for a poem, but they definitely make for great conversations. It has been fun interacting with writers and readers from all walks of life and countries. It’s beautiful how art and writing connects us all on a very basic human level. More than thinking outside the box, I feel a poet needs to own their voice. Writing to fit a mould on social media or to be able to sell more books can rob one of their authenticity.
Do you have any writing rituals? What arethey?
Not really. I haven’t been writing much after I wrote House Of Stars And Flowers On Mars. Maybe it is just a phase. I write when the words find me. I do keep making notes during day if a beautiful line or idea for a poem comes up in my head. When I am writing I do keep going through those ideas.
I know some poets require complete silence when they write, others want ambient noise, and there are some who write to music. What kinds of sounds do you find it easiest to write to? Or none at all?
I enjoy writing with music in the background. I just can’t write with people talking continuously around me. I have my own writing playlists and I play them and write.
What is something you’re afraid of?
I am afraid of losing the people I love and I think that is pretty universal. As a writer I am afraid of not ever having one shining moment with my poetry. But that is what keeps me working on my craft. I just think the only way I won’t accomplish anything is by giving up and I am pretty strong-willed not to give poetry or my ambitions up.
Why do you write poetry?
I started writing because I was in pain and poetry was my safe place, a way to turn that pain into art, a creative release. Now I write because I want to be understood, to be heard and I want to make sense of this world we live in. I always believe there is a poet for everyone, there is a poem in the world that can understand and comfort you, no matter what you may be going through. Poetry is for everyone. So I write because someone may find their comfort in my words and feel seen and not feel stupid for feeling something. Even if there is one person who doesn’t feel alone after reading a poem of mine or my book, then I think it’s important for me to continue writing.
41, I tear open a song like it’s a gift, a birthday present from Lana, Morrison or Lennon I dig their hearts out from the graves in their words, soothe the scars, 41 scars on mine and sing it out loud, with a mouthful of wine Blink once and I was 10 and blink twice and I’m 41 41, I think, maybe ten years or 14 more to go, I bought a boxful of watercolors and I haven’t learned how to make watercolor paintings yet. I have a book about kitchen gardening and don’t know what needs to be planted yet. Blessed kitchen garden. Blessed kitchen, blessed garden, blessed home. Yes, I have been blessed with love, knock the wind out of me love, my body hurts, soaked to the bone love. Blessed with a lover, the man of my dreams and angel baby souls, 2 playing in the backyard and 2 in heaven at the end of the rainbow. They grow, they smile, they laugh, they glow and they keep me alive, away from the darkness and never let me go. But my nightmares are made of the mountain of dishes in the kitchen’s unholy sink, no friends to cherish, no friends to ring. I turn a blind eye like they don’t exist and think about strawberries and tomatillos, and rosemary and habaneros, the bath salts and the collagen I need, about the dark chocolate cake, the beautiful shoulder of lamb in the fridge, and the crimson sunset today at 41 at my feet. Yes, I have nowhere to go, nowhere to be I mute everything, the phone, the world, the unkempt hair and organic white sheets. For I will not be as young as I am today, as pretty as I am today, as unashamed and unapologetic than I have ever been. I built a home of poems and a kiln of all the stars in my heart, a home in the middle of wheat fields 41 bricks on the fireplace for 41 poets who kept me warm on the nights I weeped. What would Bukowski say about my poems I wonder? Am I a comfortable poet or someone from the street? I write my story like it’s everyone’s story, and everyone’s in it, sonder! 41, Sonder is my favorite word from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, from any dictionary ever. 41, I reflect on the triumphs of all my yesterdays and the ones to happen tomorrow. Let me be your woman on love’s landscape, the slow burn of a song on a cold night, the blurring bokeh of city lights. Let me fix your ribs like I fixed mine, life broke us all differently but broke it did And so, I poet at 41, I send you a verse dipped in the smell of rain on a hot summer day, dipped in love from my brave undying heart, and light from a thousand burning dreams in my eyes. 41, smug, the coffee and I are so hot I laugh I resist, I fight, I switch on the table lamp and write.
Isabelle Palerma 