SHALLA CHATS with poet Lawrence Schimel
“Ways to Write Poetry”
by Shalla DeGuzman
First of all, who ’s Lawrence?
Lawrence Schimel (New York, 1971) is an author and anthologist, who's published over 80 books in numerous genres. His poems have been published in a diverse range of periodicals, such as the Christian Science Monitor, the Saturday Evening Post, Physics Today, Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, and the Lyric, among others, and have been widely anthologized in The Random House Treasury of Light Verse, Neil Gaiman's Sandman: The Book of Dreams, Chicken Soup for the Horse-Lover's Soul 2, The Pagan's Muse, Lives: Poetry About Famous Americans, and The Practice of Peace, among others. His writings have been translated into Basque, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, Esperanto, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, and Spanish.
He was born in New York City and received his B.A. in English Literature from Yale University. Schimel is a member of The National Book Critics Circle, The Academy of American Poets, and a founding member of The Publishing Triangle which he chaired for two terms (1996-1998). He currently divides his time between Madrid, Spain and New York City.
Shalla: Hello Lawrence, congrats on Fairy Tales for Writers. It’s a charming book.
Lawrence: Thanks, Shalla, I'm glad you liked it.
Shalla: Please tell our readers about your book. It’s about writers, right?
Lawrence: Basically, the book rewrites traditional fairy tales to casts writers as the heroes. It's a way of using those archetypal stories to look at the joys and frustrations of the publishing world today.
Shalla: How is the market of publishing good poetry these days?
Lawrence: There is probably more poetry being published than ever, although often for a smaller and smaller audience for each poet/book, with a few exceptions. At the same time, sometimes a particular poem is intended only for a small audience, sometimes as small as one reader (love poetry, for instance). So not every poem necessarily needs to speak to every possible person for it to be a worthwhile poem.
Shalla: Rhyming poetry does not seem big these days, why is that?
Lawrence: A lot has to do with upbringing. In the US, non-rhyming poem holds sway, whereas in the UK I think rhyme has greater respect, or at the very least, it is accepted (or even expected). There is also a tendency in the US to equate any rhyming poetry with greeting card verse or those sentiments.
Shalla: What are the best ways to make syllables, words and stanzas flow?
Lawrence: Read aloud. And read other poets!
Shalla: How can we infuse our poetry with feeling?
Lawrence: Remember that evoking a feeling and feeling it are very different things. Simply recording a feeling is useful to jog your own memory of the event, but the reader can't access all your memories and sensations, you need to build a parallel experience for the reader, to evoke the feeling (even if only in a pale simulation) in them.
Shalla: Are there bad metaphors, bad similes and bad alliteration?
Lawrence: There are certainly tropes that are clunky or clichéd. Many of them might scream amateur or dreadful poetry to me, as a reader, whereas for the poet or another reader, they may be exactly what they're trying to express.
Shalla: Should we stay away from writing about controversial subjects? Or should we embrace them?
Lawrence: I think we can write about any subject. One simply needs to treat the subject, whether controversial or not, with respect. With controversial subjects, this is perhaps even more important, since the poem will receive extra scrutiny because of the subject matter.
Shalla: Lastly, any other additional tips on writing poetry? Any conferences or workshops you recommend?
Lawrence: The biggest tip I can give is to read, and to read widely. Read the poets you love, but also read other poets to expose yourself to other schools of poetry. Even if it only confirms that you like the kinds of poems you already write, this is a positive thing in helping you to define and cultivate your own poetic taste.
Shalla: Thanks so much Lawrence.
For more on Lawrence Schimel, please visit http://desayunoencama.livejournal.com/
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