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10 Questions for Neil Shepard

December 12, 2019 - By Catherine Fox

There is no sadness like today’s sadness¾
a spring day so achingly alive I want to break
out of my body. But somebody already said that.—From “There Is No Sadness” Volume 60, Issue 3 (Fall 2019)

What writer(s) or works have influenced the way you write now?
In my formative years—grad school in the mid-1970s—I immersed in the contemporary poetry of the time: The Beats, the Feminist poets, the New York poets, and the Deep Imagists. I found a deep affinity, in particular, with this latter group, especially for the nature poetry and elegiac tones of Bly, Wright, Merwin, and Kinnell.  Despite the thousands of other poets I’ve read and absorbed since then, these four poets are still in my...

10 Questions for Jesse Bertron

December 6, 2019 - By Catherine Fox

I flushed that flock of doves three times.
An hour’s worth of wingbeats in a rush
and then a rush and then a rush.—From “Walking on a Path by Fisher Creek, I Flushed a Flock of Doves,” Volume 60, Issue 3 (Fall 2019)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
The first thing I wrote that I think still holds up, I wrote when I was about fifteen. I had a Livejournal, which was an early blogging platform. And some of the stuff on there I still find very funny. There were some poems, but mostly just silly riffs. Like here's one I went back and found:

There are three towels in my room.

These clearly represent the three wise men.

10 Questions for Jenny Grassl

November 25, 2019 - By Catherine Fox

 maybe we’ve got it wrong     postponing fire    dowsing

 the stone  earth     for whitewater    whelping green and breathe

 how breathtaking    the last river in estrus    dried     a centipede

 seen from above    fern    fen    and fringe    of locust and its honey
 —From “heavenly body menopausal,” Volume 60, Issue 3 (Fall 2019)

 Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote
   In second grade...

10 Questions for Chad Parmenter

November 22, 2019 - By Catherine Fox

Photo by Stacie Pottinger of Rogue Studios 

There are so many ways
of burning things, but
not many of containing
the flames they become
that last. —From “When I Discovered Sacrifice by Fire,” Volume 60, issue 3 (Fall 2019)
 

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
"Detour, Missouri" was really a goodbye to a place rather than to a particular person, and that...

10 Questions for Alison Prine

November 18, 2019 - By Catherine Fox

I know you less and less,
but forgive your miscalculations,

the distances you thought you might travel,
and your desire to be good.

Time grows between us
With a mechanical agency. —From “To My Younger Self,” Volume 60, Issue 3 (Fall 2019)

Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
When I was nine years old I wrote a poem for a girl I was in love with. The poem was concerned with war, poverty and finding solace in connection. I don’t know that I have written another poem with such a sweeping scope since. But the gist of the poem ¾ reaching from the awful toward the beautiful, is still at the core of my work.

What writer(s) or works have influenced...