Assistant Poetry Editor Joyce Wakefield's Answers
1. In the early 19th century, Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote: "Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world." Regardless of how true it was in his day, it certainly doesn't seem true in ours. In her mid-life memoir, Fear of Fifty, Erica Jong quipped "No one bothers to kill poets in America. It is enough to let them rot in universities, undead." The question is: Nevermind poetry's impact on society, does poetry, at all, legislate (and by legislate I mean "regulate" and "determine") the way you are in and with the world?
Poetry colors almost every area of my life. From snippets of conversation at a restuarant, a fight between a man and woman in a Wal-mart parking lot, to watching lady bugs in my backyard. The words are just there and will not shut up until they are 'poetisized'!
2. And on that note, to re-animate another great dead poet: "Is the world too much with us?"
I think this poem meant material things - "the getting and spending". For me as a poet, the world is never too much with me. It's like seven symphonies in my head all at once. When I was younger, my poetry tended to be more fantasy and confessional (shudder). Now at the growing up age of 53, my poetry seeks what is real, what means something to me and hopefully to others. I think poets see the world differently, in bits and pieces that we strive to make into a cohesive idea or reality. Whether it is political, esoteric, nature based, or simply slices of daily life - the world must be with poets - and for me there is never enough.
3. Ezra Pound famously asserted that in order for poetry to survive, poets had to "make it new." Recently, Poetry Magazine (Pound's old musing grounds) published an article, essentially re-asserting this, but arguing that poetry must become a desirable commodity in order to make it any deeper into the millennium. So, two-part question: Is poetry a commodity in the straight sense of the word? Should it be written for profit? And if not, how will it ever penetrate the larger marketplace? And if you say it shouldn't, tell me why you think a poet's hard won insights shouldn't be rewarded financially? This is a thorny one, especially considering I am asking you to give me your insights for free. Have at it.
First and foremost, my poetry is something that enchants me in our world. Sometimes, it is something that saddens or horrifies me. I believe it is absolutely necessary to develop a voice that knits words in new ways. Nursery rhymes are still here (a testimony in its own right), but poetry that grabs the reader is vital to me. At poetry readings, I want to see someone's eyes light up, or a gasp. I want to know that the reader or listener has found something new in what is undoubtedly timeless and has been told many times. As far as money is concerned, we all know that few people make a living as poets only. I think that's sad, but writing for money almost always guarantees failure for me. I write and then look for venues, hopefully paying, smile that I can publish my work in. This year I won The Writer Magazine's best poem of 2006 - and a check for $100.00. I was ecstatic at winning - I'd even forgotten I had submitted - then the editor called for my SS# and I had to ask how much I'd won. I spent the money, but still have the copies of my poem and that is a real treasure. Without the possibility of ever earning money, I would still right. That's what I do - I am a poet. But, all monies are gratefully, gleefully accepted!
4. On that note: Should poetry be more mainstream than it is? If it was, would mediocrity prevail?
First of all, I cannot imagine 'genre' poetry. Poetry is just to personal and elusive. The same poem can mean so many different things to different readers. I think poetry is gaining more popularity in recent years, thanks in part to the Poet Laureates speaking out and reading to groups everywhere. Maybe, too, our society is ready to start thinking and feeling more deeply about themselves and their world. I write fiction, nonfiction, essays, and memoirs - but nothing sings to me like a successful poem.
5. Poetry has been used as a rallying cry for revolution and it has been the vehicle by which rulers circulate their dogma, but today, our leaders certainly no longer speak to us in poetry. Some poetry belongs to "the people", but most people don't read poetry. Is poetry, now, only for poets? Sorry, I mean poetcriticks. And if so, how then, does it differ from a corporate memo?
Well, more and more people are reading poetry. Maybe it's a historic ebb and flow of preference. But, there is poetry everywhere these days - from the sides of buses, beautifully printed books, chapbooks, and now the Internet. The Internet has opened a whole world of readers and writers - some 'good', some atrocious - but you have to admit it's an explosion of new poems and poets. When I Google my name and see my words sprinkled across many sites, I feel a wholeness inside myself. And what corporate memo starts with "How do I love thee"?
6. What is the most ridiculous thing someone has said to you about writing poetry?
Probably, "does it rhyme"? Some people still think of limericks and sing song ditties like the endless car ads.
7. What is the most ridiculous claim you have ever made in defense of poetry? (Even if it was true.)
I don't remember ever having to or trying to defend poetry. People either express a curious and even delighted dialogue - or the topic ends quickly with glazed eyes.
8-9. …Do any of these questions matter?
No, they don't matter at all. I write because I need to, want to, have to, and because I can. One thing that fascinates me is when I write what I consider a really good poem and it is met with polite yawns. Then, I'll write one that I think no amount of editing will help and my readers love. Go figure!
10. Has poetry ever taken you on a journey? Where to?
Every poem I write takes me on a journey. Sometimes to peer over the depth and darkness of the abyss, other time to mountains, oceans, the mall, or the remembered smell of my babies after their bath.
11. John Keats espoused the virtues of Negative Capability — a state of being at peace with the great mysteries. Wislawa Zsymborska said (and innumerable other poets have shared the sentiment) that poetry is born of a perpetual "I don't know". In your experience, is this an accurate statement?
These statements are very accurate. But the delight of poetry is that it gnaws on me to find out what I don't know and if I can somehow know it to my own peace.
12. Oftentimes, in talking about poetry, we tend to say, almost as a matter of course, that it requires us to remain "open" on many levels — imaginatively, creatively, emotionally, and yet, the end product of this openness is a poem, an artifact, a closure: or is it? Is the end product of poetry perhaps, not the poem, but something else? What?
Maybe the end product of a poem is the desire to read another. Yes, we should be "open" on all these levels, but we are just humans and almost everything I can think of, we take very personally. If a poem has closure with no further wondering, I think it fails. Poetry should be a great merry-go-round with a different view with every word and stanza.
13. Does poetry, at its best, not demand that we "close" ourselves to some things — i.e. specifically so that we might see them anew?
Ideally, yes - but again there is that subjective self. And nothing is really new! As a poet, I just look for different colors to paint with, familiar words that become strange to us in a specific context.
14. It has been claimed that poetry has become dominated by a bunch of whiners, and that it is no longer saying much of import. Assuming that this is just categorically untrue, what are some of the most important things you've gleaned lately, either directly, or indirectly from reading another poet?
Well, I think there is an awful lot of awful confessional poetry out there. Whiners is a good description. When I first started writing poetry, my mentor told me to quit with the confessional bs. Writing from the soul is a hell of a lot different than writing from the whine. I suppose the most important thing poetry and poets have taught me is that the most important thing is the hands we get to hold and the idea that every moment and event is precious.
15. From writing poetry yourself?
Same as above - I think I covered that.
16. Do you remember the first time a poem struck you, and resonated deeply? What happened there?
The first poem that really made me want more was "Invictus". I was very young and our home was very broken. Here in the poet's words was understanding, kinship, and hope, and triumph. From that one poem, I was hooked. For the first time, I knew I was not alone in what went on inside my head.
17. Have you ever wanted to give up writing poetry? If so, what changed your mind?
Never - poetry has been a part of me since I was seven and my teacher, Mrs. Phillips read "Beowolft" to the class. A few days later, I discovered our small town library and never once looked back.
18. Do you think poetry's loss of profile is due to society's overwhelming complacency, or do you think it's the other way around?
I have no idea or real opinion on these questions. I guess it's because I cannot personally identify. One writes poetry in very thin air then falls back onto the grass and sees if she can see the pictures of the words like clouds.
19. What is the greatest discovery you have made via poetry?
That poetry has very little to do with the sing song memorization of grade school and that I am a poet. Whatever else life has called on me to do or be, I am a poet.
20. Might poetry function as a map of consciousness, written as we go, with individual poems becoming markers for others? If so, as a woman poet, do you feel any responsibility for your poems? Are you conscious of your readers?
Ah, the intellectual questions. Poetry is both conscious and unconscious depending on what side of the hill you are on when you read or write it. I have always believed my poems were 'womens' poems and I have always been conscious of this. However, in the last couple of years, gender has become much less important. Truth and joy and sorrow are the same for men and women. Any differences in perception are only made less rigid by the shared experience of what a single poem might say.
BIO: Joyce Wakefield is a recent transplant to California from Oklahoma. In Oklahoma, she was a member of the Individual Artists of Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Writer's Federation, and the Oklahoma City Writers. She has many poems published including Poems Niederngasse, Loch Raven Review, and Byline Magazine. She has published two chapbooks of poetry, sold several short stories, and has a full length book of poetry with an editor now. In California, she is establishing her freelance writing business including copy writing and editing, ghost writing, and web copy. EMAIL: j53wakefield@hotmail.com