The Habitual Poet: Gary Lehmann

Installment #33

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The Habitual Poet is an ongoing series of contributor interviews. If you are a Poemeleon contributor and would like to participate download the questions, input your answers, and e-mail it to: editor@poemeleon.org.

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Reading

 
Q: Where do you prefer to get your books?

A: Amazon.
 
 

Q: How many poetry books do you think you own, and what percentage of these have you actually read?

A: At least 160.   I’ve read at them all.  I don’t generally read a poetry book cover to cover.
 
 

Q: When, where and how do you usually read? (i.e. at bedtime under the covers, cover to cover, etc.)

A: Daytimes, in a lounge chair and bit by bit.
 
 

Q: What books of poetry have you read this month?

A: None,  I’ve been on vacation in Greece.
 

Q: What other books/magazines/backs of cereal boxes have you read recently?

A: I‘ve been reading travel books and antique accounts of travel in Greece.
 

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Writing

Q: When, where, how do you write, and why?(i.e. at dusk on a dock, longhand in a notebook, because...)

A: On a computer, in the daytime, and because I must.  I’ve been doing it for over 20 years.  It’s like breathing now.

 
Q: How many first drafts do you think you complete in a week? A month?

A: I write about 60 poems a year pretty consistently.  Drafts come and go and many don’t make it to poems, but 60 do.

 
Q: How long do you wait before revising a poem?

A: I don’t wait.  I revise while writing, revise while reading, revise after public readings, revise at night, revise weeks and months later, revise years afterwards.  I’m never satisfied.

 
Q: When do you know a poem is “done”?

A: When I can’t think of any way to say it better. And when I’ve explored thoroughly all the commentary I’ve received from others.

 
Q: Have you ever given up an invitation so you could stay home and write?

A: No.

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Publishing

Q: What is your system for sending out work?

A: I used to send out about 70 manuscripts, but since I have a regular publisher, I just wait until I think he is ready to receive another from me and I have a proper manuscript for him.

 
Q: What have you more recently received: a rejection notice or an acceptance? Was it what you expected?

A: Acceptance.  I expected it.
 

Q: Where do you generally publish: online, in print, or a mix, and do you have a preference?

A:  In print, but I have published on line.  This year so far I have published a book and 73 poems in journals, both hard copy and on-line.

 
Q: What is the worst (or weirdest, or best) experience you’ve had with a journal/magazine/press & its editor(s)? (No names, please!)

A: I once had an editor say that my work was not poetry.  I thought this was rather harsh, but following a long-standing policy I did not respond in any way.
 

Q: Have you ever received any fan (or hate) mail? If so, what was that like?

A: I receive a certain amount of fan mail every year.  A couple of people are moved enough to write me with favorable commentary.  I rarely get negative feedback.

 
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Practical considerations

Q: What is your day job, and how does it affect your writing?

A: I’m retired, but I teach poetry at a local college and work part-time as a museum curator and archivist.  These jobs feed my poetry.
 

Q: How does your significant other’s occupation affect your writing life?

A: My wife’s a lawyer.  Without her income I would be hungry many days.
 

Q: Have there been periods in your life when you couldn't write?

A: Long ones.
 

Q: Do you have a “poetry budget”?

A: I only spend what I make.  Of course, that doesn’t count buying poetry books.
 

Q: Have you ever suffered (or made someone else suffer) in the name of your art? (i.e. picked up your kids late from school so you could finish a poem, forgone lunch to buy a book, left a relationship because the other person just didn't understand, etc.)

A: I don’t think so, but you never know.
 

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Random nonsense

Q: Do you have any superhuman abilities? (i.e. can you tie a cherry stem in a knot with your tongue, or write a double sestina with both hands tied behind your back?)

A: No.
 

Q: You write a scathing poem about your mother and she learns about it. You:

a.) Move to South America and leave no forwarding address
b.) Delete the poem and insist it never existed
c.) Show it to her (she’s already written you out of the will anyway)
d.) Do none of the above; instead you:

A: I don’t write scathing.
 

Q: If the best medical specialists in the world told you that if you didn’t give up your poetry habit today you would die in six months, would you get your affairs in order or would you leave that up to your family?

A: Too silly for me.
 

Q: If you could be a vowel, which one would you be and why?

A: I
 

Q: Finally, what piece of advice would you most like to share with our readers? (This can be on writing, the writing life, or anything else...)

A: I’m not into giving advice much.

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Twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Gary Lehmann’s essays, poetry and short stories are widely published. Books include The Span I will Cross [Process Press, 2004] and Public Lives and Private Secrets [Foothills Publishing, 2005]. His most recent book is American Sponsored Torture [Foothills Publishing, 2007]. Look for American Portraits in 2010 from Foothills Publishing. Visit his website at www.garylehmann.blogspot.com.