Installment #30
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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 copy & paste the Q's from below and e-mail your answers to: editor@poemeleon.org.
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Reading
Q: Where do you prefer to get your books?
A: Braving a possible storm of anguished and horrified others, I love getting my books from Kindle. The e-book has returned me to a life of reading in bed, on planes, in waiting rooms, a life that was cut short by post-polio syndrome in which I was limited to verrrry small books, chapbook size, or to the repulsive alternative of ripping up hardcovers and reading them a few pages at a time.
Q: How many poetry books do you think you own, and what percentage of these have you actually read?
A: Hundreds. All of them, many times over. And the good ones are new each time. Or maybe I’m new each time!
Q: When, where and how do you usually read? (i.e. at bedtime under the covers, cover to cover, etc.)
A: While eating, waiting, in bed, in airports, in planes – o, just give me the opportunity and I’ll read!
Q: What books of poetry have you read this month?
A: Right now I have Dorothea Lasky’s Black Life awaiting. I’m saving it for a trip next week – it’s very slim, and thus portable.
Q: What other books/magazines/backs of cereal boxes have you read recently?
A: A truly great novel/parable – I rarely say such a thing – Brodick, by Philippe Claudel. All I can or should say is Read it!! Am looking forward to the new collection by one of my favorite living poets, Wislawa Symborska – hope it’s out soon. Other books I’ve been reading are so-so or good, but not great.
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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: Almost anywhere - under the table at a formal dinner, waiting for a flu shot, more conventionally at my computer - the muse must be obeyed!
Q: How many first drafts do you think you complete in a week? A month?
A: On a new poem, usually a few a day, though not every day. So maybe 10 or so in a week. In a month – well, maybe a few more added to the 10 a week, or maybe not so many more.
Q: How long do you wait before revising a poem?
A: Who waits?
Q: When do you know a poem is “done”?
A: When I no longer am bothered by any aspect of it. Even then, months or years later I may come back to it, feeling dissatisfied.
Q: Have you ever given up an invitation so you could stay home and write?
A: Yes, very rarely, because I’ll go to the thing (my husband’s position called for events I’d agreed to accompany him on) and write under the table.
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Publishing
Q: What is your system for sending out work?
A: See a call for poems – if a themed call, and I have a poem on the theme and like the venue, I’ll send it. Otherwise, mostly send to places I respect.
Q: What have you more recently received: a rejection notice or an acceptance? Was it what you expected?
A: Received an acceptance today; surprised. But mostly rejections rejections rejections – my best work, somewhat experimental, often gathers more than 40 rejections, and eventually wins a first prize. Can take years.
Q: Where do you generally publish: online, in print, or a mix, and do you have a preference?
A: More in print. But recently I have some poems which incorporate pieces of music, using hyperlinks, so for those, web publishing is preferable.
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: Usually rejections are pleasantly bland – you know the drill. But once, and only once, I got a letter saying “Never send us anything again!” It was a quite ordinary poem – nothing far out or pornographic – just a plain, structured poem.
Q: Have you ever received any fan (or hate) mail? If so, what was that like?
A: A rare fan mail letter, analyzing a poem. A lovely feeling to know someone actually read it!
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Practical considerations
Q: What is your day job, and how does it affect your writing?
A: I’m a psychologist, working as a psychotherapist in private practice. So I’m connected to people via their souls, their unconscious, which connects me with mine.
Q: How does your significant other’s occupation affect your writing life?
A: My husband is an astrophysicist, a professor and researcher. He is incredibly focused on his work, learning constantly (at age 80, much less!). Last year he gave a new course at Harvard, and I saw the videos of each class on line. His subject matter was exciting and actually inspired several poems directly.
Q: Have there been periods in your life when you couldn't write?
A: No, though there have been periods when I didn’t, being invested in going to grad school and parenting kids at the same time.
Q: Do you have a “poetry budget”?
A: No, fortunately.
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: No, though I once got a speeding ticket (40 mph in a 35 mile zone) picking up my daughter at her ballet class – because I had a homicidal patient and had to get the police to go after him and stop him from killing his family!
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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, but I can’t sing out of tune.
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: Do none of the above; instead you: are grateful that she is no longer able to read any of them since she has left the earth a long time ago. That may sound cruel, but I never would have had the courage – or foolhardiness - to show her anything critical, because she had a dangerous streak.
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: I’d be selfish enough to leave it to my family. But I’d surely tell everyone how much I love them.
Q: If you could be a vowel, which one would you be and why?
A: To make a pun, I’d be I! It’s a great thing to be a real I. Did you every consider that in English that letter is like a pole, with a floor and a ceiling, contained, and strong?
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: A sentence from my grandfather, a composer and violinist. He taught my father the violin, and my father taught me. My father was a musical snob (as am I), and didn’t like to play for lowbrow audiences. My grandfather told him, “Play for the one who knows.” That’s my advice, that I live by. Doesn’t bother me to get rejections of work I know is good – I really feel that I know myself what’s good, what’s terrific, what’s so-so, and I’ll just wait til someone else (an editor, for example) can see what I see.
Marian Kaplun Shapiro is the author of a professional book, Second Childhood (Norton, 1988), a poetry book, Players In The Dream, Dreamers In The Play (Plain View Press, 2007) and two chapbooks: Your Third Wish, (Finishing Line, 2007); and The End Of The World, Announced On Wednesday (Pudding House, 2007). As a Quaker and a psychologist, her poetry often addresses the embedded topics of peace and violence, often by addressing one within the context of the other. A resident of Lexington, she recently won the Elizabeth Bolton Award. She was named Senior Poet Laureate of Massachusetts in 2006, in 2008, and in 2010.