This Friday, Poetry Wales is holding a special Zoom event for Earth Day to launch issue 57.3. The front cover is by environmental artist Barry Underwood and the issue features new writing about nature, the more-than-human, and environmental crisis. Readers will include: John Barnie Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana Graham Hartil Lynne Hjelmgaard Jane Houston Mike Jenkins Joshua Jones Jennifer Militello…
Tag: how she writes a poem
Stephanie Green: How I Wrote ‘To a Humpback Whale’
Interview by Zoë Brigley So the first few stanzas grew to a joyous Hallelujah, a dramatic climax describing the breach. And then things went horribly wrong. To a Humpback Whale Húsavík, Iceland) After Cal Freeman Dear blubber, glorious obesity, your tubercles like hairy warts. Dear blur on the sea’s surface and downward curve of your…
Dr Rhea Seren Phillips: How I Wrote ‘The Book of Plants and Insults’
Interview by Zoë Brigley “I take the position of observer, and my creative practise then unleashes an energy which has its own personality. I wouldn’t trust it with a butter knife, let alone anything else“ The Book of Plants and Insults Abide tranquillity, boy. Must not seize coiling phlox to classify Πανδώρα. chocolate-eyed merch dives…
Jessica Mookherjee: How I wrote ‘Jail Birds’
“I started to think of all the ways we are locked in our own selves and how much we can ever really be understood by others.“ Jail Birds The crow keeps records of my movements,no need for locks, his beak is keen and fast. Everywhere the starlings gather, they chitchateverything, quick quick, I go back…
Chloe Garner on how she writes a poem
“I hurry the final stretch to get the poem on paper. Repeating it over and over, scared I will forget.”
Eleanor Rees on how she writes a poem
Immanent living matter swirls through us all constantly, indeed this is what we are.
Maria Jastrzȩbska on how she writes a poem
“The best way to write a poem is underwater. The sounds of the world, of other people are muffled. Only their underbellies and limbs ripple through the water.” Geometric lines repeat themselves along the bottom of the pool or if you’re lucky enough to be in a clear sea shy fish suddenly appear from behind…
Hanan Issa on how she writes a poem
“Poetry is the ultimate language ‘glow up’ and it is where I go to try and make sense of the storm” Dragon-taming? I started writing about dragons. Not the friendly creatures that let you ride on their backs. I wrote them as wild monsters with blood-stained teeth and fiery tempers. They definitely ate…
Rosemarie Corlett on how she writes a poem
“I don’t follow a skeleton, or pad out a structure, rather the poem emerges like a road lit by headlights.” I never know what a poem will be about when I start writing it. And if it’s a successful poem, I won’t know what it’s about once it’s finished. I write line by line, and…