Jo McDougall will read her poetry at Johnson County Library on Tuesday June 21st at 6pm. Poetry and Prose is presented by the Writers Place and Johnson County Library.
When did you first start writing poetry? Do you remember what provided your first inspiration?
I think I wrote my first poem when I was 11 or 12. My mother had read stories and poems to me on a regular basis when I was a young child, so I had those images and rhythms in my head. I gave the poem to my dad, and he framed it and put it on his desk. I've been writing ever since.
What inspires you to write poetry now?
Reading good poetry. Observing the small, stunning, sometimes bizarre things the world brings. Remembering incidents and people from the past.
You teach poetry and writing, including sessions on switching genres. How does the craft of poetry influence your prose writing?
Because poetry is about economy and the search for the exact word, I think a background in poetry helps a writer tighten the sentences. Poetry is about rhythm, of course, and being attuned to that helps in the flow of prose. A poet searches for the right image and the right metaphors, and that's important in prose writing, too. But I've always liked writing essays, putting sentences together, seeing how they relate to and enhance one another, how they sound, so I imagine prose writing has influenced my poetry. In both genres it's important to remember that little surprises--of syntax, meter, word choice, and metaphor--make a difference.
What’s the best writing advice you’ve received? Is it different from the advice you most often find yourself passing along to your students and other writers?
When I was getting my MFA in creative writing, I had outstanding teachers who insisted that we read extensively in both traditional and contemporary literature. They had us read the Norton anthologies of English and American literature, as well as the classics in world literature. I tell my students the same thing: Read! Eavesdropping helps, too--you can pick up lots of stories that way.
Who are a few of your favorite poets?
William Butler Yeats for subject matter, form, and mystery; Emily Dickinson for economy and the truth about sorrow. Poets who speak to my emotions, who make me laugh or break my heart.
Is there a poem or poems you love to recite?
Shakespeare's Sonnet 73, that begins "That time of year thou mayst in me behold...."
Do you have favorites among your own poems?
In the new book, The Undiscovered Room, my favorites are "Ceremony" and "Lawn," for entirely different reasons.
What do you find most challenging in writing poetry? Is it the beginning, the middle, the end, or the editing? Or something else entirely?
The most challenging aspect for me is finding the right metaphors, the unusual but believable comparisons, so that I can get at the truth of what I want to say.
What do you find most rewarding?
Finding those metaphors. Writing a line that works.
Callie Tahat wrote a beautifully poetic review of In the Home of the Famous Dead for toadsuckreview.org. She begins by saying:
Don’t start writing about the people
You love unless you are committed
To the sadness of dying parents,
Abandoned houses, and shadows
Of marriages lost in the night.
What about the opposites? The joys of parenthood, homes rehabbed instead of demolished, and those time-worn marriages that know the comfort of familiarity. Do you mostly write about the tough stuff?
I do, because it's chaos that compels us to write, to try to make sense of it. But I write about upbeat things, too. I like to find humor or whimsy wherever I can. I write about things that bring us awe and wonder--and I hope to do more of that in the future.
Is there anything you would like to share we haven’t asked?
It's hard to add to these good questions you've asked, but I'd like to say that what I find most lacking in contemporary poetry is the element of surprise: those small delights in something said a different way, the unusual but just-right word, irony, the subject matter that wouldn't seem to lend itself to poetry but somehow does. Without surprise, the work is flat; it doesn't have texture.
“As a poet, that’s my job, to get into the hearts and minds of people.” – Jo McDougall