POET TIM GREENUP By Karen Mobley
“ What I love about Tim’ s work is that you never know what he’ s going to say next. That is also what I love about Tim in person,” said Laura Read, Spokane Poet Laureate
Tim said,“ Whenever I’ m asked about favorite poets, the first name that comes to mind is James Tate. But while writing Without Warning I was also inspired by Russel Edson’ s The Tunnel, Frank Stanford’ s The Singing Knives, Melissa Kwasny’ s Thistle, and Robert Bly’ s book Leaping Poetry, which argues that poems should‘ leap’ between the conscious and unconscious minds. That’ s something I strived to do in the poems that became Without Warning. Of late, I’ ve been taken by Mary Ruefle and Tracy K. Smith and Charles Simic.
I teach English at SFCC, and sometimes I’ m fortunate enough to teach poetry, be it in literature or creative writing classes. I see that a lot of poetry just rolls off my students, and so sometimes I envision them as my audience when I’ m writing. I’ ll think‘ how can I turn this poem into something Stanley could respond to?’ That poses challenges and forces me to make decisions I probably wouldn’ t come to if I were only thinking about the poem from my perspective. I’ m fortunate to work with some great writers— Laura Read, Ben Cartwright, and Leyna Krow to name a few— whose work is different from mine, but who help me keep my head in the game, so to speak. Just being around them reminds me that‘ yes, yes, I may be a teacher now, but I am also a poet. That’ s something I do too.’”
28 ART CHOWDER MAGAZINE