I know that poems are like children and you shouldn’t single
out one, but I can’t help it if I fall in love. There is
something so tender in the balance between the grace and the
mercilessness of memory and knowledge, in careful, equal
measure—or so it seems to me. Do you have favorites among your
own work? What do you look for in a poem that makes it feel
successful?
That’s a great question. Right now, “Let me be a lamb in a
world that wants my lion” is probably my favorite poem, but
it’s also one of my more recent ones. I find I’m most starry-
eyed over whatever I’ve written last because it’s still got its
claws in me.
As for what makes a poem feel successful, it’s a very intuitive, gut-
driven process for me. I know if I am moved by the poem, I’ve probably
written something that will resonate with others, too. I go after the
feeling first and refine later, usually.
There are a few questions we always love to ask: What first drew you
to poetry?
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I’m a control freak! Okay, but seriously, there’s something appealing
about the level of control you can exert over a poem: you have the
freedom to write about anything (well, almost), you have endless
formal choices, you can shape how the poem looks on the page, you
choose the line breaks, and you can build the poem word by word. In
short, I love the precision of poetry.
What work is foundational for you or first inspired you? Whose work
are you currently reading?
The first book of poems I ever read was Sylvia Plath’s Ariel. My
mother gave it to me for my 12th birthday, and it lit me up. I will
probably always be inspired by the sparse way she uses image and by
her honesty.
I’m reading so much good stuff lately: Beast Meridian by Vanessa
Angélica Villarreal, Electric Arches by Eve Ewing, The Patient Admits
by Avery Moselle Guess, The Magic My Body Becomes by Jess Rizkallah,
Still Can’t Do My Daughter’s Hair by William Evans, and I’m super
excited about Hanif Abdurraqib’s collection of essays They Can’t Kill
Us Until They Kill Us. I think everyone should read these books.
What is your process like? Is writing a practice that you schedule or
is it all about the muse and the moment?
A little of both these days. I work a 9 to 5 gig (for an insurance
agency, no less!) that leaves me pretty cognitively beat by the end