You are accessible on Twitter (@karenkawrites) and generous with your thoughts and your work. How do you engage the world without feeling overwhelmed by it? What input do you turn off to stay focused?
Thanks for saying that! Frankly, though, I’m always engaging the world and I’m always feeling completely overwhelmed by it at the same time. I try to take that fullness to the page. The real trick isn’t to clear the mind and find my space; it’s to find writing time. Social media can squander time — that’s the danger it poses to a poet — but when I am nearly overwhelmed with all that I’m thinking and feeling, I do very well with my writing. A long writing session at a time like that can be very cleansing and comforting.
Your blog (betterviewofthemoon.blogspot.com) is a kind of survival kit for writers. What’s the best writerly advice you’ve ever gotten?
It’s pretty basic: “Writers write.” I know a lot of people who call themselves writers but they never seem to find the time to sit down and create. I’ve even been that person, and I’ve called myself a writer up until it got too embarrassing to claim the title. Now I have a daily writing habit, and I treasure it. My life really doesn’t work out unless I’m writing.
What gives you strength and hope as a writer?
You know, I’m not actually someone who gets a lot of pleasure from writing poems. It’s very hard for me. I get personal, and the results can be troubling. I’m not a craftsperson; I polish things up and put them in the best shape possible — I mean, I think my craft is pretty solid — but grappling with ideas is messy and difficult. What gives me the most hope is the gift that happens sometimes, when you sweat over a poem and then read through it and see that something has appeared that is beyond your initial plan — some system of imagery, some rhetorical thread, some new