Artist's Statement

I approach poetry as a combination of three mediums: linguistic, auditory, and visual. In any poem, one aspect may be more emphasized than another, but all three will impact how the poem is received and understood. 

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In my writing process, I tend to approach these mediums one at a time, beginning with the language, then the sound, and finally the shape and presentation. Usually, my first few drafts of a poem take a paragraph form, and I find it nearly impossible to create suitable line breaks before the words are at least mostly set. The sound comes most naturally to me, and whilst constructing the language, I often take a step back and realize that I’ve created a lyrical flow with rhythms, rhymes, or callbacks, almost without realizing it. 

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Crafting the sound of the poem becomes a much more conscious effort in the revision stage, where I already have a rhythm built, and word choice becomes much more critical as I seek to refine the language while adding to or at least without disrupting the flow. It is in this stage, after I get my initial ideas on the page that I find myself combing through the thesaurus searching for the perfect word, with just the right meaning, sound, and rhythm. It is instinctive rather than logical that I know I need a two syllable word here, or emphasis there. I often compromise on rhymes; even if I feel that the sound would benefit from one, I will put the meaning first. But for rhythm, I will restructure entire stanzas to fit the meaning into the flow.

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Finally, the visual portion. Many poets use line breaks and spacing to control the speed and rhythm of a poem, but I tend to rely more on punctuation and the natural rhythms of words to create the sound. The line breaks will certainly have an affect on the rhythm, but when making those decisions I prioritize the visual presentation of the poem.

 

I add my line breaks towards the end of the revision, and in the case of more scattered poems this is the final step overall, as I have a very difficult time revising the language when the words are scattered across a page. As a result, it is this step when I feel that the poem really comes to life.

 

I place the breaks instinctively, with very little logic. It has little to do with the overall meaning or flow, but much to do with the interactions of individual words and phrases, and the visual picture of white space on the page. I have found that I especially don’t like my words to be crowded together, and often this is the largest determining factor in how the presentation evolves, seconded by the consideration of which words are in line with each other vertically, which I tend to dislike in certain patterns. 

 

All these factors come together to create my poems, which I feel are best experienced by listening to a reading while following along on your own copy, so that all three mediums can be fully experienced together.