Once again, an interview from Freshette. Traci Brimhall’s poems appeared in Finery #7 & her excellent full length book of poems, Rookery, is out now from Southern Illinois University Press:
I am a poet. My poems can be found online at various places, and in
many print journals.
My creative process constantly changes, but since I have been
traveling for the last five months, my favorite method is writing
lines of poetry on postcards and sending them. I usually forget what
I`ve written, but I find the transitory creative act very satisfying.
I once heard a story about a Chinese poet (perhaps Li Po) who would
write poems, read them to his washerwoman, and then fold them into
boats and set the adrift on the river. Although my poems are adrift
in the U.S. postal system, I like that the gesture of putting lines
on a postcard or a paper boat is all that is required of a piece of
art. The very act of creation was the purpose. No revision or
workshops or angst was needed. All I have to do is offer words to the
river.
What I`m most afraid of is sleepwalking through my life, which is true
of my creative fears as well. I want to be awake to every experience
and to every word. Annie Dillard in her book on the writing life said
writers should write as though they`re dying. They should also write
as though their audience was dying, because that is, in fact, the
case. She asks what we could tell a dying audience that would not
enrage by its triviality. If I have a fear about creating, I suppose
I fear forgetting that we are all dying. Slowly, it`s true. But what
we say to each other matters, both in art and in our daily lives. I
usually try to write by finding what Frederico Garcia Lorca called
duende, that cliff`s edge inside myself where I find my original fear
and the darkness I usually keep at a distance. I go there to write
because I assume that what I find there needs to be said.
I would recommend any book by Paul Zweig, any film by Ingmar Bergman,
and any album by Neko Case.
