Discovery, by Remedios Varo
This summer, much of my time will be dedicated to a project I’m calling “The Without”, which is an exploration into mysticism, folklore, and surrealism. These themes have always been direct influences on my poetry and life. By exploring them fully, I feel like I am fully accepting myself as a writer. I want to follow my strangeness. That strangeness is what I have to give the world.
Something I’ve always found helpful is to align my reading with my writing. Along with a long list of non-fiction books on the above subjects, I'll be studying the poets Rainer Maria Rilke, Wallace Stevens, and Cole Swenson, allowing their philosophical and meditative qualities to inspire me.
To give these explorations the attention they deserve, and to ensure I'm bringing you the highest quality content, I've decided to shift our publication schedule from weekly to bi-weekly, starting now. This will allow me to fully integrate the different parts of my writing life, and to create a more cohesive series of posts (perhaps for eventual books…). I will also be exploring the creative process itself and the craft of poetry. There will be excerpts from my writer’s notebook and two future books of aphorisms, The Angels’ Portion and The Government of Heraclitus.
Among the next few posts will be an analysis of Rilke’s approach to writing, a piece on the Mexican-Spanish surrealist painter Remedios Varo, an explication of how I learn and process my reading into ideas (sometimes I think writing is just actively engaging in reading), and an exploration of how, through a specific poem, I allow images and concepts from art and myth to become the material of my poetry.
Beyond "The Without," I'll also be doing foundational research for other book projects that will inspire future posts. These include:
* Paraphilia: An exploration of desire, sexuality, and how language and grammar have shaped these concepts throughout history.
* Engagement: Politically inspired work, drawing from philosophy, history, and current events. Ultimately this is a call for a personal engagement with our current world.
* Orchard: Poems rooted in food, agriculture, and farm life, reflecting on the vital but often overlooked connection between us and what sustains us.
My goal is for each newsletter to be a substantial piece that shares my intellectual and poetic journey with you.
A few more announcements:
My poem “when i didn’t eat, it wasn’t food i was saying no to, but the notion of hunger” was recently published in Rattle, issue 88. My haiku “morning lot” is forthcoming in Modern Haiku, issue 56.3, this summer, and another poem, “geranium”, will be published online in Iron Horse Literary Review, 27.1.
I recently gained my advanced tutoring degree, and worked the last four months in my school’s writing workshop. At this point I have been involved in a number of poetry groups and workshops. Editing is something I’ve always loved to do. So I’m going to begin offering editing services, and may also offer at least one class this summer. More details to come.
Thank you for being part of this community, and for your continued support.
