The postcard is sacred to me. It makes me sad that no one sends them very much anymore because of email and texting. I still like to buy them, but they've lost their original function and now just seem like reminders or mementos of what they used to be.

Elaine Equi

Categorized in : Sacred Email Texting

I like being married to another writer. You get to trade ideas. You get to talk shop. You get to complain. You get to gossip. And you don't have to explain why you're in such a bad mood when your work isn't going well.

Elaine Equi

gossip complaining ideas

Technology sounds quick and easy, but it ends up taking up too much of your time.

Elaine Equi

technology too-much sound

In the past things were either in your head (subjective, imaginary, fantasy) or else they were part of the outside world - cold, hard, concrete materialistic reality. If you want to look at it in terms of poetry, there was surrealism and objectivism. Now there's the veil of the virtual in between. The old opposition between inner and outer doesn't quite capture it, especially as it contains elements of both. It's real but not concrete.

Elaine Equi

real looks past

There are fewer and fewer philosophies that everyone subscribes to. We don't seem to have as many beliefs in common as we used to. Also, we interact much more online. We have all these gadgets to help us manage different aspects of our lives.

Elaine Equi

gadgets different philosophy

In order for poetry to exist there has to be not-poetry to contrast it with.

Elaine Equi

contrast order

I don't write every day, but if I go more than a couple of months without writing, I begin to get a little nervous. I usually have bursts of poems. Five or six come together and then I slack off and want to do something else.

Elaine Equi

couple together writing

I can never plan out what direction my poems will take in terms of either form or content. I wish I could but it doesn't work that way for me. If I try to write something, I'd probably end up doing the opposite.

Elaine Equi

wish opposites writing

I like to look at the interface between words and pictures and wonder about which comes first, a sort of chicken-or-egg type of question.

Elaine Equi

eggs looks firsts

When I shut off the verbal, I like to escape into the visual.

Elaine Equi

visuals

What I like best about teaching is that it allows me to explore my own interest with a group.

Elaine Equi

interest teaching

I tend to like poems that are short as well as funny. I love Joe Brainard and Aram Saroyan. And I think their sense of humor and minimalist approach are pretty radical.

Elaine Equi

minimalist sense-of-humor thinking

In a machine, every part has a function. In a poem, every word needs to be there.

Elaine Equi

function machines needs

When I think of someone equating poems and machines, it makes me feel like that person would like poems to have a more obvious use value in society. They're not happy with poetry being this ephemeral, indefinable thing. They want it to be "real."

Elaine Equi

machines real thinking

The earth has always supported me in all my endeavors. I trust it.

Elaine Equi

endeavor earth

I tend to be a pretty spacey and scattered person, so anything that makes me feel "grounded" comes as a welcome relief.

Elaine Equi

welcome relief feels

I think the more stability a person has, the more they can follow esoteric or intellectual pursuits.

Elaine Equi

esoteric intellectual thinking

The inner and outer, the visible and invisible, the abstract and concrete - you've got to get the balance right (not that I do, but it's something to aim for).

Elaine Equi

invisible abstract balance

I can appreciate the idea that with e-books more people would publish, the work would be easier to disseminate, and that it could even be interactive. Being a lover of photography, I especially like the idea that you could include lots of pictures - full-color pictures - with your writing. That to me is exciting! We'll all have to stay tuned to see what develops.

Elaine Equi

photography writing book

I wonder if books become in essence "files" if people wouldn't write them differently. I'm used to writing print books and I enjoy the slowness of the whole process. It makes me more deliberate about everything I say.

Elaine Equi

essence writing book

I don't like speed. I would have made a terrible Futurist. Even when I did take drugs, I never liked amphetamines and much preferred the slow taffy-pull of time that you get with opiates.

Elaine Equi

amphetamines opiates drug