I suppose it's useful in designating writing that tends to come from personal experience, work that delineates an "I," but it's a loose lasso, one which may rope certain poems by one poet and not others.

Matthea Harvey

Categorized in : May Writing Rope

I'm interested in concrete poems - anything that complicates the line between the written and the visual.

concrete visuals lines

In my own writing, I've mostly abandoned end-rhyme, but wordplay is still a huge part of my process. I've written a series of mermaid poems in the last few years. The first one was called "The Straightforward Mermaid" which arose from my delight in that word combination. After that, I decided that future mermaid poems would have to be words ending in "d" or "t," which led to "The Deadbeat Mermaid," "The Morbid Mermaid" and so forth . . .

mermaid morbid writing

I don't see much difference between prose poems and flash fiction (I've often taught the latter as the former), but then I also don't see that much difference between art and poetry.

differences fiction art

People "confess" can be wildly different. I might go into the confessional and say, "Father, what is my obsession with miniatures?"

different father people

What I like about prose poems is that they seem to make people uncomfortable - people want to define them, justify them, attack them. Prose poems are natural fence-sitters.

natural want people

One of my favorite titles of an art piece is "Première Communion de Jeunes Filles Chlorotiques Par Un Temps De Neige" or "First Communion of Chlorotic Young Girls in Snowy Weather" by Alphonse Allais. It's essentially a joke of a title, since the accompanying image is a simple white square.

girl simple art

In my own writing, I've mostly abandoned end-rhyme, but wordplay... by Matthea Harvey

In my own writing, I've mostly abandoned end-rhyme, but wordplay is still a huge part of my process.

abandoned ends writing

Encountering rhyme out of the blue is like finding a long-lost twin (fraternal), or a suitcase that closes with a particularly satisfying click.

suitcases blue long

I don't like basements, but definitely basements could be poems. Not fond of skin diseases, but again, there's a pattern. Probably anything could be a poem.

patterns disease skins

I think there are people who do write regionally, because that's their subject matter - the way the sunset looks over a strip mall, memories of flirting at the ice rink, waking up to a deer at the window... Up to now, that hasn't been mine.

sunset writing memories

Usually form seems to find me in the process of writing a poem, though I have nothing against starting out with the form.

starting-out form writing

When I have my students do erasures, I'm always amazed by the way their voice comes through, whether they're doing an erasure of a romance novel or an encyclopedia. Your sensibility will out.

romance voice way

We humans have an amazing way of making everything personal. by Matthea Harvey

We humans have an amazing way of making everything personal.

humans way

I let my narrative embroidering impulses take over in prose poems... by Matthea Harvey

I let my narrative embroidering impulses take over in prose poems.

prose impulse narrative

I am pretty interested in hybrid forms. I love graphic novels and I think there should be more graphic poems in the world.

form world thinking

Writing a poem is always a process of subtracting: you start with all of language available to you, and you choose a smaller field.

language fields writing

I'm pretty lenient with myself about time - if I feel like taking photographs of small things inside ice cubes or making animal collages, I just do it. When I want to write, I write. It's all part of the same thing for me.

ice writing animal

I would love to collaborate on a graphic novel with an artist - I'm terrible at drawing but I really love that genre.

graphic-novels drawing artist

Having my poems set to music by Eric Moe has completely knocked m... by Matthea Harvey

Having my poems set to music by Eric Moe has completely knocked my socks off.

sock eric

I have poetic failures all the time. Many failed poems. I try not to publish those, though some have slipped into each book, since I can't always tell they're failures until later... or I don't want to admit that they are.

want trying book