Ok folks, it's Matt's turn in the chair!! Oh...it's back to @raisethecurve, which is MUCH more to my liking!! Everyone get over there and follow (re-follow for much of us) as soon as humanly possible!! Thanks Matt, for your time and your great answers. So, much wisdom.
1. What wound or moment first made you reach for poetry instead of silence?
The first time I consciously chose poetry over silence was when I was a freshman in high school. A dear friend of the family was in a very dark place, and I felt that terrible helplessness of being young and not knowing what to say or how to fix it. The silence felt like a failure. So, instead of speaking, I wrote. I emailed her a poem titled Rain Falls.Â
or without you the world could not turn,
comforting every creature,
assuring tomorrow, another day to
Looking back, it was the first poem Iâd ever written in free verse, in my own breath. For a long time, I believed rhyme and constraint were the highest form of elegance. But that moment taught me something else. It taught me that the real work lies in weaving raw emotion into meaning against the void, walking that fine line between chaos and clarity.
2. Which poem of yours would you never let your mother read?
That's a funny one for me. My mom, and as I found out later, my brother, actually read everything I posted on my blog when I was younger. There was no hiding. At the time, it could be incredibly embarrassing, especially when I was trying to be some kind of rebellious artist. But that embarrassment was instructive. It was a loving, grounding force that taught me thereâs a very fine line between bold experimentation and simple foolishness. Theyâre both gone now, and I miss that gentle accountability. There's nothing I'd hide from them; their eyes on my work taught me how to be honest in the first place.
3. Whatâs a line youâve written that still scares you?
It wasnât a single line so much as a whole poem when my own voice became unfamiliar to me. I actually quit writing for a while because of it. I wrote a Secret Santa gift for @kathrrinka titled caverns in the snow with a couplet that went,
look at your winter clothes so hung
as to drip onto brick below / the fire.
It was simple, imagistic, and it felt like it came from someone else. It scared me because I realized I was changing, maturing into a writer I didn't recognize. I worried I was being pretentious, or worse, stealing someone else's voice. Iâve since come to terms with itâthat whole period was just a record of my becoming. The fear is gone now because I know that voice is mine.
4. Whatâs the strangest place youâve ever written a line down?
I filled every square inch of the windows of my mom's hospital rooms when she was dying. I wrote directly on the glass with markersâpoems, phrases, memories. The nurses would come in and read them. It turned a sterile, frightening space into something sacred. It was less about writing a poem and more about changing the air we had to breathe.
5. Do you write for yourself or for the world, and has that balance shifted over time?
That balance used to be a constant rotationâwriting for myself, then for my loved ones, for the world, and then cycling back again. But that's no longer the case. There was a point of epiphany where the orbit simply stopped. For a while now, it has been, and I believe will always be, for God. The audience has become singular, and in that, the purpose of the work is made clear.
6. If you had to ban one cliché from poetry forever, what would it be?
I couldnât ban a single one. Iâve come to believe that everything has its place. Every trope we now see as a clichĂ© was, at its inception, a stroke of undeniable genius. It became a clichĂ© because it worked so well that everyone wanted to use it. To ban one would be to disrespect the moment of brilliance that it was born from.
7. What have you sacrificed for poetry that you wish you hadnât?
Honestly, I wish I had sacrificed more. Thereâs a version of my life in another universe where I dedicated everything to itâwhere I went to graduate school, became a poetry professor, and spent my life guiding and inspiring new voices. I donât regret the life I have, not for a second, but I sometimes feel a pang for the life that was even more deeply submerged in the craft.
8. Which living poet would you love to get drunk with and why?
Iâd love to have a few beers with Ken Arkind; his work has a power and a pulse that I really admire. And honestly, Kevin, Iâd love to have that drink with you. Itâs a regret that we never managed to meet up before I moved out to Rhode Island. I find I'm much more interested in genuine connection than in celebrity.
9. What part of your life do you keep off the page, and what part refuses to stay off?
Nothing is truly off the page. Sooner or later, everything finds its way there because writing is how I process my life. There is a distinction in the process, though, that has become very clear to me: my life always improves when I read, and I always understand why when I write.
10. Whatâs the weirdest DM or fan message youâve ever gotten about your work?
I've always been genuinely flattered whenever someone takes the time to write to me about my work. The messages have been overwhelmingly kind. I did have one very persistent offer from someone who wanted to be my 'sugar mama.' It was strange but also oddly validating in a way. I had to politely decline, though. I wasn't looking to start a new life with a stranger, no matter how generous the offer.
11. When do you feel most fraudulent as a poet?
I used to feel it most when I convinced myself that I had to post something, that I needed to keep feeding the machine. There's this immense pressure to constantly produce, but art doesn't work that way. Iâve learned that it is always, always better to take your time and craft something you are truly proud of than to publish something out of fear or obligation. Your voice is not a commodity.
12. If your poetry had a soundtrack, whoâd be on it?
It would be a very specific three-album rotation. For the spoken word pieces, it would be The Blue Man Group's album The Complexâit has this propulsive feeling of hope and growth. For the romantic poems, itâs Joss Stoneâs Mind Body & Soul, which perfectly captures the innocence and warmth of youth. And for the more meditative free verse, it would have to be Toolâs album Undertow. That record sounds like the very act of waiting, watching, and learning.
13. Whatâs the ugliest truth youâve ever had to put into words?
It's probably a tie between the two foundational fears: the moment you realize 'I don't love you anymore,' and the moment you realize, 'I don't love myself.' You can fool your own eyes for a while, but the aftertaste of a poem written from those places never lies. I think that's why artists grow, often violently. Most people sit with their feelings, observe them. Artists are required to eat their feelingsâsavor them at first, then break them down for nourishment. You have to metabolize the ugly truths to survive.
14. Whatâs your personal âpoet superstitionâ before you write?
My superstition is scribbling. I'm a firm believer in the mind-body connection, and I think the pen and paper are the oldest, most ingrained pathways we have. If Iâm feeling blocked or uninspired, Iâll just scribble on a blank page. I let the pen move until the scribbles start to look like letters, and the letters form words, and the words become a phrase. Then I treat that first phrase like a seed and see if it will grow.
15. When people remember you, do you want them to remember your poems or your life?
In the grand scheme of things, I don't think I'll be remembered, and that's okay. But if any legacy remains, I hope itâs not in the words I wrote but in the actions I took. I hope that my life, in some small way, genuinely uplifted and empowered others.
There's a Bible verse, Matthew 25:40, that guides me:
'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'
I would rather my life be a quiet example of that than have my name on the spine of any book.
**Kevin's Note: It has been wonderful having Matt's words back here on the TWC!! Truly a great poet and gentleman! I wouldn't count out that drink, stranger things have happened! Maybe we'll get to all hang out at the tumblr bar and grill with all the other tumblr-ites one of these days!! I hope so! First round is on me!**