The Crafty Poet: An Interview with R. H. Mustard
Hello and thank you for returning to the Self-Publishing Realm.
Some of the best advice I received while studying writing was simple: read poetry. So I do, especially when I'm blocked. That was how I came to discover today's guest, a writer whose work delights my soul and makes my brain tingle. Please join me in welcoming extraordinarily talented photographer and poet R. H. Mustard.
Thank you, Rob, for joining me today. How long have you been writing poetry?
RH: I have always written in one form or another. My education as an English major, graduate study in English, and my working life all included regular, strenuous writing assignments. Poems are obviously much more personal, but they require much of the same discipline. Poetic lines seem to come naturally to me. I find them in the usual places: love, death, and everything associated with these transformative events. For me, simple things offer the most powerful appeal as poetic subjects: work, suffering, joy, honesty, sacrifice, betrayal, sudden understanding, the stress of travel, the list is quite long, and I look for poems in and around these things. I also think it's important to look for them in unusual places.
Do you have any rituals you perform before beginning writing?
RH: While I am a creature of habit, I don't really have rituals. I usually write at night because it is quiet then, and I need to concentrate. But I will drop everything during the day and write if I think of a good line. As long as that line leads to another, I will keep writing. I believe strongly in letting the subconscious work on what you are writing. If a line won't come, I put it down and go back to it again later, and something good is usually there.
Is there a specific approach you take to writing poetry?
RH: My poems usually come from a single idea (Car Wash, for example). I don't always know exactly where the poem is going to go when I start, but I knew this was a good idea because it is full of possibilities (cleansing, baptism, the possibilities of cars offering sexual escape for teenagers, etc.). I also try to keep my language clear, muscular, straightforward. Though as a work of art I have created, the poem is important to me, it is written for the reader, not for me. Every word has to carry its weight, and usually more than its weight if the poem is going to work. It is very important to think hard about how every single word either does or does not work in the poem. If it does not work, it must be taken out. It is surprising how many poems can be greatly improved by removing material. And, finally, imagery is a very important aspect of my work.
Your poems Sauna and Predator really speak to me. How did Predator come into being?
RH: I got the idea for Predator when winding an old pocket watch I have had for many years. My grandfather and father were both railroad men, and I do have watches from them both, but the Elgin is one I bought myself. The poem is more about time than the watch itself, but the idea of the watch controlling the speaker as well as his ancestors and children is what I found most compelling, and what I tried to get into the poem.
Who are your favorite poets?
RH: I like many poets: Andrew Marvell, Robert Browning, Matthew Arnold, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, William Carlos Williams, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Anthony Hecht, Elizabeth Bishop, Philip Larkin, Gary Soto, Charles Simic, Kay Ryan, Mary Jo Bang, to name a few favorites. There are many more.
Do you write every day, or only when inspiration hits?
RH: I write almost every day. I don't really believe in inspiration. I usually have several ideas I am working on, and I stick with one of these until it either ignites, or does not. If it does not, then I move on to something else. Many of my best poems have hinged on finding the one right word, and then a new door opens and the poem takes off.
Does a poem begin with a word, impression, sensation, or something else?
RH: My poems can begin with any of these things. I think good poems appeal to the senses, particularly the visual because we are so intensely visual. The poem Traffic, for example, is built around a blinking stoplight reflected in the wet street at night. Without this image, there is no poem. This image is what started the poem in my mind.
Where do you find inspiration?
RH: I am wary of the term inspiration because it implies that poems come to us from some outside, ethereal place amid rising violins. For me, life and poetry aren't like that. It is true that some lines seem to come unbidden ("clippings scatter on his granite stone"), but then the poem must be built, and this takes imagination and work, sometimes when you don't feel like working but must because you know the poem is struggling to be born. Poems come from the sub-conscious, They are trying to get out all the time. If we slow down and listen, we can hear them.
What methods do you employ to improve your craft?
RH: I read a lot and make note of how other poets solve various technical problems. I try to be ruthless in my own editing and revise poems over and over until they are as good as I can possibly make them, realizing that some will never be as good as they could be. I try to get outside my own comfort zone and write in unfamiliar forms.
Are there any books you can recommend for fledgling poets?
RH: "Sound and Sense" by Lawrence Perrine, plus I would become very familiar with The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, Volumes I and II. For insight into the politics of poetry in our current time, I recommend "Beautiful & Pointless," by David Orr.
Do you listen to music while you write? If so, what music? What sort of environmental conditions do you require to write?
RH: While I'm a big fan of rock and classical music, I prefer to write without music. The mind can be easily distracted, a good idea lost because you're listening to a favorite old song. For me, silence is best because in it I am free to concentrate. This means no interruptions from conversation, phone calls, Twitter, emails, etc.
Do you post all your poems on your blog, or do you save some to submit to literary journals?
RH: I keep some poems off the blog and submit them them to literary journals.
I understand you're an evening writer. Has this always been your preferred time?
RH: I have always written best at night, usually late at night when the world is asleep. I can concentrate better then, but there is also something about the night and the dark I find liberating for my imagination.
What advice, if any, do you have for new poets?
RH: It's an old cliche, but you have to find your own voice, and this takes practice. It is important to remember to give the reader a great next line, a reason to come back, or he or she will surely go somewhere else. What we first put down is rarely at its best. You must learn to thrive on revision, and revise and revise until, finally, the poem is worthy of your talent and the reader's time. It is important, at least for my kind of poetry, to make key words work in more than just one way. Finally, you have to learn to see your work with a critical eye, and cut what does not belong. This seems to be very difficult for many writers, even good writers. In every poem you are asking for a slice of the reader's most precious possession: his time, so what you offer had better be good.
Are there any other places fans can find your work besides your blog?
RH: My work has not been widely published. I have had some early poems appear in Ragazine, an online magazine of the arts. I currently have poems submitted to several publications.
Thank you once again, Rob, for chatting with me today. To read Rob's wonderful poetry, visit his blog. You can also follow him on Twitter and check out his photography.
Until next time, wishing you only the best!!
