member spotlight: pamela johnson parker

by Nathan Moore

How long have you been writing poetry?

I started taking creative writing workshops as an undergraduate when I studied history and literature. I didn’t write at all from 1990 until 2006, when I began working on an MFA in poetry. That was life-changing.

Do you schedule time for writing or do you write when inspiration strikes?

Sixteen years of waiting for inspiration to strike led nowhere. I now have a work ethic.

Do you have any writing rituals?

I write in my head/pace out a poem before I commit it to the page. I usually have two or three lines and a rhythm before I know it’s a poem I’ll take to the desk/kitchen table/Post-It note. I write by hand. When I write or revise, I have to have a pen with a micro-fine nib and a pencil with a dull point. Weird, I know.

What is your process for revising a poem?

I type it up, put it in a drawer/computer file, and retrieve it in a month. The only first draft that satisfies me is when I write a check! I’ll revise until the original poem is no more than a palimpsest. One of my poems took two decades to reach its final form.

Has blogging changed your writing or the way that you write?

Blogging has made me less afraid to shake up structure and send out work. It’s also let me discover many fabulous poets whose work I wouldn’t know at all.

Have you ever collaborated with another poet or artist? What did you think of that experience?

I collaborated with artist Kevin Morrow; our work is featured in the April 2009 Broadsided series. It was an amazing conversation of words and images. I’d do it again in a heartbeat. (Here is a link to the QA and also to the image if you want to include it — it’s in the public domain.)

What line of poetry do you love the most?

“And after many a summer dies the swan.” It’s from Tennyson’s “Tithonus.” The syntax is sublime. That swan glides all the way to the end of the line, as he should.

What line of your own poetry do you love the most?

I’m really fond of my titles. “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackboard” is currently my pet.

Name your three favorite poets.

My MFA mentors: Daniel Anderson. Brian Barker. Philip Stephens. I think their work is first-rate, and their kindnesses toward their students are innumerable. I know I can never repay them. But you can — buy their books!

Among the illustrious predecessors to the Big Three above: Elizabeth Bishop. John Keats. Alfred, Lord Tennyson. I have huge poetry crushes on Walt Whitman and Marianne Moore. I guess it’s the hats.

What’s the most important thing a poem does?

It seduces with sound. Trompe l’oreille, I guess.

What’s the weirdest place you’ve ever written a poem?

I wrote a poem at work, in an elevator, stuck between floors for over 2 hours.

What interests you about participating in Read Write Poem?

Discovery: New poems to read and new ways to read them.

Can poetry save the world?

I can’t speak for the world, but it’s saved me. I had an illness this summer that affected my speech, coordination and memory. My neuropsychologist was amazed that I could immediately recall poems, whole stanzas of them. I made one of the quickest full recoveries he’s ever witnessed. I give credit to Shakespeare, Bishop, Keats, Frost, Browning, Cummings — and also to Mrs. P., the 7th-grade teacher who made me memorize poems as a penalty for talking in class.

Have a question or thought to share? Say something in the comment section of this post.

Community director Nathan Moore found The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry and left the academy. He once lived in a house with three walls. Nathan shares his writing at Exhaust Fumes and French Fries.