What is Exits about?

The poems in Exits explore the beauty and frailty of life, the cycles of nature, and the potential for renewal. In a time of great uncertainty, Exits responds to prevailing anxieties and to the universal search for meaning. At its core, Exits is a meditation on mortality.

What does the title mean?

An exit is a departure, an act of leaving. It also can be a passageway from one place to another. The title is plural because the poems in the collection address a wide range of endings—disease and decline, death and remembrance. (In fact, the title of the poem “Leaves” is a double entendre that plays on this idea of departing).

Over how long a period did you write the poems in your new collection?

Nearly all of the poems in Exits were written between 2003 and 2021, before the idea of authoring a book ever came to mind. About two years ago, I decided to incorporate what I considered to be my best work into a book tentatively entitled Line Drawings. However, during the process of selecting poems, I noticed that a substantial number were related to various aspects of mortality. This led me to curate a more concise, themed collection, and Exits was born.

What do you think readers will like about the book?

Exits will resonate with different people in different ways. Some readers will gravitate to the visual imagery and nature metaphors. Others will enjoy the wordplay. Still others will find satisfaction in the resurrection of formal elements.

Exits also speaks to the angst of our present time. It may provide certain readers with a fresh perspective on life’s transience.

Why are the poems in this collection paired with visual art? And how did you go about selecting the works?

The decision to include visual art was an intuitive one. I sensed that many of the poems would harmonize in interesting ways with visual images and that this would enhance the reader’s experience.

While a few of the images were selected solely for illustrative purposes (e.g. the image of a goldfinch and a coneflower accompanying “Seeds”), most were chosen because they offered alternative slants on the content of the poems. Though the poem “(eclipse)” drips with erotic innuendo, it’s paired with the image of a 1908 patent for an orrery, a mechanical device that replicates the motion of the earth around the sun and the moon around the earth. The sonnet “Nasal Biopsy” is ostensibly about a surgical procedure, but a cathedral door was chosen to accompany the poem because the speaker perceives gothic architecture in the anatomy of the nose and because the poem is ultimately concerned with questions of faith.

What motivates you to write a poem?

The impulse for me to write can originate from a variety of sources:  from a dream; from a vague thought or idea that percolates to the surface from somewhere in the subconscious; from an observation, usually of a natural phenomenon that seems to have metaphorical value; or from a particularly compelling or disturbing personal experience.

What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?

Editing, which I would describe as merciless. I’ve learned from experience that a satisfying first draft almost always begins to exhibit its flaws after sufficient time has elapsed to afford an objective assessment.

While writing a poem, do you have an intended audience in mind?

The intended audience is always me, or to be more precise, the facsimile of me that constantly looks over my shoulder and critiques every word I draft. The word ecstasy comes to mind. It captures the elation I feel when a line finally comes together, but it derives from the Greek ek-stasis―to stand outside of oneself.

There’s certainly nothing wrong with writing for a defined audience, or respecting the conventions of a particular genre, or exploring themes and issues that currently are in the public eye. My approach happens to be different. What matters most to me are the words on the page, how they sound in air, and meeting the standards I set for myself.

Where can people get more information?

On the book’s website, exitspoetry.net. There, visitors can find reviews, awards, essays on selected poems, the book trailer, and videos of readings.

SPONSORED BY 

Stephen C. Pollock