FLASHBACK: Willie Watson, on writing

How would you, in a single word/sentence, describe your poetry?

Okay, if it’d be one word, it’d be “light”. Not meant to be taken too seriously, no subtleties, symbolism... It’s just light. I will write about anything - if it rhymes, great. Lately I’d say I’m not even choosing topics – if the words are there, I write it as long as I don’t hate it.

Where do you write most of the time?

At home. I don’t know... I think that with poetry it’s different than with short stories or novels, that it’s a much more long-term work process. I think that the key central lines can pop up anytime, when you’re walking, taking the tram, a bath... And the rest streams out from that. So no, I don’t have a favourite part of Prague. But there is a park near my home where I go for a walk when I’m bored or there are a lot of things on my mind and I walk around until an idea pops up in my head.

Do you push yourself into writing a poem every day?

Hm, I’ll just say what I write every day. I write a blog everyday (www.gurukalehuru.com) – 250-500 words is my goal, but I’ve been going over 500 words lately! (Laughs) So once I finish the blog, I write a couplet that has to be 140 characters of less so it can go on Twitter. So when you say if I write a poem every day, I do write a rhyming couplet every day. But a poem? No, but Alchemy does keep me going, I try to write 4-5 poems a month and one song parody per month, but I don’t know for how much long I can manage that! It’s much harder than poems.

Willie Watson was interviewed in MP#8, which can be found on our online database. The poem below is from his book of poetry “155 Sonnets”, published in 2014.

FLASHBACK: Stephan Delbos, on writing

How do you find time to write your own creations (poetry, prose)?

For me it's not really about "finding" time to write. The craft of writing is so woven into the fabric of my life that it's just something that happens every day. I've been lucky enough to be able to merge my personal and professional interests. I'm always working on several projects at once, also my own poetry is constantly bubbling up. So I usually wake up quite early and devote the first few hours of the day to writing, before anything else. If it's translations that day I'll do one poem. If it's my own poetry I'll maybe write two pages in my notebook -- or have been doing that lately as I'm working on a single long poem. Or if it's a script I'll work through one scene, or maybe more depending on what kind of detail work I'm doing. But I certainly believe that it's necessary to create the space for the work to take place. Like David Byrne said, if you're not at the bus stop you can't catch the bus. You've got to stay sharp, stay limber and stay open to the language, and to the life. 

Do you have a notebook or do you write your poems on a laptop?

I don’t like writing on laptops. I carry a notebook around, then I re-write on a typewriter, then finally on computer. Delaying the computer keeps you closer to the language and establishes a physical relationship between you and each letter or piece of punctuation.

What do you do when you have ‘writer’s block’?

Writer’s block just means you don’t feel like writing. I don’t believe there’s a boundary between myself and a blank sheet of paper – you just write.

The full interview with Stephan Delbos can be found in MP#10.