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seth
jani
2021 / interview series / POETS & THE PANDEMIC
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WHAT YOU WRITE?
Poetry.
WHERE DO YOU CALL HOME?
Seattle, WA.
WHAT'S THE FIRST THING YOU DID TODAY?
Woke up. Stared at the ceiling for approximately twenty minutes before getting out of bed and making coffee. This is my daily routine forever and always.
WHAT CREATIVE WORK WERE YOU DOING THIS TIME LAST YEAR?
I was putting the finishing touches on a yearslong manuscript. I have since completed it and am currently submitting it out to publishers.
WHAT HAS BEEN THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE OVER THE PAST YEAR IN TERMS OF YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS?
So much of my writing comes not just from reading and contemplation but also from my interrelationship with the activity of the world. Serendipity. Chance encounters and adventures. Being among trees and birds and friends and strangers. In short, my lived, embodied experiences with others out there in the multiverse. As so much of these dynamics came to a standstill due to lockdown, I found my creative energies growing sluggish.
WHAT HAS BEEN THE MOST STARTLING THING YOU'VE LEARNED OR EXPERIENCED SINCE THE PANDEMIC BEGAN?
How little control our technologically “advanced” civilization really has, despite what we tell ourselves. Nature can bring us to our knees in an instant. If one can find any possible silver linings in such a tragic situation, it’s perhaps this unprecedented opportunity to remember our own limitations. Our civilization has been inflated and out of control for a very long time.
HAS THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC AFFECTED YOUR ABILITY TO CREATE? HOW SO?
For the first six months it froze me. All the life dynamics which normally spurred my creativity dried-up. But as I changed and rebuilt routines, read farther afield, spent more and more time alone, new dynamics and new poetry started to emerge. Now I am writing as much as ever, but the writing is different.
HAS COVID-19 CHANGED HOW YOU VIEW AND/OR NAVIGATE THE WORLD? HOW SO?
In a lot of ways it has brought me back to my immediate surroundings and has led me to focus on my day-to-day embodied experience within my extremely limited field of influence. During this past year, my life has been enacted exclusively within the three-mile radius between my apartment and the quiet coffee-shop where I work. I do not own a car and have stopped taking public transit for the time being, so I do a lot of walking. I used to wander all over the city and beyond on a regular basis. Now, I keep close to home and don’t interact with too many people, but I have really gotten to know my neighborhood trees.
IN WHAT WAYS HAS THE PANDEMIC CHANGED YOUR LOCAL COMMUNITY? HAVE THOSE CHANGES RESULTED IN DIRECT OR INDIRECT IMPACT TO HOW YOU NAVIGATE YOUR WRITING OR YOUR DAY-TO-DAY LIFE?
It’s incredible how quickly even a bustling city like Seattle became a ghost town, especially early on. Everything slowed down. And somehow it became both more lonely and more intimate. Despite being socially distanced, I feel like more people stepped outside the infamous “Seattle freeze.” They say hi on the street, there is a sympathetic meeting of eyes. Everyone feels the wear and tear on everyone else’s psyche. My writing too has reflected this. It has become slower and more intimate. For better or worse my own frayed edges have made an appearance.
REGARDING IDEAS AND INSPIRATION: WHAT COMES FIRST WHEN YOU APPROACH WRITING A POEM OR STARTING A CREATIVE PROJECT?
This is hard for me to say. Everything I read and do eventually ends-up in a poem. I take a very wide approach and let come what may. I generally figure if I am living with an attentive and open heart, and if I read widely without a set curriculum or agenda, poems will sort of just naturally occur. I don’t know what comes first or after.
WHERE DO YOU SEE YOUR CREATIVE WORK THIS TIME NEXT YEAR?
I tend to live and write first, then work later. Meaning I never really know what my next book will look like until I realize I have a handful of pieces and start sensing their shared pattern and identity. But I am very hungry for the world and fresh experiences and relationships. I’m hoping this time next year I’ll be able to be out and about more in the world, the newly transformed world. Who knows what sort of poems will arise.
WRITING OFTEN INCLUDES DRAWING FROM LIVED EXPERIENCE AS WELL AS OUTSIDE SOURCES, OFTEN BLURRING THE LINE BETWEEN PERSONAL BIOGRAPHY AND GENERAL TRUTHS. DO YOU FIND IT DIFFICULT TO MAINTAIN THE BOUNDARIES BETWEEN THE PERSONAL AND GENERAL TRUTHS THAT ARE EXPLORED IN YOUR WRITING?
I don’t try to maintain such boundaries at all. I am not sure why I would want to. Poetry for me is a glimpse of the wilderness. Everything is all tangled-up and cross-pollinating all the time. With that said, I do not think of my writing either as biography or philosophy. More a verbal landscape one can step into. A chance to encounter the local flora and fauna.
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WHAT THEMES OR REOCCURRING THREADS DO YOU TRY TO EXPLORE IN YOUR WRITING? WHY IS IT IMPORTANT FOR YOU TO PURSUE THESE THEMES? HOW HAVE THESE CHANGED IN LIGHT OF THE 2020 PANDEMIC?
My writing has always been deeply influenced by nature (I grew up in the mountains of Maine) as well as my interactions with the various characters of the world. These were never themes I necessarily pursued but were more the result of my love for them. I enjoyed them, so I wrote about them.
Since I am currently hunkered in the middle of a city and have a very limited social life, I have been spending most of my spare time reading. Since the pandemic began, I have been gravitating toward image-rich fantasy and fable. I think perhaps because they provide both an escape and a sense of encounter with others. As a result, my writing has been becoming a bit more colorful, a bit more fantastical.
WHAT DO YOU THINK THE POST-PANDEMIC WORLD WILL LOOK LIKE 5 YEARS FROM NOW? 10 YEARS FROM NOW? HOW DO YOU THINK THAT WILL AFFECT CREATIVE FIELDS SUCH AS WRITERS, ARTISTS, AND THE LIKE…
It’s impossible to know but I do suspect that this is the beginning of some exceedingly difficult times. Widespread economic fallout and pending ecological collapse are both on the horizon. This may prove a fertile albeit painful time for artists and I hope to see new cultures and communities arise in what I assume will be devastated urban centers. Many writers have pointed out how often culture blossoms in civilizational decay. Well…the decay has been going on for a long time. The pandemic really laid it bare. So maybe the spring is coming. Maybe.
WHAT HAS BEEN THE MOST REWARDING PART OF THE PAST YEAR?
A chance to slow down. To sit. To breathe. To reassess my own routines and habits.
WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF AND YOUR CREATIVE WORK IN 5 YEARS?
I have a finished manuscript currently out for consideration and will maybe have enough pieces for another by year’s end. So hopefully I will have a couple more books under my belt. But other than that, I will probably still be working at a coffeeshop in Seattle or some other city, obscurely but happily chugging along just doing my thing. And I’m cool with that!
WHAT NEW SELF-CARE HABITS OR PRACTICE HAVE YOU PICKED UP SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE PANDEMIC?
Listening to music. I mean I have always listened to music but since the pandemic started, I’ve stopped using music as a sort of background to my life and have gotten back into the habit of just sitting and listening to a whole album while doing nothing else (save maybe drinking a glass of wine.) I am not sure when I stopped listening to music in this way, but I’m glad to have come back to it. It’s been such a blessing.
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE GENRE TO READ AND WHAT’S A GENRE YOU FIND DIFFICULT TO ENGAGE WITH AND WHY? HOW HAS THAT CHANGED SINCE THE START OF THE PANDEMIC?
I’ve always read lots of poetry and lots of nonfiction (covering all sorts of subjects). When I was younger, I loved fiction but sometime in my twenties I lost my zest for a good story and found myself struggling to get through a novel. The pandemic changed this. It’s rekindled my love of fiction. I think perhaps because I miss my friends, I miss the world. Getting immersed in a good novel connects me with imaginal friends and imaginal worlds.
WHAT’S ONE THING (OR LESSON) YOU HAVE LEARNED IN THE LAST YEAR FROM YOUR WRITING PRACTICE THAT IS APPLICABLE OUTSIDE OF WRITING?
Imagination is lifesaving. It’s really easy to look at the rather grim state of things and feel utterly isolated and trapped. But creative imagination is a way to remember that everything is always open and changing. That new possibilities are not only imminent but inevitable. Things may get better or worse, but they are never stuck. There is great vitality in this.
WHAT'S AN UNDERRATED (OR LITTLE RECOGNIZED) BOOK YOU LOVE?
I just reread The Salt Ecstasies by James L. White. So beautiful and heartbreaking.
Also Tarjei Vesaas’ The Ice Palace. Some of the most gorgeous and strange prose I have ever encountered.
WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE WAY TO UNPLUG: BOOK: MOVIE: ETC.
I like to just put on a CD and lay on the floor and stare at the ceiling. I think since the pandemic started, I’ve listened to Waxahatchee’s Saint Cloud like 200 times.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR MOST RECENT WORK AND WHERE PEOPLE CAN FIND IT.
I have a couple newer poems in the most recent issue of Hoxie Gorge Review.