We asked the poetry writers from our Paradox issue questions about the creative spaces that make their writing possible. They then answered those questions, delving into their ideal writing conditions, creative rituals, and inspiring musical and literary works. Read on to learn more about Cristian Ramirez Rodriguez, author of “U,” Sam Moe, author of “Erase,” Liam Strong, author of “Literature Review of Simpler Times,” and Morrow Dowdle, author of “If you Love Me, You Love Everything About Me.” Make sure to check out their work in Volume 11: PARADOX!
Cristian Ramirez Rodriguez, author of “U”
What is (are) your favorite creative ritual(s)? In other words, what habits/practices help you access your creativity?
To live life without the expectation of finding a poem in it, but having something handy to write as events occur in a natural way.
Brenda Hillman once told me to always carry a notebook or journal to document life, because you never know when you’ll witness something poetic.
I firmly believe the best poetry is natural, stemming as a response to the world around. Of course, you can revise, and remake the poem various times in various forms, and I do it extensively, but how the poetic spirit moves within me is very rarely “I’m going to write a poem about x or y,” instead I experience and then write around the experience.
With that said, almost paradoxically, while I am free-flowing with my subject I enjoy being intentional and deliberate with my choice of poetic form.
Deliberately introducing a constraint within problems in physics often allows for more elegant solutions, and that mindset has carried over to my poetry, I will often begin saying something like “I am going to write a ghazal, an ode, or an elegy, or have the syllables in each line follow the Fibonacci sequence” and then allow the natural poetry to arise through the form.
Where did you create your piece(s) for Vol. 11? Did your chosen spaces influence your work(s), and if so, how?
Beside a whiteboard as I was working on a physics problem, finding the equations of motions for a small object in a rotating system constrained to move along a three dimensional path that is constrained by z=f(r). One way to approach the problem is to find the Lagrangian, the difference between the kinetic energy (denoted by the letter T) and the potential energy (denoted by the letter U) and then after a clever bit of mathematics (the calculus of variations) generate differential equations that can be solved whether analytically or numerically for the equations of motion. (A more technical approach to the problem can be found here.) One difficult part of the problem in extending it to real-world applications such as nanorobotics is understanding all possible sources of potential energy, especially inside complex systems like the human body. The difficulty in describing potential in various scenarios served as the technical toolkit for processing the emotions I was processing while writing the poem “U.”
What other media (music, movies, books, etc.) influenced your work(s) for Vol. 11?
Carlo Rovelli’s Helgoland, Brenda Hillman’s Loose Sugar, Steven Thornton’s Classical Dynamics of Particles and Systems.
What jumpstarts your creativity when you’re feeling blocked?
Going out to dance Timba or Afro-Cuban Salsa.
Working through an interesting physics problem.
Crying while staring at the image of Guadalupe.
What advice do you have for artists starting out in your medium?
Don't look for a punchline and embrace the strange; or in snappier words, ask yourself often, “am I writing an Instagram post or a poem?” As a younger poet it was very easy for me to moralize as I first began writing. It is very easy to lose the beautiful nuance that distinguishes poetry from prose when this happens. To my taste the most emotionally resonant poetry leaves the reader with some element of ambiguity. Sappho is one of my all-time favorite poets. One of the reasons her poetry transcends generations is that we are left with primarily fragments. That fragmented nature gives every poem a built-in ambiguity that amplifies the emotional resonance of what we do have.
Read poetry and study poetic forms often. Whether you will work in poetic forms or subvert them, it is good to be aware of our rich history as poets. Robert Hass’ A Little Book on Form is a good place to begin.
Sam Moe, author of “Erase”
What is (are) your favorite creative ritual(s)? In other words, what habits/practices help you access your creativity?
My favorite creative ritual is writing a “brain dump” in my journal, which involves writing a stream-of-consciousness list. Afterwards, I try to find connections between the words and ideas in order to figure out what I might want/need to say in a new piece.
Where did you create your piece(s) for Vol. 11? Did your chosen spaces influence your work(s), and if so, how?
I created this poem while sitting at my work desk in my apartment. I enjoy writing by hand and my desk (which is an old folding table) has enough room for me to be able to write in my journal while keeping my laptop open.
What other media (music, movies, books, etc.) influenced your work(s) for Vol. 11?
Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler (novel and TV show)
“The Bear” (Hulu)
The Food Lab by J. Kenji López-Alt
What jumpstarts your creativity when you’re feeling blocked?
I usually try to listen to music in order to get myself out of a state of writer’s block/feeling uninspired.
What advice do you have for artists starting out in your medium?
My advice for all poets is to take risks and to be supportive of yourselves at any stage in your writing experiences.
Liam Strong, author of “Literature Review of Simpler Times”
What is (are) your favorite creative ritual(s)? In other words, what habits/practices help you access your creativity?
Drumming often feels more and more like a stim for me. I’m divisive on what many consider drumming, though, because even tapping on one’s desk, lap, or with a pen constitutes drumming (I do like to drum on typical percussive instruments too, however). As a neurodivergent person, having a supportive space for visual and auditory stimulation helps my brain focus on the computer in front of me. The office I work in is very colorful, has ample fidgets, an abundance of posters and noteworthy sayings on the walls, and has sensory friendly light covers to block out the fluorescent overhead lighting. Whenever I have time at work to write, my coworkers and I have created a space where it’s perfectly normal to hear my (sometimes constant) rhythmic tapping along to whatever songs I’ve gotten stuck in my head on a given day.
Where did you create your piece(s) for Vol. 11? Did your chosen spaces influence your work(s), and if so, how?
I remember shoving my headphones into my ears as soon as I had a lunch break unbroken enough to get the guilty feeling of not having written enough recently out of my system. I sat at my work desk, scattered my multiple notebook (or notebook adjacent) apparati across it, and avoided as much eye contact as I could to give the poem as much of my time as possible. I usually end up writing a few things all at once, because writing one piece a day doesn’t sit well in my brain. I had just finished telling a coworker about how great Terminator 2: Judgment Day is, but they didn’t seem all that compelled, so I swerved that excitable energy into “literature review of simpler times.” I wish I had a better, more inspirational story, but it often feels like writing is just another part of my day, as casual as work, and requires the same amount of focus.
What other media (music, movies, books, etc.) influenced your work(s) for Vol. 11?
Romantic comedies, specifically between the 90s and 2005. Saved!, 13 Going on 30, Never Been Kissed, Uptown Girls, Clueless, Romy and Michelle’s Highschool Reunion, among so many others. You can also throw in any number of early to mid-2000s live-action Disney rom-coms with Lindsey Lohan or Amanda Bynes into that slurry, as well.
What jumpstarts your creativity when you’re feeling blocked?
Honestly, Spotify is pretty good at keeping track of one’s favorite or most listened to songs, so that’s regularly an avenue for me to kickstart a lack of inspiration. I’ve even gone to the extent of re-reading my favorite poems and forcing myself to find either a new perspective or take of the poem, or I might try to sit with a poem and analyze how the author wrote it. Whether I’m accurate or not doesn’t really matter–it’s all in my own head, after all.
What advice do you have for artists starting out in your medium?
This is the kind of question I’ll never get good at answering. For the better part of my writing life, I’ve wanted to stay among a community of authors with similar themes and audiences in mind. I still find importance in this, of course, but at some point during the Covid-19 pandemic I factored in how much more crucial validation of myself was. Stepping away from the preconceived notions of writers and writerly etiquette felt so natural, and also felt much less self-deprecating than the alternative. Being a poet isn’t special, and I think the consideration of poets as normal members of the labor force is a way to feel more at arms with the world, to make oneself feel less small, to make one’s work carry with it a kairos of anti-capitalist endeavor. Poets are workers; we just sometimes use the act of poetry as a form of spellcraft. Believing in oneself–and by extension one’s poetry–is inherently ritualistic. In a world where the majority wants us to believe in anything but ourselves, a poem can feel like a truly powerful, potent, and burning object. Don’t be afraid of being angry.
Morrow Dowdle, author of “If You Love Me, You Love Everything About Me”
What is (are) your favorite creative ritual(s)? In other words, what habits/practices help you access your creativity?
I typically begin my writing session with meditation then reading something from among my spiritual/philosophical interests. Right now, it’s The Places That Scare You by Pema Chödrön. Once I’m grounded, I will open the notebook I keep of potential poetry topics, and I will often choose one that strikes me and free write on it by hand, letting it unwind to its fullest extent. I might then let it sit for a while or begin to shape it into a formal poem. Walking in the woods and letting my mind wander is also very helpful, as is reading poetry and craft essays as well as listening to poetry podcasts.
Where did you create your piece(s) for Vol. 11? Did your chosen spaces influence your work(s), and if so, how?
I do almost all my creation in my home office. I’ve stored all my feminine clothing in the closet there, and I was often aware of their presence as I wrote about living into a more authentic sense of gender and the internal and external complications that arose as part of that process.
What other media (music, movies, books, etc.) influenced your work(s) for Vol. 11?
I have been gratefully buoyed by the work of other queer, nonbinary, and/or transmasculine poets. They have been my muses and spiritual support system over the past few years. Meg Day’s Last Psalm at Sea Level, Gabrielle Calvocoressi’s Rocket Fantastic, and Rainie Oet’s Glorious Veils of Diane particularly come to mind. The documentary My Name is Pauli Murray and the terribly romantic HBO series Gentleman Jack were also much in my imagination.
What jumpstarts your creativity when you’re feeling blocked?
Writing to prompts. Writing outside or in a library or café. Spending time with poet or other creative friends. Traveling, even just a short distance. Taking photos of whatever strikes me in a particular environment. Tarot.
What advice do you have for artists starting out in your medium?
Don’t worry about making ”good” work! Write as consistently as you can – 10 minutes a day is better than an hour once a month. Read as much as possible - find out what poets speak to you, and then find out what speaks to them. Meet other poets (in-person when possible) and workshop your writing with them. Commit to revising your work, no matter how good you think that first draft is. Go to open mics to get comfortable with performance and learn how your work changes when it comes to life off the page.
