Emerson said that the Italians define beauty as the many in one.
It is the layers human lives fold over one another
that create the flowers,
the light--
and when a petal falls, its color, scent are slightly mutedbecause it has become unconnected.
© Heather Ann Schmidt
**** **** **** ****
Q&A
10. Who are your writing influences and what was it about them that inspired you?
Frank Montesonti is my biggest influence, I studied under him at National University. His writing puts a microscope on the ordinary so that his readers see the world in new colors that there are no names for. There is really no way to describe what it is about his writing that gets to me--it just makes me want to write.
I am also heavily influenced by Lucia Perillo, Sharon Olds, Frank Bidart and Rainer Maria Rilke.
In Rilke's book Letters to a Young Poet , he has this quote about writing that says it all:
A work of art is good if it is sprung from necessity. In this nature of its origin lies the judgment of it: there is no other. Therefore, my dear sir, I know no advice for you save this: to go into yourself and test the deeps in which your life takes rise; at its source you will find the answer to the question whether you must create....For the creator must be a world for himself and find everything in himself and in Nature to whom he has attached himself. (Rilke, 17)
11. How has poetry changed your life?
It has saved my life because it heals me from the inside out.
12. What advice would you give beginning poets/writers?
READ EVERYTHING!
13. What impact do you think online social forums have had for artists, writers and musicians? (positive, negative, etc...?)
As wonderful impact because writers from all over the world can come together and share their work.
**** **** **** ****
© Heather Ann Schmidt
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment