Helping me wrap up the week is poet James Morehead. We’re chatting about his collection, portraits of red and gray: memoir poems.
Bio:
James Morehead is Poet Laureate of Dublin, California. James has published two collections of poetry: “canvas” and “portraits of red and gray”. James’ poem “tethered” was transformed into an award-winning hand drawn animated short film, “gallery” was set to music for baritone and piano, and his poems have appeared in the Ignatian Literary Magazine, Beyond Words, Wingless Dreamer, Prometheus Dreaming, Cathexis Northwest Press, and other publications. He also hosts the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast which features interviews with poets and artists. “These are poems to be savored, re-read, kept handy for those times when only poetry will do.” – W. J. T. Mitchell, Senior Editor of Critical Inquiry and Gaylord Donnelley Distinguished Service Professor, English and Art History, University of Chicago
Welcome, James. What do you enjoy most about writing poems?
I most enjoy the thrill of displacing blank space, of plucking the perfect words from the ether and creating something new. I also love the challenge of crafting poetry from raw images, the attention to detail required for selecting and stitching together each letter / syllable / word / phrase / line / stanza / poem.
Can you give us a little insight into a few of your poems – perhaps a couple of your favorites?
I love reciting “crush” from my first book “canvas: poems”. The poem is very personal (about a teenage crush), but universal, and resonates with audiences. Just about everyone has experienced the feeling of having a crush and immediately related to my experience. I also love “The Plague Doctor”, from my upcoming book of the same name, because it allowed me to explore eerie subjects and the macabre. And from “portraits of red and gray” I’m most attached to the long series of poems of the same name that capture my trip as a teenager to the U.S.S.R. years ago; the process of creating that series of poems is better than any photograph I could have taken at the time.
What form are you inspired to write in the most? Why?
I first became excited about poetry when a 10th grade Creative Writing teacher introduced me to e.e. cummings. My poetry for many years was aggressively written in lowercase and devoid of any punctuation. I’ve since expanded my repertoire to use lowercase as a tool when needed, punctuation added when intentional, and have added formal forms of poetry (sonnets, villanelles, and other structured rhyming schemes) into my writing. When writing structured forms I try to hide the form, inspired by A.E. Stallings who is so skilled at writing received forms of poetry.
What type of project are you working on next?
I have several projects in different stages. I’m releasing a hardcover coffee table book that will feature my concert photography and select live music inspired poetry. The book, “At the Barricade: Images of San Francisco Bay Area Live Music” will be sold as a signed and numbered limited edition via my website exclusively starting in February 2023.
In Spring 2023 I’m releasing my third collection of poetry, “The Plague Doctor”, which will also include photography and original artwork as was the case with my first book (“canvas: poems”). I planning to launch the book with a live performance backed by a jazz duo who I performed with at an event last year.
Longer term I’m working on a book of ekphrastic poetry featuring artwork from San Francisco Bay Area museums.
When did you first consider yourself a writer / poet?
I was first introduced to, and developed a love for poetry, in 10th grade thanks to an extraordinary Creative Writing teacher. I wrote poetry for my friends and family for decades and it wasn’t until 2020 that I started seeing myself as a poet, with poetry on an equal footing to my professional life. In 2021 I was selected to be Dublin, California’s first Poet Laureate in a decade. The success of my books and role with the City of Dublin have helped build my confidence as a poet.
How do you research markets for your work, perhaps as some advice for not-yet-published poets?
The key advice I have for unpublished poets is to submit your poetry widely and frequently. Make it a habit. 95%+ of your poetry will likely be rejected and that’s ok. Make sure to keep a spreadsheet of what you’ve submitted and where because when you have a poem selected you need to notify other publications right away. Expect a long wait, esp. for the most prestigious publications, because the volume of poetry submissions these publications receives is overwhelming. Don’t take rejection personally – it’s part of the process.
A second piece of advice is to let poems sit a bit before you submit them, esp. submissions to prestigious journals. Once you have submitted you can’t update the poem without going to the back of the line and starting over. Poems, like fine wine, get better when aged.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I used to write drafts exclusively in longhand on paper. During the pandemic, when the stress of the event would keep me up at night, I started writing in the middle of the night, in bed, to calm down. To avoid waking up my wife I would write on my phone using Google Docs, set to dark mode. I’ve been doing so ever since. There are many benefits to starting poems digitally – I have a revision history of all my poems now (Google Docs does that automatically). Writing first drafts on my phone also gets me to focus on words, phrases, and images, without being distracted by form too early (since crafting the form of a poem on a phone is difficult).
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I’ve always been a tech junkie and that took me through software development and, now, my day job as a product manager. I always wanted to be in a creative field and dreamed of being an artist of some kind. It’s a thrill to have my poetry in the spotlight after so many years of creating in the shadows.
Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
Writing well starts with reading. The best advice I can give to budding poets is to read poetry that challenges you, that makes you jealous (in a good way), that you can learn from and use as a model.
Links:
Website | Books | Podcast | YouTube | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok
Thanks for being here today, James!
