B M S: Somebody once said, "a poem is never written;
it's rewritten". What's your process? How much editing do
you do, and how do you go about it?
RZ: Billy, now I'm going to open myself to
accusations of arrogance. I do rewrite and edit.
However if a piece seems to require a lot of work I
don't usually bother. If it seriously needs
resuscitating, I assume I've listened to an impostor
voice. When I do rewrite... it's a similar process to
the first writing... go through the whole thing - feel
it, recite it... swap lines around... try it out...
post it on the PERFORMANCE POETRY discussion board to get
criticism of it... lunge at it with a knife...
B M S: A knife! Would that be included in your advice
to younger poets, if you were going to give advice?
RZ: (Laughs) Oh, well one thing I'd tell them is
believe everything for at least 30 seconds.
B M S: Is that it?
RZ: Don't write about daffodils, even if they're
dead. Be careful in small boats. Don't fear preachers,
priests or cold fields. Read Engels and the Bible,
recipes and road signs, languages you don't understand, maps
and billboards, neon signs and suicide notes. Remember that
work hurts, death is coming and perambulators decay. Write.
Find something for your mind to do while you're writing.
Don't think; leave that for the edits, the re-writes. Accept
criticism. The abattoir is never far - you'll be
praised one day, hated the next. Never write poetry as
therapy. Understand that nothing material you have is
worth anything unless everyone has it or has the
choice of having it. Read. Read Marx and the Bhagavad
Gita. Go to poetry performances. Don't go to the
toilet as the poet is about to speak their first or
any line. Don't heckle - unless they're fascist. Be
willing to kiss a cow on the lips.
B M S: That should just about do it.
RZ: Yes, I think so too.
Read Richard Zola's poetics and poems.
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