“My goals as an artist have nothing to do with speaking to an audience. I love to have a good time, but when it comes to poetry I'm not really interested in writing poetry that seeks to entertain or operate safely within the mainstream and, to be clear, I'm not disparaging the really phenomenal work that does - it's just not my interest as a poet.” WritingArtistGoalInterestAudiencePoetGood TimesHaving A Good TimePhenomenalWriting Poetry Author:Dawn Lundy Martin
“I reach readers rather unintentionally, I think, and those readers likely connect with the slant, the off-kilter, the part of the road you can barely see from the well-traveled road. So, when I'm writing, I'm not thinking about audience at all. Instead, I'm trying to see behind those shrubs, down that hidden path. We're the weirdos of the world and there are so many weirdos.” ThinkingWorldWritingTryingAudiencePathWeirdo Author:Dawn Lundy Martin
“For me, a lot of Discipline was very personal writing, like writing through and working out being inside this gendered body and also the compulsions of the body, the muting of the mind as driven by the body. My father had died some years ago so he haunts the book too, just floats through it ghost-like. But, the writing of every book is different for me. They are so like living creatures, these books, so I don't know what's carried over into the writing of the next things - except maybe that I'm best when I make my writing practice a routine.” WritingMindBookDifferentFatherDisciplineWork OutDriven Author:Dawn Lundy Martin
“When I am writing poetry, I try to make my mind go a little lazy, to not think too much, as a way of opening up the part of the brain that makes poems. If I'm successful in this part of the process I'm often not. If my mind gets too lazy it will linger in familiar boring territory, it's like my mind can stroke the physical world.” ThinkingWorldWritingTryingMindBrainSuccessfulBoringFamiliarLazyWriting Poetry Author:Dawn Lundy Martin
“With my students I give them lots and lots of guided writing. Part of it is as simple as writing a lot but not toward anything. The mind floats. Then I help them see where the language has heat. If we do this a lot in class, students eventually relax into this writing practice and enjoy it. Even just that - writing pleasure without the anxiety of "audience" or "grade" or "success" - is a kind of impetus toward the unfamiliar.” GivingWritingMindKindHelpingLanguageEnjoySimplePleasureAudienceStudentsAnxietyRelax Author:Dawn Lundy Martin
“I think the occupation of my poetry is akin to this desire to be many things at once - things that sometimes conflict. Regarding how the quotidian makes its way into the work, it's all of it, in a way. Like, when I'm writing poems, I'm just picking up scraps of whatever is happening around me - a geographical location, a love affair failed, the day the air felt like rope.” ThinkingWritingSometimesDesireConflictAffairPoetry IsLove AffairScrap Author:Dawn Lundy Martin