Happy New Year! We're thrilled to be starting our eleventh year with six new poems by Ryan Eckes! Check them out at www.ADozenNothing.com.
Out of this project, poems emerge occasionally. I’m not sure if it’s all one book or multiple.
***
Be sure to spend some time with new poems by Claire Hong at ADozenNothing.com!
A: For the last five years, I’ve been working on a book of nonfiction with no elevator pitch. In short, it’s about the word “squalor,” the word “violet,” archival typos and impossibilities, coincidence, Chinese and Indigenous intersections, farming, Supernova 1054, and friendship.
Q: Hey Claire, working on any projects you want to tell us about?
As this dark year dwindles to a close, we need Claire Hong's visionary spirit more than ever:
When I plant a seed for the future season’s harvest, I know the success will be from the love and labor of so many before me. Check out Ofelia Zepeda’s poem “Proclamation” and the work of San Xavier Co-op Farm @sanxaviercoop.
Water once emerged from the springs at the base of this hill, flooding the land. It’s the oldest known, continuously farmed site in the United States. Much of the soil around the floodplain and riverbed is fertile thanks to the O’odham farmers who tended and continue to tend to the crops.
A: Tucson comes from the O’odham Cuk Ṣon, which means something like “at the base of the black hill.” The rock around this hill (now referred to as Sentinel Peak or A Mountain) is volcanic.
From our December poet Claire Hong, a great perspective on one of our favorite places:
Q: Hey Claire, what’s something you consider “poetic” about your part of Tucson?
**
Be sure to catch up with much more recent work by Claire Hong, all month at www.ADozenNothing.com!
Whenever I wrote anything as a child, I would immediately tear out and rip the pages until the words were illegible. There’s a poem to my cat and one disturbingly self-deprecating poem full of sorrows and apologies for existing. I say sorry to the grass for stepping on it, for example.
I have a red spiral notebook from this time that read’s “Claire’s Poems” and an anthropomorphized star in sharpie on the cover that I’ve kept. It’s mostly the margins of ripped out poems.
Q: Hey Claire, could you tell us about the first poem you wrote?
A: I was in a poetry club at my public elementary school in 2nd grade. I don’t remember it at all and only know because my dear friend Devin reminds me that this is the origin story of our friendship.
Guiding questions to understand a poet’s attachment or impulse to use cliché could lead to interesting discussion and revision. I can’t imagine ever telling a student that a word like “soul” is not allowed in poetry.
I think cliches can be made strange and can point out communication trends—the faults and gutters of the English language.
A: I remember many teachers telling us to not use certain overused, large concept words or cliches. I think this is born out of a frustration seasoned poets feel having to read and comment on the work of new poets.
We love this perspective from Claire Hong, our December featured poet at www.ADozenNothing.com:
Q: Hey Claire, what’s the worst writing advice you’ve ever received?
Each day gets a little rectangle, which helps alleviate the pressure of writing down every detail. Three trackers in, I now dream of the tracker and recording my dreams as I’m dreaming. I can trace patterns and themes that make their way into poems. Check out and support their work: @water.patterns
A: I track my dreams daily. My artist friend, weaver younghands, creates lunar trackers every year with gorgeous, meticulous drawings of life on O’odham land (the “sonoran desert”).
We're thrilled to be wrapping up our tenth year by featuring new poems by Claire Hong at ADozenNothing.com. We hope you check them out. Here's the first in a series of questions we'll be sharing throughout December:
Q: Hey Claire, ever keep a dream journal?
We can't believe it's December either. But we're honored to be wrapping up the year by featuring five new poems by Claire Hong. Check them out at www.ADozenNothing.com!
November may be slipping away, but you can still read new poems by AB Gorham at ADN (and we highly recommend you do). As with all our features, we're pleased to offer AB's poems for printing as a free PDF; just visit ADozenNothing.com. Thank you, AB!
These poems feel like spells. This book leads me to Lisa Jarnot’s A Princess Magic Presto Spell which is where I stomp through puddles. I love a constraint!
I love the strangeness of its syntax and the objects of a life that run through the poems. The language also feels akin to Gertrude Stein: shifting subjects and objects, repetition (insistence).
Also, Stacy Doris’ Fledge. I love the constraints of this book, the way it collaborates with Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit and Paul Celan’s poems.
This book, and Wright’s work in general, has profoundly affected my writing and therefore likely me as a person. The book was and remains a beautiful mystery. I wrote C.D. Wright a letter once and she sent me back a postcard in the mail!
A: C.D. Wright’s Deepstep Come Shining. I first read this book in Casey Charles’ Verse Novel class in undergrad at The University of Montana. I then read it another five times that year.
We love how AB Gorham is always showing us new rooms in the endless mansion of poetry:
Q: Hey AB, have a favorite book-length poem?
Q: Hey AB, ever written a spell?
A: I have written a spell. There are five spells in my current manuscript.
***
Be sure to check out new poems by the always magical AB Gorham at ADozenNothing.com!
