Field Recordings welcomes poet and author, Ruth Bavetta, to the internet wilds. Bavetta's work has appeared in dozens of journals and literary reviews. Bavetta has a new book of ekphrastic poetry (one of my fav modes of composition) out, Fugitive Pigments, and two new books forthcoming from Moontide Press and Tebot Bach, respectively. Links to Ruth Bavetta's work can be found throughout. Happy exploring.
Name: Ruth Bavetta
Pen Name: Ruth Bavetta
Most recent title published: Fugitive Pigments, a book of poems about art and other poems that resonate with them, published by FutureCycle Press. I was a professional artist for years before I started writing poetry. In this book I bring together the worlds of poetry and art. These are ekphrastic poems, instructive poems, poems riffing off the principles of art—the art of living, of shading, perspective, colors; how to create an exquisite corpse, and what one should know about shadows. I speak in the voice of Joseph Cornell, address Alice Neel, wake up under a sky painted by Andrea Mantegna. I write of making art, looking at art, teaching art—teaching people to see.
My book, Embers on the Stairs is due in 2014 from Moontide Press, http://www.moontidepress.com/ and after that, Tebot Bach, http://www.tebotbach.org/ , will bring out my book, No Longer at This Address, which is about my mother and her slide into dementia.
Where do you write? In my studio/office, with a view over the Pacific. All that openness refreshes me.
What are your rituals with regards to writing: I have no particular rituals. I just tell myself to stop procrastinating and do it.
Describe your writing process: I usually write at the computer. Before I had a computer, it was mostly on the typewriter. Not as romantic as scribbling in a well-worn notebook, but I like that I can write faster. It enables me to at least try to keep up with my thoughts. Because I am also a visual artist how the poem looks on the page is important to me. I get a sense of that immediately when using the computer.
If I am in a writing slump, I often sign up for one of Molly Fisk’s Poem-a-Day sessions where participants must respond to a new prompt every day for a month. It’s a good way for me to throw caution out the window and just write.
What do you when you begin to revise? No special process. Sometimes I even do a little revising during my first draft.
What's the first thing you do during that process? Try to read the poem as if I hadn’t written it. Does it say what I think it does? Then cut, cut, cut. My first drafts tend to be wordy. Look at the sounds of the words, do I have any slant rhymes? Should I have more? Twitch the line breaks. Move things around.
When revising, how many drafts do you go through before you feel comfortable with the final product? Impossible to count. Sometimes a poem is plopped into my lap fully formed liked Athena from the brow of Zeus, sometimes it languishes in my Unfinished folder for 10 years. Or more.
As a poet, whose music, or voice, sometimes do you hear as you write or revise? I concentrate on the poem I’m writing. I don’t want anybody hanging over my shoulder trying to guide my fingers.
How would you classify your poetry? Are you a lyric poet? A Romantic? A Surrealist? I guess you’d have to call me a lyric poet.
What poets are you currently reading? I seldom concentrate on certain poets. I flit about like a honeybee, grabbing books from here and there and reading a few poems at a time. There are always plenty of poetry books around the house calling to me. I also do a lot of browsing on the internet. Right now the book beside my bed is Joan Colby’s Selected Poems. She can come up with metaphors like Schubert came up with melodies, just shaking them out of her sleeve.
What poets/poems do you strongly recommend a reader to discover? I’d have to know the reader first.
The contemporary American poetic tradition is elegy, do you discover elegiac qualities among your own writing as a whole? Are you a poet of loss? I think I am. It may be at least in part because of my age. As one nears the end of life there is a tendency to look back at what has been.
Where does your inspiration come from (music, film, other books)? If I knew where my inspiration came from, I’d draw water from that well every day.
Explain how your local and regional environment influences your writing, your process, and your product (in other words, how does your reality intersect with the worlds that you create?): I’ve lived all my life in Southern California and my poems are often inextricably linked to that landscape—the sea, the chaparral-covered hills, the sun.
You have to invite three authors to dinner, who are they? Why? MFK Fisher, EB White, Mark Doty, hoping their conversation would be as graceful as their writing.
Line you wish you wrote: “…winds to shake a dead rabbit's satchel of bones.” (Gary Soto)
Book you did not read in high school but now have read and have an appreciation for: And why: I’m 78 years old and you’re expecting me to remember high school?
Favorite words: Mojave, eucalyptus, Pacific…
Least favorite words: I literally hate literally.
Advice you would like to pass on to other writers: Don’t wait for inspiration. She’s a fickle tart. Just write.
What you would discuss with your pet if your pet could talk: Alas, the hamster died 35 years ago, three of the cats were probably consumed by coyotes, the fourth died of old age. The sheepdog died and then the beagle. The kids grew up.
You can connect with Ruth Bavetta at Goodreads and Barnes and Noble.
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