Field Recordings welcomes Shea Garvin to the internet wilds. Shea and I share a small press publisher, The Broadkill Press, and his newest, Where Night Comes From, is one of the Key Poetry Series chapbooks published this summer.
Name: Shea Garvin
Pen Name: The same
Most recent title: Where Night Comes From
Where do you write? Everywhere. Bars, Campsites, Airports. I do the revisions at home .
How do you classify yourself as a poet? I don't tend to think in those terms, categorizing. If I was to pick , it would be lyrically surreal and brutally romantic.
The contemporary American "mode" is elegy, where do you find yourself w/r/t to this "tradition"? I do find myself writing about death quite a bit , its a matter of fact sort of thing with me. I mean , we all die and spend vastly more time dead than alive so of course its something to explore.
Do you have any rituals when it comes to writing? Black ink. I can't seem to turn a phrase with a blue pen.
What themes did you explore in this collection? Any challenges in culling them together? This collection covers about 15 years or so of writing, themes? I leave that up to the reader. As far as culling them together, I'd have to thank Jamie Brown for that.
Favorite poem from the collection? Bones and Grit. Its has a rhythm that I'm particularly fond of for readings . It sounds ferocious , almost menacing .
What's your inspiration? Erratic.....There is a quality to certain moments in life that just beg to be described or made art. Think of "Raging Bull" with Robert Deniro, in that movie there is a scene where Deniro is watching his love interest splash her feet in the pool and everything slows down and became a poem. those are the moments that make it i to my notebook. When I feel that heightening of senses , or get that wave of melancholy , all kinds of things can set it off.
Revision process? First thing I do is go through and cross out all of the "the"s . Then I look for cheap trickery and beat it i to shape. Then I scratch out all the ands . Then I put back the "the"s and "ands" I cant live without and see how it lays on the page and how it sounds out loud.
I do't go through too many revisions, I find it stiffens the words.
Who are your inspirations? Saul Williams, Denis Johnson, Tom Waits , Charles Bukowski, Jim Carroll, Robert Frost, Jack Kerouac. I'm sure there's more. It all gets assimilated.
Guilty pleasure(s)? I have a love of bad horror movies. Not the mainstream stuff, but really B studio type stuff.And good Sci-Fi . And I've read just about everything Louis L'Amour wrote. I make no apologies.
You have to invite three authors to dinner, who are they? Why? Cormac McArthy , Stephen King , Bram Stoker. I'd bring McCarthy for the language he carries with him, a true master of making you uncomfortable. Stephen King for his limitless worlds and Stoker just because.
A Line you wish you wrote? Great Big Ugly Man Came Up And Tied His Horse To Me- its a book of nonsense verse illustrated by Wallace Tripp.
Favorite words: ummm
cant think of one , I read everything they threw at us back then. Still have a soft spot for "the Black Pearl" I could just feel the boy's stress when the pearl's inclusion was being cut , after all that, it could have been ruined.
Gesticulate, bifurcate, fuck. The first two are just fun to say, and the last is just so damn useful.
The words i hate I won't write here, but they fall under the umbrella of ignorance.
Advice you'd pass on to other writers: While observing, don't forget to do as well. Live it so you can better understand. Get personal, this is nothing new but I will say it again. The more personal and particular you get , the broader the appeal. Everyone has the same things going on in their lives,even the most trivial of things can be poignant from the right angle.
Never give up, unless you suck and you know it deep down where the truth hides. If that's the case, quit now. Save yourself and those around you from limp prose.
Beatles or the Stones? Elvis or Cash? The Doors and Cash
What you would discuss with your pet if your pet could talk: Um, Where's my boots?
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