About “Ellis House” 

1. What was your motivation for writing “Ellis House”?

Ellis House is a bit of a diary poem – someone got into the underground carpark in my apartment block and broke into every car in the building. I don’t leave much in my car, so the main problem was dealing with the broken window, but I was surprised by how many people it turned out had left cash, laptops and phones in their vehicles. The motivation, more or less, was to get it out as a document.

2. What challenges—if any—did you have writing your poem?

I find when writing about real events, and trying to do so without exaggeration or making changes for effect, it can be difficult to create that reality in a way that makes sense for the reader. Obviously, all poems are real in the sense that they are built of the stuff of reality, but in terms of a poem like this that could almost be a news report, there are some additional concerns – how much scene-setting is required. It was a very strange day. 

3. What is your favourite line—if any—in “Ellis House”?

I like the bit about the Spanish woman being distraught; the tone of the poem is fairly flat for the most part, and a flat description of major emotionality I always find effective, in a Vonnegutty kind of way. No details beyond “she’s distraught – ok, moving on”. I much prefer flat language to flowery. 

4. What do you want people to walk away with after reading “Ellis House”?

I work managing apartment blocks, and what I say about the CCTV is true. I provide CCTV footage to cops maybe once a month due to break-ins, vandalism, etc., and I don’t think there’s ever been a time I’ve heard of it going anywhere. 

5. Is there anything else you would like to talk about regarding “Ellis House” that hasn’t been asked?

I’m the wrong person to answer this question.  

Reading 

1. What are you currently reading? 

Right now I’m reading “In the American Grain”, WCW’s collection of historic essays/prose poems about the founding of America. It’s incredibly tactile prose, as you’d expect. 

2. Do you have a favourite book? If so, what is it? 

Ray Carver’s Fires at the moment, although that changes regularly. 

3. What is your favourite poet or author, if any? 

Frank O’Hara. Eve Babitz. Hubert Selby Jr. 

4. Do you gravitate towards reading genres outside the ones you write?

I read mainly literary fiction, which I think counts as the same as literary poetry. Certainly, comparing what I read and what I write at a distance on a foggy day you’d probably have trouble telling the difference. 

Writing 

1. Why do you write?

I don’t know if I trust anyone’s answer to this question. A number of reasons, with the largest by far being ego. 

2. What do you love about being a poet?

I don’t necessarily love being a poet any more than I love anything else about myself. It would leave me lopsided if I wasn’t, that’s for sure. And it’s a great way to make even the worst parts of your life have meaning, since if you have to feel or witness pain, as all of us do, at least you have the consolation of turning it into art. A great saving on therapy.  

3. What time of the day do you write, and do you have a writing routine?

I write at night. I sit down, open a laptop and a bottle of wine, and approximately two hours later, I have between eight and twelve poems drafted. This is approximately once or twice a week. I submit them, have them rejected and edit them until someone takes them. They can last years in this state, or minutes. 

4. Where do you get your ideas from?

I try not to think about this – I’m scared if I figure that out, it’ll stop working. I think the job of a poet is to be open to all influences of the world, allow the exterior life to stew within them and then pour it out as hopefully something new. When I’m not writing, I try not to think about writing – otherwise you become one of those people constantly squirrelling lines away in a little notebook. You can’t see the world through a notepad. You have to see the world first, accept it and then put it onto the page at a later date. I realise some of my answers are contradictory.

5. How long does it take you to write your projects?

Depends on what you mean by projects. A poem can take as little as five minutes for a first draft, and can be years before it’s accepted.

6. What advice would you give to other authors/writers/poets?

I don’t personally think artists should give or take advice on how to create. It needs to be you doing it. I only know how to do what I do.  

7. What project(s) are you currently working on?

I’m currently in the final stages of putting together a collection of poems with the tentative title “They Are Taking Down the Halogens”. Perhaps something will come of it.