AUTHOR of
SCREAMING AT THE VOID
I
had the pleasure of promoting Erica and her new book, Screaming at the Void . Here is an interview with a most
interesting woman.
1.
Your new book
features some of the 1000+ poems you’ve written over the years. What drew you
to write poetry?
Poetry comes easy to me. I don’t slave over my work, I don’t edit my writing,
or look back once I write something, so the process is simple and quite frankly
perfectly fits the on goings of my mind. My writing more or less reflects the
beats of my brain, and poetry seems to be the best manifestation of how my mind
processes information which in turn results to words on a page. It’s funny cause even when I write prose, if
you break up the sentences, it reads like a poem. Wherever my brain is and how
it is operating in that moment, will be reflected on the page, and for some
reason or another, poetry is pretty much the only form that I am decent at and
do my best to produce work that exemplifies how I see the world.
2.
What do you
consider is the importance of poetry? I don’t think poetry is better or worse
than other forms of writing, but, due to the fact that it has a way to
creatively free the mind, for me, it puts it in another category of
literature. It’s not like you have to
adhere to grammatical boundaries or worry about punctuation or what’s
considered “proper” English. You have the ability to truly play around with
language. When I took my first English
class in college I remember my professor calling me into his office and saying
“I’m not going to mince words, your writing needs serious attention.” I was like sweet! I’m good! When really he
was saying I had no business being an English major. I walked away across
campus thinking we’ll see about that. So looking back I think I did break
conventional rules of writing in my work, and laid the groundwork to step
outside the box and through poetry could execute that.
3.
What do you want
readers to understand and take away from your poems? Keep it real in
life. All of my writing stems from my real life experiences, and I am true to
that and hope others can resonate with topics that I explore. Whether I receive good or bad responses, I
find that either way people are impacted by my work. It’s funny cause I do have
haters out there that get offended or uncomfortable when they read some of my
material, and I love it, embrace it. I
welcome people that may have an uncomfortable experience cause I know deep down
I am striking a chord with them, and hopefully opening a door for them to
further examine why they respond to my work the way that they do.
4.
What other
contemporary poets have influenced or inspired you? I do not read
much contemporary poetry. I sometimes
think Bukowski and I share some similarities in life. I know he lived in
Downtown LA as do I and he would write stuff that may be over the top, and I
tend to do that as well. He also
suffered from a mood disorder which is reflected in his work which I can
identify with. I used to go to readings
in New York and LA and would come across different poets but no one really
stood out to me. I did manage to read
out loud some of my work which most of the time ended in a silent room and I’d
be like okayyy… maybe my stuff was too serious or out there; I don’t know. I think my writing is something to read on
paper. I don’t think vocalizing my work is how one should experience my poetry. My work is intimate so having a crowd sit
there and listen doesn’t really make sense to me.
5.
What made you
decide to have the poems psychoanalyzed? It was John’s idea, and when I first read
John’s commentary on my poem The Void
it struck me in its insight and analytical expertise. He pointed out things I never thought about
with my work, or myself. Then when we
first started working together I was on the fence about exposing some of the
insight he brought forth cause it was intense and hard to swallow, so we almost
decided to quit the project. He was dead
set on writing a book that took things to another level, and I remember
deciding that I was going to have blind trust in this person I barely knew, and
just go for it. And as we went along with the work there were times I was
seriously challenged to let him write what he wanted and just let it go. It’s quite amazing for someone to take words
on a page made in a conscious state of mind, and be able to bring forth the
deeper subconscious meaning behind those words.
6.
What did you learn
about yourself during this process? That
I have a lot of work to do. When I would read John’s analysis I felt like I was
getting years of free therapy. There is so much unbelievable insight and
information he was able to glean from my work that I was forced to really think
about my upbringing, my life, my relationships, all of it. It was hard, but I did learn that my work has
deeper meaning then I would never image which is pretty cool, which means there
are deeper things going on inside me that I am forced to address or take a look
at, and thankfully have the opportunity through poetry do explore that. I also
never considered myself a collaborative writer but we both brought such unique
things to the table, yet, managed to make it work as a whole was truly
innovating.
7.
What did you learn
about your poetry during this process? That there is more to my poetry then I
could ever have imagined. I have been writing for two decades now and although
I am not a known poet, even if I wanted to quit or give up I couldn’t cause
poetry is me. During this process I
realized that my writing carries weight on a whole other level. It’s exciting.
8.
What is your
favorite poem in the book? Why? All of my writing stems from my real life
experience that shapes into a story. I have a few poems in the book about my
experience having a citizen’s arrest and spending the night in jail for a DUI. I read them recently and laughed out loud, but,
they weren’t really all that funny when I really thought about it. But my mug
shot is in the book which is very funny. I’m smiling in it cause at the time I
thought maybe I’d be a known poet some day and if people look me up and find a
mugshot of me I wouldn’t look all scary and disheveled like Gary Busey or something. John has fantastic analysis on it which is
very eye opening.
9.
You write a lot
about your mental health in your poems. How has it affected your poetry? Well, I have to
take medication twice a day, stay on top of my physical and mental health, so
it’s a part of my life on a daily basis so does affect my work. My mental
illness is not only a subject matter in my work, but is literally shown on
through my stylistic techniques. For example, a poem about mania will express
itself on the page with exclamation points and bold words etc… it’s as if I can
track my moods not only in the material but how I write the material. My
writing wouldn’t be what it is without my mood disorder which I am grateful
for.
10.
How can we
encourage more people to read more poetry? With the power of social media, I
think combining poetry with a visual medium could be impactful and fun. For
example, I have made close to 100 web clips of my poetry which I can tweet and
post on my YouTube channel. What I think is exciting is I make videos of poetry
play them out where my actions match the poem with voiceover, or I am doing
some everyday activity like putting on makeup or moving laundry into the dryer,
but I'm thinking about a guy I just met or a date I went on so you see a person
going about their day and hear what they are actually thinking inside. I think
would be really cool is if people would create their own videos. They could pick
one of their favorite poems, and produce their own rendition of the work. For example, I have a poem about breaking
up. Almost everyone has had that
experience at some point in their life, so a person can read my work but have
the freedom to produce a visual of that work however they want to, and you’d
end up having a burst of creativity and an online dialogue that could change
how people approach poetry. It could be a fun way for people to express
themselves and see the relevance of poetry as it becomes live on the screen.
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