Interview With Poet Sidney Wade

Welcome to the latest edition of my interviews with poets with 32 Poems magazine. The full interview with Sidney Wade was posted at 32 Poems Blog on May 11. Check out one of Sidney's poems and then check out the interview below.

Sexual Blossoms and Their Fierce Addictions

Yesterday’s tulips in the crystal bowl

have begun to open and already they’ve

partially exposed their pistils and stamens.

In the coming days

these petals will open in a brazen

yawn, their private parts thrust

into the shocked and fascinated

room. Very soon the whole

apartment will start to misbehave--

the fainting couch and ottoman will shed their raiment,

weirdness will graze the ceiling and raise

eyebrows in the carpet lice. With sex emblazoned

on the air, the afflicted chamber will swell with lust.

A hystericalectomy is clearly indicated.

1. Not only are you a contributor to 32 Poems, you have authored five collections of poetry, edit Subtropics, and teach a variety of poetry courses. Which of these “hats” do you find most challenging or rewarding and why?

It’s nerve wracking work, writing poems, but when the work gets good and gets going, there’s nothing better in the world. So that’s probably the most challenging and rewarding at once. Editing Subtropics is easily the most simply rewarding, as I get to see, every week, every month, what very fine poems are being written around this country these days. And being able to tell people you’d like to publish their work elicits marvelously joyful responses. Who couldn’t love a regular influx of extremely happy emails? And teaching has its own pleasures and difficulties, the former fantastically outweighing the latter, thank goodness.

2. Do you have any obsessions that you would like to share?

Hunting for mushrooms. Cooking mushrooms. Pasta. Cheese. Practicing and improving, slowly, on the viola.

3. In terms of friendships, have your friendships changed since you began focusing on writing? Are there more writers among your friends or have your relationships remained the same?

Not really. Since I’ve been writing and teaching, my daily life tends to revolve around other writers, students, colleagues, etc., so by default those are the folks I get to know. My non-writer friends, however, are still with me, and always will be. Segregation is never a good idea.

4. How do you stay fit and healthy as a writer?

By reading, reading, reading.

5. What current projects are you working on and would you like to share some details with the readers?

I’m trying to find time to finish translating a book-length selection of the poems of Melih Cevdet Anday, an important Turkish poet. I also have completed about half or two-thirds of a book, tentatively entitled “run-on” which, if I can do it, will end up an entrancing and very long, skinny poem that just goes and goes and goes.

Grand Disastery

moored by fine

tethers to certain death

a hornet fizzes

on the windowsill

a spider flies

to its side

to securely bind

this abundant harvest

the hornet in shrill

thrall to agony drills

a hole in God’s

provident breast

pocket

in the sublime

cold light

of this tiny

constellation

the bald pulp

of the hornet’s diminishing

hum feeds growing eyes

and hungry sockets

the figure is clean

a small

black aster

hung among

the stars

Want to find out what Sidney's writing space looks like? Find out what she thinks about contemporary poetry and popularity and much more. Check out the rest of my interview with Sidney here. Please feel free to comment on the 32 Poems blog and Savvy Verse & Wit.

About the Poet:

Sidney Wade is the author, most recently, of Stroke (2008) and Celestial Bodies (2002). Wade edits poetry for Subtropics, a magazine published by the University of Florida. From 2006-2007, she served as President of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP).

Don't forget my giveaways:

1 copy of Rubber Side Down Edited by Jose Gouveia, here; Deadline is May 15 at 11:59 PM EST

2 copies of The Last Queen by C.W. Gortner, here; Deadline is May 22 at 11:59 PM EST