Amie Whittemore ~ 3 Questions & a Poem

3 Questions and a Poem–in which one of my favorite poets is interviewed and shares a poem.

QUESTION 1

What do you consider the three most important elements of a poem?

For me, three things I most value in a poem are sensory imagery, sparkling metaphors, and attention to the relationship between form and content. For me, imagery and metaphor (often working together in a poem) are what bring me back to poems, even when I stray. I love when writers find new ways to convey insights about life on this planet—be it about a singularly human experience or the act of witnessing and trying to comprehend a nonhuman experience. When a poem pushes the wind into my face or makes me see something in a new light—this is when my deep sense of gratitude for poetry overwhelms me.

I also admire technical mastery—poets who invent new forms, such as Jericho Brown and his amazing duplex, for instance—put me in awe. Even if the forms aren’t replicable (or don’t become widely replicable), I love seeing how poets shape their poems to create a conversation between form and subject.

QUESTION 2

What’s your best advice for writing poetry?

I think some of the best advice I can offer is to be willing and able to ask yourself, “What if?” What if I started this poem with the last line? What if I turned it into a sonnet? What if I turned this sonnet into a free verse poem and smear it across the page? What if I moved this poem into second or third person? These kinds of questions push you outside of your comfort zone and let you be flexible with your creative work. The more you are willing to risk something on the page—risk bewilderment, risk clarity, whatever might be challenging for you—the more you’ll learn about your own writing habits and how to break out of them when needed.

QUESTION 3

What’s the one poem that everyone should read today?

Oh, there’s so many delicious ones. I save my favorites from Poetry Daily in a folder and so, to try to answer this question, I went through it and encountered many gems. However, to shed light on a poet your readers might not be familiar with, I’ll share Caki Wilkinson’s poem “Fox Song,” which is lovely in terms of music, sound, and sense. It was a pleasure to read again and a sign I need to read more of her work!

& a POEM

The Crows
       

I left out a bowl of rice dressed
in violets and honey, unsure
if it was offering or temptation.
A crow appeared
on my kitchen counter
and ate it all.
The next morning the crow
returned with its flock,
shades draping the shagbark,
all of them chanting
their own names:
Crown me, called one.
Sunder, another.
Hearing its name among
those fleeing their beaks,
my heart abandoned its nest.




Copyright © 2023 Amie Whittemore All rights reserved
from Colorado Review

About the Author

Amie Whittemore (she/her) is the author of the poetry collections Glass Harvest (Autumn House Press), Star-tent: A Triptych (Tolsun Books), and Nest of Matches (Autumn House, 2024). She was the 2020-2021 Poet Laureate of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow. Her poems have won multiple awards, including a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Prize, and her poems and prose have appeared in The Gettysburg Review, Nashville Review, Smartish Pace, Pleiades, and elsewhere. She teaches creative writing at Eastern Illinois University and serves as director of MTSU Write, a from-home creative writing mentorship program. Learn more at amiewhittemore.com.

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