#32 The undisciplined poet: an interview with Moira Walsh + News about the newsletter

Hot updates, interview, poetry, advice, recommendations, bulletin board, and more

Hello to you from Lucknow, India

Dear reader,

Hello, hi, how you doin’? It’s the start of October and I unanticipatedly find myself sojourning in Lucknow (before resuming the slow dance to the daily tunes of monotony). I couldn’t connect with you towards the end of the last month due to my severe cough and cold, but I am excited to tell you that there are several things that I want to spill out.

My grandparents’ home in Lucknow

First of all, you must remember that in the last issue I shared a lifestyle/personal/opinion piece with you all (“What to do when you’ve nothing to do”), which was part of a set of two pieces where I’ve been quite blunt. So, I am sharing the second piece with you. You can now read “Postscript: Movement”, published on Writers’ Cafeteria. You can consider these two pieces as sister pieces, or as different versions of the same emotion. The prompt for writing “Postscript: Movement” was ‘movement’ which came from missive mag.

News and updates

Moving forward, I have news and updates regarding The Wordsridge Newsletter:

In issue #29, celebrating one year of The Wordsridge Newsletter, I had mentioned a few plans that had crossed my mind. I had also asked you to vote for the idea that you liked best.

So, based on that, I will Insha Allah be inviting collaborators from time to time for an issue or two.

Also, I will be interviewing poets/authors/craftspeople/small business owners/people from other professions perhaps/etc. (those that I could get hold of).

Hence, in this issue you will find an interview with the poet, Moira Walsh. I must say that I personally learned a lot from Moira’s responses and enjoyed reading them. I am elated that I got a chance to interview someone for the first time!

Apart from the above two additions, I am also planning to start a monthly podcast, The Wordsridge Newsletter Podcast, where I will read out a poem and discuss it (with respect to its style, theme, relevance, technique, message). There you can also add your valuable views in the comments thread. Through this endeavor I want to bring poetry to the center of our everyday discussions just like we bring other discourses (environmental discourses, career-oriented discourses, global discourses, etc.) because poetry has a lot to say only when we decide to descend to the depths of its metaphors.

Now an important update is that I am planning to open paid subscriptions for The Wordsridge Newsletter. Although I had earlier decided to go for it once I cross the 100-subscriber mark, but the reason for thinking about it now is that although I love doing what I do and writing this newsletter is my passion, I think that just like any other work/service, writing is also an effort, a job, a hard work which needs to be paid for. Running this newsletter demands time, reading, research, thinking, writing, internet surfing, and proofreading and some honorarium would be an incentive which will further fuel me to provide you with more regular and added content.

But for now, I am NOT putting anything behind paywall. I first want to know how many of you are willing to pay for what I bring to you. I have heard other Substack writers say that “sell your writing” because it has value. For many, writing is their profession, their source of income. Keeping this in mind, I would love it if you will vote below as to whether or not you are willing to pay either monthly or annually for The Wordsridge Newsletter.

Here’s what to expect from this newsletter:

• Fortnightly issues of The Wordsridge Newsletter (check out what the issues will contain)

• Monthly episodes of The Wordsridge Newsletter Podcast

That’s all for the updates. Now enjoy Moira Walsh’s interview!

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The Undisciplined Poet: An Interview with Moira Walsh

by Anam Tariq

Moira Walsh

1. Tell us a bit about yourself.

Hi, Anam. Thanks for your patience in finding a time to connect. I was born in Michigan, near the Motor City (Detroit). Now I live in the metro area that’s home to Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, and Maybach. The funny thing is, I’ve never even owned a car. I don’t drive. As for writing, I guess I’ve always been a writer in some way. I feel most comfortable expressing myself in writing. I don’t keep a journal, but I do write ‘decentralized’ observations, reflections, and stories: on postcards, in the occasional letter, and in poems.

2. Can you tell us more about your poetry collection Earthrise? What themes have you explored in it?

I want you to read it, then tell me [laughs]. A few months ago, a dear friend wanted to know what Earthrise is about, and my response was: “I hate that question, but since you asked: It’s about living well with depression.” She and I both have experience with the illness. So my answer was for her, specifically.

There are as many themes in my book as you can find. Each reader completes each poem in their own way, bringing their whole inner life – their yearnings, aspirations and associations – to the lines on the page. That’s why I dislike talking about the book. I want readers to make their own discoveries. Then we can sit together and talk about the form, the language, and what it evokes in us.

Hint: Readers could examine the cover and the title, and the order of the poems, the poem titles, the formal elements. Ideally, they will find themselves writing their own poems [laughs]. Seriously, that would be the biggest compliment. The biggest joy. Real success!

3. Can you tell us about your writing rituals?

I write sporadically. But when I write, I write a lot. It just pours out of me. This summer I returned to Michigan for the first time in six years and visited a writer I admire. I hadn’t seen him for ages, and the last time we met, I was not yet calling myself a poet. It was a huge relief to hear that he also has no rhythm or ritual. We now call ourselves The Undisciplined Poets [laughs].

4. What are the best and hardest parts of writing?

The best part is simply writing a lot, freely, without any expectations or deadlines, when I feel the need to write. And the hardest part is feeling the urge to write poetry but being too tired from my day job, or too distracted by media.

5. What are the things that spur your imagination? 

The small and large existential questions. Light through leaves, water in every form, being in love. Wanting to get to the root of a difficult situation. Plants, insects, music, food. Anatomy. Autonomy. All that good stuff.

6. What was the process of getting your book published? Was it a challenge?

Working with Penteract Press was fun, freeing, respectful, and satisfying! The previous years were a different story. From 2020 to 2022, I garnered a total of 128 rejections for a bunch of different poetry manuscripts. Zero acceptances.

I made Earthrise in 2022, specifically for Penteract’s open reading period, and I only submitted it twice (to them, and to the lovely Osmosis Press). By the way, Penteract Press no longer accepts unsolicited manuscripts, but please do follow and support them. I’m also a guest on the Penteract Podcast: Series 3, Episode 2. Check that out, too!

7. In your opinion as a poet, what is more important — to get your book of poems out or to get published in more and more lit. mags.?

Do you want my earnest answer? The most important part is whatever brings you joy. For most writers, that’s writing. Writing – not necessarily publishing! But if you want to engage with any part of the publication world, you’ll need to find a way to enjoy the push-pull of failing and trying again. And again. And again. Finally, if you stay persistent, you will start to fail better (to paraphrase Beckett). Maybe you’ll make a sport of it, using the gut-punch of rejection to bounce back and move towards your goal, whatever that may be.

8. Would you like to give some tips to aspiring poets and writers?

If you are looking for validation, adoration, fame, ask yourself why. In my experience, “getting published” may scratch that itch, but it certainly won’t heal it.

If you want to feel less lonely, find your people, your community. Start today. Read lots of different authors, cast your net wide. When you find the writers that grab you, dive deep. Research their lives and contemporaries. Don’t forget, you can reach out to living authors directly. Tell them what you enjoyed, what you discovered. Offer to interview them. Make sure your library carries their books. Write thoughtful reviews and submit them to lit mags. Your circle will grow and you’ll connect with a larger world of beauty-seekers, truth-tellers, art-makers.

Finally, take your time. Getting published (or deciding to publish your own work) takes energy and courage. It is a threshold moment in which you declare, “I have something to say, and I want to share it with you.”

About the Poet

Moira Walsh, originally from Michigan, makes her home in southern Germany. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks: Earthrise (Penteract Press, 2023) and, with Wilfried Schubert, Do Try This at Home (Femme Salvé Books, 2024). Moira’s poems can be found in Bennington Review, Hanging Loose, Poetry Northwest, and Stone Circle Review. A founding member of Kollektief Dellgart, she has co-translated work by contemporary poets Olja Alvir, Ken Mikolowski, Mariia Mykytsei, Halyna Petrosaniak, and Maë Schwinghammer.

Social Media & Web

Instagram: poetbynecessity

Twitter: poetbynecessity

Buy Earthrise: https://penteractpress.com/store/earthrise-moira-walsh

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Verse

“In Blackwater Woods” by Mary Oliver

Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars

of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrance of cinnamon
and fulfillment,

the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders

of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is

nameless now.
Every year
everything
I have ever learned

in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side

is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will ever know.
To live in this world

you must be able
to do three things
to love what is mortal;
to hold it

against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.

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Advice

It's helpful returning to your written piece after a period of time. You are clearly able to see the flaws, the errors you had made earlier, and the improvements that you can make. I realized it when I returned to my prose poem “Migration” after a long time.

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What I found while surfing

• Making of a Poem: D. A. Powell on “As for What the Rain Can Do” (short interview on writing a poem)

• How Crocheting Is Bringing Me Back To Myself — excerpt — Crocheting is bringing me back to myself, a place I’ve yearned to be for so long. Forever a lover of metaphor, I like to think I am the yarn. Infinitely re-shapeable, sometimes tangled, forever persistent as long as I am patient with myself. What’s broken can be re-tied, and loose ends can be repurposed—or they can fall away. I am weaving and looping through my own story, and there are no rules to follow. Stitch by stitch, I’m working up a new beginning for this old blanket, and a new beginning for myself. 

• Maryam
  from The Creative Muslimah has interviewed a small business owner. Check it out

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Bulletin board

• Publishing terms to know

• Job titles in publishing

• Types of publishers

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I take your leave now. Take care. Parting with this:

Love

Anam

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