...with John Sibley Williams

John Sibley Williams

We have been longtime fans of John Sibley Williams and his poetry. His were among the first poems we accepted for River Heron’s debut issue back in 2018. An award-winning poet in his own right, John is the author of nine poetry collections, five of which are winners of top poetry awards. We were so taken with his work that we invited him to serve as the final judge of the inaugural (2019) River Heron Poetry Prize. Over time, we have only grown in our admiration for John’s talents as a wordsmith as well as his gracious and consistent support of River Heron Review. When we wondered, Who is one of the most talented poets we know?, John’s name was high on our list. We are honored to present our recent interview with him.

John Sibley Williams is the author of nine poetry collections, including Scale Model of a Country at Dawn (Cider Press Review Poetry Award), The Drowning House (Elixir Press Poetry Award), As One Fire Consumes Another (Orison Poetry Prize), Skin Memory (Backwaters Prize, University of Nebraska Press), and Summon (JuxtaProse Chapbook Prize). His book Sky Burial: New & Selected Poems is forthcoming in translated form by the Portuguese press do lado esquerdo. A twenty-seven-time Pushcart nominee, John is the winner of numerous awards, including the Wabash Prize for Poetry, Philip Booth Award, Phyllis Smart-Young Prize, and Laux/Millar Prize. He serves as editor of The Inflectionist Review and founder of the Caesura Poetry Workshop series. Previous publishing credits include Best American Poetry, Yale Review, Verse Daily, North American Review, Prairie Schooner, and TriQuarterly.Learn more about John via Facebook or visit his website.

RHR: What is the best piece of writing advice you have ever been given?

JSW: There’s a reason “keep writing, keep reading” has become clichéd advice; it’s absolutely true. You need to study as many books as possible from authors of various genres and from various cultures. Listen to their voices. Watch how they manipulate and celebrate language. Delve deep into their themes and structures and take notes on the stylistic and linguistic tools they employ. And never, ever stop writing. Write every free moment you have. Bring a notebook and pen everywhere you go (and I mean everywhere). It’s okay if you’re only taking notes. Notes are critical. It’s okay if that first book doesn’t find a publisher. There will be more books to come. And it’s okay if those first poems aren’t all that great. You have a lifetime to grow as a writer.

Do we write to be cool, to be popular, to make money? We write because we have to, because we love crafting stories and poems, because stringing words together into meaning is one of life’s true joys. So, rejections are par for the course. Writing poems that just aren’t as strong as they could be is par for the course. But we must all retain that burning passion for language and storytelling. That flame is what keeps us maturing as writers.


RHR: Tell us about your writing process.

JSW: Many, perhaps most, of my poems begin with a single image. Be it a dead horse bloated by a river, my young daughter tearing up the paper swans I made for her, or children playing in the vast ribcage of a beached whale, I usually start with a single haunting image written at the top of a page. Then I try to weave a world in which that image makes sense. I have multiple notebooks filled with individual lines, words, images without context, and I tend to flip through these while writing to see if any previous little inspirations might tie into the new world I’m creating. That said, I do sometimes start with a concept, theme, or other larger motivation, often cultural or political. But I tend to find these ideas and themes spring naturally from whatever I write, and it usually feels more organic if I begin with an image and let the context find its voice. From there, I read aloud whatever lines I’ve written over and over until the next line springs forth. I find reading aloud during the composition process integral as the ear seems to pick up on slight awkwardnesses and ensures a smoother flow and consistent voice.


 RHR: Whose name do you invoke at your shrine to poetry?

JSW: Although not a poetry collection, it would have to be Man's Search for Meaning by psychologist and Holocaust survivor Viktor E. Frankl. This seminal work frames much of my understanding of human nature, and I don’t think a day goes by in which its insights aren’t validated in my daily life. As opposed to abstractions like truth or beauty, that purpose, motivational drive, is the “meaning of life” that sustains us feels ground-breaking and true to life. Reading Frankl’s work, it’s as if the earth shifts beneath me. Every time. I don’t know who or what I would be without having read it.


RHR: Does an idea for a poem haunt you or do you hunt for an idea? 

JSW : Well, I think we all write about what haunts us, what keeps us up at night, what questions we just can’t find answers for. So, in that regard, many of my books explore the same larger human concerns, be they personal or cultural. The themes are interconnected, are threads that together form a single tapestry. Be it national prejudice or fears of how I’m raising my children, our bloody history or the search for self when the self just keeps vanishing into the communal. Certain poems may push one or another theme more to the forefront, often based on our current political climate or internal changes that have reprioritized my daily life, but in the end, I recognize pretty clear thematic threads running from my early chapbooks all the way to my two new books. I never really hunt for or seek out topics or themes, as I feel that would end up molding the poem into what I want it to be, instead of listening to and following what the poem itself is saying.


 RHR: Should writers keep or discard their old notebooks over the years?

JSW: I still have every notebook. I have a mover’s box full of them in my office. Admittedly, I tend to only comb through the latest notebook or two for inspiration on new poems, but I cannot bring myself to get rid of older ones. They may end up heavied by so much dust I’d dirty my hands opening them. But even if I never revisit them, those unused phrases and past inspirations will always be there waiting for me.


 RHR: What is most satisfying about writing (and finishing?) a poem? 

JSW: Honestly, every line that really shines feels satisfying. Even if the rest of the poem doesn’t quite live up to it, just one potent image worded in a way that hurts me in the right way feels like, oddly enough, a breath of fresh air. But the two most satisfying aspects are when: a poem is complete, and I reread it a few times, each time feeling that tingle, that bodily spark that tells me “this is the best I’m ever going to be able to do here”, which isn’t every poem, trust me; and feeling that warmth and empathy and understanding from readers when a poem really strikes them, when what began as a glimpse into my world becomes an exploration of their world.  

 

 RHR: Notebook paper or computer? Pen or pencil?

JSW: Although I spent the first fifteen or so years of my poetry life composing in a notebook, the past five or six years I’ve found it easier and equally inspiring to use my computer. The main benefit of forgoing the initial notebook stage is purely visual; I need to see and be able to easily manipulate a poem’s structure. We don’t always know immediately if a poem should be in couplets or prose blocks or of an experimental nature. I used to waste many sheets of paper playing with possible structures, while now I can do so with a few clicks and can return to a poem’s original form with a back arrow. It’s also nice, again visually, to see what a poem will look like on a standard 8 ½ x 11 white sheet, mirroring a book’s format closer than my little notebook. I mentioned earlier how important sound is to my composition process. I consider the visual equally important, and computers simplify that process. That said, I do still carry a notebook with me everywhere to jot down notes and unexpected inspirations, which often weave their way into my poems.

Read John’s recently published poem, “My American Ghost”, appearing in Verse Daily.

Read some of John’s earlier poems as they appeared in River Heron Review: