“I have to live, and in order to do so, I have to write down what I have experienced and why it matters to me.”
Gatherer (Belle Point Press, 2024)
A question from Lucien Darjeun Meadows: I’m always fascinated by ancestral lines, inheritances, and legacies. So, I would love to ask: What three (or so) authors, creatives, or works most influenced your collection? And/or, if readers are moved by your collection, who would you recommend we next seek out?
It feels hard to pin down an influence, like trying to feel water when you are in the ocean, but the ones that immediately come to mind are Charles Wright, Gregory Orr, and Mark Jarman. These are not my only influences, of course, but I would not be the poet I am without these three writers.
A question from Noreen Ocampo: What is something that fuels you as a writer, your writing practice, or just you as a human being?
Stories. I love telling stories, hearing stories. A lot of what I write is just a story from my life or a story that I heard. To me, that is where everything begins and ends.
Could you tell us a bit about your growing up and your path to becoming a writer?
I loved writing from a young age. In kindergarten I wrote comic books about superheroes and by middle school I was writing spy “novels.” I have always been a writer but for many years I thought I would be the Next Great American Novelist. In college, I had a professor point out that I had more of a knack for poetry, and my path as a writer changed. The journey ever since has been a deepening love of poetry.
How do you decorate or arrange your writing space?
These days, my writing space is anywhere I can sit undisturbed for a moment or two while I tap out a poem or part of a poem. A comfy chair and a nice pair of headphones is usually all I need.
What obsessions led you to write your book?
Earlier drafts of this book arose from an obsession with history, especially American history and how it is distorted as we get further away from it. As I was writing I came to the belief that history–all histories–are just stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, either ourselves as a nation or ourselves as people. I wanted to interrogate those stories and drag them out into the light.
How did you decide on the arrangement and title of your book?
This book has gone through many transformations over the years. The poems were moving around up until it went to the printer. Ultimately, I tried to pick an arrangement that would feel natural, so poems that seemed to speak to each other would be next to each other.
The title was actually one of the last things I decided on. I wasn’t sure what to call the book, honestly, but I was stuck on “Nothing is new under the sun,” a verse from Ecclesiastes that I quote in the book. After some Googling, I discovered that one of the ways to translate the “author” of Ecclesiastes is “Gatherer,” which felt so appropriate to what this book is: a gathering of poems, of stories, of images.
Which poem in your book has the most meaningful back story to you? What’s the back story?
Several of the poems have meaningful back stories that are mostly explicated in the poems themselves (“Ode to August Walker” or “The nuns have been called!” spring to mind). The one that might be least expected is “Morning Rituals,” a poem that was inspired by a line from a poem by my dear friend and fellow-poet, Jessica Guzman. She had written “The Achaeans feared dying first” and I rolled that line around in my head for a while until I came up with the opening line for “Morning Rituals.”
What’s the oldest poem in your book? Or can you name one piece that catalyzed or inspired the rest of the book? What do you remember about writing it?
“Call an Exaltation” is not the oldest poem in the book. In fact it is one of the newer ones, but it was one of the first poems I wrote after grad school that felt like a real poem. It helped create the gravity which the rest of the book orbits around.
What was the final poem you wrote or significantly revised for the book, and how did that affect your sense that the book was complete?
“A Love Poem” was, I believe, one of the last poems I wrote for the book, and it contains the oldest lines in the book. The final line and a half are stolen from a poem I wrote over ten years ago that have just been rattling around in my head ever since. Finishing that poem, which was deeply personal and hard to write, with those specific lines, gave me a sense of closure and helped me feel like the book was, perhaps, complete.
A question from Toni Ann Johnson: Why are you writing about what you’re writing about?
Because I have to. Writing often feels like exorcizing some part of me that would be insatiable if I did not write. I have to live, and in order to do so, I have to write down what I have experienced and why it matters to me.
A question from Monica Macansantos: Do you ever find yourself inspired or guided by your childhood in your work?
Much of my work deals with my childhood, whether explicating a moment from my childhood, or re-thinking the things that I thought as a child or the things I was taught to believe. That re-thinking is crucial to the work of a poet.
As a child, I often found myself engaging in imaginative play, either by myself or with friends. In many ways, that love of imagining different worlds is still a guide in all that I write.
A question from Anna Laura Reeve: Do you understand your role in society—as a poet—to be influential, critical, observant, or something else?
I often find that my sharpest poems are self-critical more than anything else. But one of the things I love about poetry is that it can be all three (and more), depending on the poet or the poem itself. I would love to be an influential or observant poet, but I do think I most often fall into a critical mode. It is something I am trying to move away from, but it is where I find myself most often.
What are you working on now?
A new book of poems, which is currently made up about 80% of odes and what I am calling anodes, or poems about things I despise (there’s that inner critic again!). It feels exciting to be working on something new! It’s such an impossible and unlikely thing, writing a book, so any time it seems like it has happened for me feels like a miracle.
What advice would you offer to students interested in creative writing?
The best advice is often the most cliche but: write! That’s your best way forward. Write and read. And once you feel like you have done enough of that, write and read some more. Then, find the people whose judgment you can trust. Lots of people will offer you their opinion, but that opinion only matters if it is informed by a care for the work of poetry.
What question would you like to ask the next author featured at Speaking of Marvels?
What is your favorite piece of your writing that has not yet been published? What do you love about it?
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Todd Osborne is a poet and teacher who was born in Nashville, TN. His debut poetry collection, Gatherer, was published by Belle Point Press. He is a feedback editor for Tinderbox Poetry Journal and a poetry reader for Memorious. His poems have been published in The Shore, CutBank, Tar River Poetry Journal, EcoTheo Review, and elsewhere. He lives and writes in Hattiesburg, MS, with his wife and their cats.
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