“Be patient with each poem; allow it to rest now and then, so it can better help you see what it wants to be.”
An Eye in Each Square (River River Books, 2022)
A question from Toni Ann Johnson: Why are you writing about what you’re writing about?
I began the poems in this book in 2017. The U.S. was being governed by a new administration and our country felt like it was in chaos. And within my smaller and more personal ecosphere, my family was in distress. It had become clear that my father was experiencing significant memory loss. Even without a diagnosis, there were many legal and financial decisions to be made, and most importantly, questions of how to best take care of him.
I had the opportunity to spend a month on the Washington coast that summer and went without a project. There hadn’t been time to focus on that. I went with a biography of the abstract artist Agnes Martin in hand and spent the entire month figuring out—through the poems—why.
A question from Megan Nichols: what books do you return to when you feel uninspired or disillusioned?
Among other works, I occasionally return to French writer Edmond Jabès (Rosmarie Waldrep’s translation) because it shakes something loose in my thinking. But more often, I go toward things I haven’t read—children’s books for their airiness and color; novels for the chance to displace in another narrative; and the poetry books I’ve collected and keep wanting to read.
How do you decorate or arrange your writing space?
My writing space is cluttered with drafts and journals and notes. Kind cards from my students and catalogs from art shows I’ve attended accumulate. The ephemera of life, the good things I want to hold in front of me for a while. At some point, I do a sweep and clear them away—only to start again with new treasures.
I have a corner desk that looks out huge windows to the north and west. The jays and hummingbirds zip in to the feeders, or the hawks in the distance catch my eye. I look up: a wider view, the pulse of the sun.
A question from Catherine Pritchard Childress: which came first, an idea for the book that you wrote towards, or the individual pieces that ultimately revealed themselves as a cohesive collection?
I typically work on individual poems, which take time to find the right book project to nestle into, if at all. For An Eye in Each Square, I wrote a lot more poems about Agnes Martin, my main subject, than appear in the book.
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?
“Advancing” is the oldest poem in the book. I began it in 2004, when I had another opportunity to live (temporarily) beside the ocean. “Advancing” was published in Terrain.org in 2016 and now, seven years later, has found a permanent home in this book.
How did you decide on the arrangement and title of your book?
Arranging a collection is always a multi-day project. I have a large table in my studio, which is endlessly piled with books and papers. I clear that off and start placing the poems around its perimeter in an order that seems to make sense. I’ll start here and end here, I might think at the beginning of the process. I gradually fill in the middle of the book.
I circle around and around, rearranging. I’ll do that until my back and feet ache. Until it is deep night. I come back to it again the next morning to see how it flows. I will probably reshape some more. When it thrills me with its connections and swerves, I slide all the poems into a binder, where I can see the spreads in the decided order. I put the book away for a while. This doesn’t mean I’ve got it right. Just that I think I do, at that point.
The title for this book was easier than some others. It’s drawn from an Agnes Martin quote that I repurposed in the poem “Cow” to be about my family. I like the title’s intrigue and how it encompasses some of the bigger themes of the book.
What are you working on now?
I’ve recently returned from two weeks as Poet-in-Residence at Lowell Observatory. So, in short, I’ve been working on poems about the universe. Which is, of course, not remotely easy as a topic.
What advice would you offer to students interested in creative writing?
Gather fascinating words. Be patient with each poem; allow it to rest now and then, so it can better help you see what it wants to be. And also, take risks.
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Lauren Camp is the author of six books, most recently An Eye in Each Square. Her next collection, Worn Smooth between Devourings, will be published by NYQ Books. Honors include a Dorset Prize and finalist citations for the Arab American Book Award and Adrienne Rich Award for Poetry. She is an emeritus fellow for Black Earth Institute and was Astronomer in Residence at Grand Canyon National Park. Her poems have appeared in Kenyon Review, Missouri Review and Poet Lore, and her work has been translated into Mandarin, Turkish, French, and Arabic. She serves as Poet Laureate of New Mexico.
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