Séamus Isaac Fey (he/they) is a Trans author from Chicago. Presently, he’s the poetry editor at Hooligan Journal, and co-creative director at Rock Pocket Productions. His debut poetry assortment, decompose, is out with Not a Cult Media. He has an essay forthcoming in Dopamine Press’ WITCH anthology, edited by Michelle Tea. His work has appeared in American Poetry Evaluation, Poet Lore, The Offing, Sonora Evaluation, and others. He likes to beat his buddies at Mario Celebration. Discover him on-line @sfeycreates.
Our Tradition caught up with Séamus to debate the unpredictable lifetime of poems after publication, the transformation of poetry into music, and the significance of discovering humour in vulnerability.
Decompose has been out on the planet for seven months now. Has something about how readers interpret or join with the gathering stunned you?
Thanks for this query. It’s all the time good to examine in, time-wise. Because the e-book got here out, time has moved so surprisingly. It feels prefer it was yesterday but in addition ten years in the past. I’ll say, one thing that surprises me loads is who finds the gathering. I don’t know if that is simply me or if different poets additionally really feel this manner, however I’ll obtain a DM from somebody saying they picked up my e-book at a bookstore in Albuquerque, a spot I’ve by no means been, and that simply feels wild to me. One thing else that surprises me – in a brilliant grateful means, for each statements I’m making – is which poems folks love. As poets we frequently talk about how the poem we spend twenty hours arduously enhancing is rarely the one everybody loves; it’s typically the one you write in 5 minutes or the one you don’t count on. In my case that’s been my poem ‘I need to textual content you however I’m bored with screens’. That poem has been on @poetryisnotaluxury, Tom Snarksy shared it… That is perhaps my most-read poem, and of all those within the e-book, I’d’ve by no means anticipated that. I don’t have an issue with it – I imply, I really like all of them equally. But it surely’s simply by no means one thing you possibly can count on. You possibly can by no means predict how issues are gonna attain folks, or the place, or what poems they’re going to like. And that’s one thing I have a look at with a lot gratitude as a result of I’m so grateful it’s getting into anybody’s palms. I really feel the way in which I’ve approached this e-book is with low expectations and excessive enthusiasm.
While you’re within the midst of writing a poem, how typically do you take into account the reader’s expertise? Does their potential interpretation ever shift the way in which you construction or select to specific a bit?
You already know, there are two sides to this coin. The primary is that I strive not to consider viewers whereas I’m writing in any respect, as a result of whereas I’m writing I simply attempt to get out of my very own means. There’s an ideal chapter on viewers in Carl Phillips’ e-book My Commerce is Thriller, which I extremely suggest to anybody studying this who likes to jot down. On the one aspect of that coin, I don’t take into consideration viewers, I strive to not even edit whereas I’m writing. I concentrate on getting the poem on the web page. I really feel equally with fiction and screenplays, however poetry is the style I’ve essentially the most apply with when it comes to detaching myself from the concept of an viewers whereas writing. On the opposite aspect of that coin is that once I do consider the viewers, I take into consideration how I may also help information them by the poem with a torch or a hand – that’s vital to me. Echoing again to your final query, the explanation it’s not useful to consider whether or not or not it’s going to resonate with folks is since you by no means know. So it’s extra useful to consider it when it comes to readability, about whether or not the reader feels welcomed into this portal of a poem and is ready to comply with alongside. That’s what I attempt to take into account greater than something. However there shall be occasions once I’m writing a line and suppose – oh, I would like so as to add this phrase from earlier once more, to ensure readers know what I’m speaking about. That is perhaps the one time.
I like the concept of repeated phrases to information the reader “with a torch” – I feel you try this very efficiently on this assortment. One thing I significantly loved in decompose was how your poetry strikes between moments of witty cynicism and deeply honest imagery, with ‘lesbians are exhausting’ providing an ideal instance. What pursuits you about that house between irony and earnestness?
I really like this query! I feel I stay within the house between irony and earnestness. I feel there’s hope in humour. Humour is how I get by every thing, actually. In ‘Everybody calls me their husband’ there’s the road “Taylor says once I’m actually upset I keep away from the query and make numerous jokes.” And it’s true. I feel that once I’m struggling and actually in ache, I look to humour. Within the poem ‘Pop’, there’s additionally the road “in the event you can each dance & cry to a music, it’s most likely up my alley.” That’s simply the place I stay. There’s hope in humour, and I exploit it as the sunshine that retains me strolling ahead.
Because you talked about ‘Pop’, I’ve to say that’s certainly one of my favourites within the assortment. I discover unapologetic enjoyment of pop music to be an enormous inexperienced flag.
You already know… That feeling I wrote the poem about, when in a relationship somebody makes you type of self-conscious or hate one thing about your self… It’s very sturdy, I nonetheless generally really feel it. It’s what it’s – I simply love pop music generally!
I seen the epigraphs in decompose pair bell hooks with Mitski, which feels telling – do music and literature occupy comparable areas in your world of artistic inspiration, or do you see the 2 artwork types as distinct influences?
I feel I see them collectively. I’m moved equally by nice lyrics and nice literature. There are such a lot of musical artists that encourage me. To call a couple of that basically hit house – Mitski, MUNA, Megan Thee Stallion. They’re my Shakespeare. You already know, there’s this card within the tarot referred to as the Hanged Man. It’s a couple of perspective shift – a pressured perspective shift – you’re trying on the similar scene from a distinct angle. In numerous the playing cards, he’s hanging from his ankle. He doesn’t look uncomfortable, he’s simply the other way up. I take into consideration the Hanged Man moments in my life as these small epiphanies that assist join numerous dots or place a bit within the puzzle. For me, numerous the time, it’s lyrics, it’s simply listening to a music clearly sufficient that the lyrics transfer you. I feel music, in an analogous option to nice literature, hits us on this place that’s so susceptible, the place it’s simple to maneuver us. After I crave that motion, music is usually what can try this for me.
After all, you your self are additionally a musician. I’m curious concerning the course of of making an audio companion to decompose. Was that all the time part of your imaginative and prescient for these poems? Did the method of setting them to music reveal something new about them?
Truly, yeah. The studio course of was extremely enjoyable. It was one of the crucial creatively fuelling experiences I’ve had in such a very long time. After I made the album, I simply didn’t give a rattling who was going to hearken to it or not. I hoped folks would hearken to it – I nonetheless hope individuals are listening to it – but when they’re not it’s okay, as a result of I had a lot enjoyable making it and it actually impressed me. I really made the album as soon as the e-book was already completed. Edits had been nonetheless being made to the e-book, so generally the music may have a distinct model of a given poem, from earlier than the edits. Initially, I attempted to see the e-book and the album as the identical, however they ended up taking place completely different paths and have become two distinct initiatives. Initially, I additionally had means too many epigraphs for this e-book. I had two epigraphs at first and two for every part, again when the e-book was divided in three elements. I lower these from the e-book however they stayed within the album, they’re the intros. So it’s type of a distinct lens and a distinct aspect of decompose that the e-book needed to shed with the intention to grow to be itself.
I labored with so many unbelievable, proficient musicians on this album who’ve helped me see the poems, and their risk when it comes to music, in another way. Simply to call a couple of: Roberto Murillo was the music director and my accomplice in making the album, Macias, KONISHI, Collin McNern, certainly one of my producers My Compiled Ideas, and everyone on the Perlita Village Studio, which is generally the place I recorded the album. It required me to be tremendous malleable, which I admire loads as an artist. I used to be pressured to decelerate and actually really feel the music. We needed to do a number of recordings of most poems, as a result of the primary couple of takes I’d current the poem the way in which I do at a studying, trigger I’ve been doing that for years. Then I’d should unlearn that and hearken to the rhythm of the music and the heartbeat of the music and skim it in another way. So making the album actually taught me to be malleable in my readings. For those who learn your poems the identical means on a regular basis, it’s simple to get caught in a particular stream. I feel the album helped me grow to be way more fluid with it.
Is it truthful to say that it’s not simply an audio companion, then, however a full venture in its personal proper?
The Libra in me needs to say it’s each. I do suppose it’s an audio companion, however I feel it’s simply its personal venture. You’ll get a distinct expertise listening to the album than you’ll studying the e-book however they’re each decompose.
There’s ongoing dialogue about what constitutes ‘queer poetry’ – whether or not it’s poetry explicitly about queer experiences, poetry by queer writers, or one thing else totally. How related is that this class in your personal expertise and work?
Nicely, I really like this query as a result of it’s one of many many moments the place bell hooks actually shines. She has a quote on queerness that I really like: “‘Queer’ not as being about who you’re having intercourse with (that may be a dimension of it); however ‘queer’ as being concerning the self that’s at odds with every thing round it and that has to invent and create and discover a place to talk and to thrive and to stay.” I feel for me, every thing I do is queer. All of my work is queer, it all the time has been and all the time shall be, and that’s one factor I will be sure of in a world that’s devoid of certainty. I do suppose something a queer particular person makes is queer as a result of queerness is a lot larger and broader than folks generally suppose it’s. So, whether or not or not my work is a couple of queer romantic expertise, it’s queer.
I actually loved your interview with Lynne Thompson and was significantly fascinated by your use of tarot as a structural information, along with your poems progressing by the sequence of the demise card, your invention of the footstep card, after which temperance. Past structuring your work, what function does tarot play for you personally?
For me, I like to think about myself as a reader of books and a tarot reader earlier than I’m anything. I feel I would like these issues with the intention to be a author. Though I shouldn’t say I would like tarot to be a author, as a result of I began studying tarot round six years in the past and I used to be a author lengthy earlier than then… However I do really feel like tarot is a lens by which I see most issues and can also be a means through which I survive. In occasions of grief or doubt I can go to a tarot studying and simply view my state of affairs from a distinct perspective. Additionally, I feel that it’s a great way to attach with folks. I really like studying my buddies’ tarot playing cards as a result of it could possibly assist me speak them by what they’re going by. I even inform individuals who don’t consider in tarot – which is ok, I simply know that for me it’s one of many methods through which I see the world – I inform them the worst factor that’s going to occur is you’ll discover a new perspective, a brand new means to consider what you’re going by. Which may provide help to determine it out a little bit bit, or not less than consolation you. So for me, tarot is certainly a non secular apply, and I don’t all the time learn my very own playing cards. I do know numerous tarot readers – we discover one another – however once I’m scuffling with one thing, remedy and tarot are two methods through which I’m able to achieve a brand new perspective on a state of affairs.
Your work typically returns to cycles of breakdown and renewal. What poets or artists do you flip to while you’re making an attempt to make sense of your personal intervals of transformation?
Rather a lot. There shall be occasions the place I’m so unwell that I can solely deal with poems. To call a couple of, I flip to Diane Seuss, Khadijah Queen, Megan Fernandes in addition to Natasha Rao, Taylor Byas, Dare Williams, who all have their interludes on the album. They’re very useful in these moments, and I feel poems are all the time one thing that really feel… they really feel like me to me. I can learn a poem and really feel extra like myself. Generally, that’s what I actually need. By way of music, my favorite harpist is Lavinia Meijer. I’ve a harp playlist I hearken to loads once I’m present process transformation or simply once I’m writing. By way of fiction, I’d say Ling Ma, Sally Rooney, Octavia Butler. Paradoxically sufficient, Stoker’s Dracula, it’s certainly one of my favorite books. Additionally poetry podcasts, Poem-a-Day by poets.org – I get that electronic mail and skim a poem on a regular basis. I learn many poems a day. Generally they’ll be poems I wasn’t anticipating however that I actually wanted at that second.
To wrap up, are there any explicit areas of your life which were drawing you to discover them in your artistic work currently?
For my second poetry assortment I’m considering loads about estrangement, I’m considering loads concerning the nuclear household. I’m writing loads about household, about rebuilding after collapse. I’m additionally engaged on a novel the place one of many characters is a whiskey taster and writes about whiskey, so I’ve been doing weekly tastings and writing out the style notes to get into the character’s headspace. So yeah – estrangement, nuclear household, and whiskey.
That’s superb! So that you’re additionally changing into a whiskey knowledgeable?
Perhaps a little bit bit, which isn’t one thing I ever noticed coming. I’ve been calling it ‘subject analysis’. I’m beginning to find it irresistible as a lot as I really like espresso – I used to be a barista for nearly ten years, I really like tasting espresso, and I’m now beginning to really feel equally about whiskey.
Is the expertise of writing a novel fairly completely different to writing a e-book of poetry?
It’s, however since I write poetry, non-fiction, fiction, screenplays, performs, I feel every style feeds the opposite. Though they’re completely different, while you’re engaged on one, you’re engaged on your self as a author. I see genres as one begets the opposite.