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New Universes: A Conversation with Claire Bateman
Claire Bateman’s poetry has been praised for its originality and range of sensibilities. Her poems bring together a multitude of topics in new ways. A consummate daydreamer and voracious reader, Bateman pulls seemingly divergent ideas into poems filled with wonder and what she calls “contrary energies.” Bateman is the author of five collections of poetry, most recently Clumsy and Leap. In preparation for her reading March 12, 2007, we discussed poetry, teaching, and creating new universes.
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Jeremy Jones: What draws you to writing poetry?
Claire Bateman: I like the surprise of not knowing what my brain is going to come up with. I like finding out where I am going after I got there. It would be so easy to sleepwalk through a day, going from obligation to obligation. Writing helps me stay aware of the potential surprises in life.
Poetry is supposed to be about the sense of recognition, like when you're in the ocean and a cold wave smacks you in the face.
I really like to teach poetry because I think poetry helps students to realize that on some level they are already wondering about things in little ways. It helps them to breathe on the spark a little bit and be aware of opportunities to wonder about things--breathe on it and nurture it. I am trying to train them to always be a little off balance.
Jeremy Jones: Have you always wanted to be a writer?
Claire Bateman: I remember the first time reading really fell into place for me. I was alone, looking at a book, staring at the letters, when all of a sudden it kind of clicked. And there was this lift. Instead of looking at the words, I could enter into the story. I have never forgotten it. But I don't remember wanting to write and I don't remember starting to write. I just remember always writing.
Jeremy Jones: Will you walk me through the process of creating a poem from the first glimmerings to the final product?
Claire Bateman: I have all of my fingers and all of my toes in different pies all of the time. I am always getting books about different things. I am always wondering about a lot of stuff and constantly reading and taking notes and letting my mind wander. I really like to just sit and daydream. I drink a lot of coffee. Ideas and questions and images come to me, often in the form of a "What if...?"
If an idea has even the slightest bit of potential, I write it down in my journal. I am also always drawing and painting--if I go out and sit by a tree and try to draw the spaces between the branches, it frees my brain up in a way that might not happen if I were sitting inside staring at a blank page telling myself, "Okay I have to write a poem."
So over time, I write fragments in my journal, and eventually something will kind of crystallize. And I'll think this can go with that or that can go with these four things, and I start writing. Or, I start writing about something and I look in my journal to see what other things can be added on. I work with divergence a lot. And with transformation-topics turning into other topics. I write the poem in rough draft and revise it. At some point I get on the computer-the speed and the ability to move things around really help.
The result is different each time. Each poem is a different universe with a different set of problems. I am almost creating a set of problems for myself in order to keep myself awake.
A shorter version of this interview was published in the Spartanburg Herald-Journal.
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