Above: Tracy & a colleague court the audience with their emotionally rampant stanzas.
Read all about published New York City born & raised poet, Tracy Soren and her adventures in Slam Poetry! She also has a book in the works so be sure to acquaint yourself well with her answers regarding how she had landed a publishing deal & how she copes with the nuisance that is writer's block!
AVANT - So you're a poet. Officially. Meaning you're published, have competed & won competitions in the field of slam poetry. How did you get started? And why 'slam'?
Tracy - Well, in my freshman year at SUNY New Paltz, I went to an event that the school's slam team was holding which featured a very well-known poet, Saul Williams. Before his feature, the slam team performed and I said to myself "I wanna try that." I always had a knack for writing but I was never really introduced to spoken word and it wasn't until then that I seriously tapped into it. So, I just tried it, wrote my first spoken word piece about an interracial relationship and went to the Rap Poetry Music Club (RPM) on campus that works closely with the team. The club is a really dope, relaxed atmosphere where a bunch of artists, poets, musicians, writers, MCs, beatboxers, you name it, come out to perform. I was so nervous but I had been practicing and had the whole thing memorizing but the room was packed out and everyone was screaming "Virgin, virgin!" because I had never read before; it was intense. Anyway, I performed. It was awesome. I was hooked. I got really positive feedback and the semester after that, I tried out for the team and ranked as a starter member (there are starting members who compete at tournaments and alternates for the starters) which is still nuts til this day. I haven't stopped since. Slam is the competitive aspect of spoken word poetry and it's a really fun forum that encourages people to write, perform, perfect their craft and creatively push themselves. It's an accessible art form that didn't necessarily flow from academia but currently works through, with and around it and in it just as it works in various communities and social spheres the same way. You don't need to get a PHd to slam but you can slam if you have a PHd. You can be rockin' New York City energy or coming by way of Arkansas. It doesn't matter because the stage is open to anyone. Equally as important, slam is a wonderful avenue for those who want their creations heard, who want to meet other artists and lovers of art, lovers of openness, dialogue, honesty and emotion. Behind the competition there is this incredible community of poets and supporters that inspire each other and grow from one another; magnificent humans connecting on deeper levels and generally being ill. That's the truly wonderful thing.
AVANT - What inspires you? Who are some of your favorite authors & poets? Any extraneous inspirations i.e. movies, cartoons, pets, sports, etc.?
Tracy - Truthfully, like I've gushed about, the community. The larger slam and poetry community makes me strive to create, keep or transform whatever place I have in it currently. In this crazy poetry world that I am in, your celebrities are or can be your friends.
The artists I am lucky to surround myself with are continuous inspirations and honestly, some of my favorite poets. I don't know how or when this all happened but I have submerged myself around some of the sickest artists. I am lucky to call myself a member of the Intangible Collective, a group of 29 of us who decided to do something with ourselves creatively after we graduated. All of the Intangibles are incredible people and the group just fosters me to strive for better things. I also currently co-coach the New Paltz Slam Team and the team is incredible. They have so much talent which pushes me and gives me more ammunition to keep writing. The SUNY Slam Fam which is really just a great bond between spoken word poets who competed for SUNY schools. And all the poets and writers I have met who have made me go "Damn, I suck at this. I can't possibly compete with any of that. I should stop now."
AVANT - When was the first time you took to the stage, commanded the mic & entranced your audience? Do you remember the first piece you performed? Were you nervous? Do you get nervous still, regardless of your experience & veteran wisdom?
Tracy - I touched on this in my first response but it was truly an incredible moment when I performed my first piece. I was incredibly nervous, more nervous than I've been for most things in my life. When you're performing your art there's a lot of room for your mind to go, "I can make a damn fool out of myself. What if I'm just spilling my guts, just spillin 'em and people are like, eh I'm bored. That sucked. I have written grocery lists more exciting than that. I can write the word "boring" and be more excited." But my first time performing, everyone was listening and seemed to really enjoy it. They were cheering-- that's a very important thing about spoken word poetry and slams, it calls for feedback. We want the audience to make noise and tell us what's up. It was a high that I still get but like most firsts, it's something you will remember. And as for the first piece about an interracial relationship, well, I think I still remember most of it. My writing style has completely changed but it really has a little soft spot in my heart. Took me a long way that first year. As of right now I still feel my nerves but rarely as bad as I used to. I used to have a superstition that if I didn't have my paper hiding somewhere on my body, in my shoe, anywhere, I would forget. I've let go of that security blanket. And I used to always think, "Well I'm up here, can't really get down, might as well try to perform the shit out of it." If I do get nervous it usually subsides after the first time I hit the stage in a night.
AVANT - Who was your mentor when you initially began? Do you have a bad ass crew of poets now, if so what is your group name? And if any, do you have a website?
Tracy - When I initially began, I didn't have a specific mentor and the team that always pushed me. My last year on the team, an alumni, Brian Omni Dillon, came to coach and he became a mentor of mine. As my coach, he helped me edit my poems, worked on my performance, brought me out of the college scene and on to adult poetry venues, helped me picked what poems I was gonna do and introduced me to different people. He taught me how slam works. Omni legitimately has done a ridiculous amount for me and I owe him so much to be where I am today. Mahogany L. Browne, my publisher from Penmanship Books has also given me a huge shot with honoring me the Cora Craig Author Award for Young Women. That has really opened a lot of doors for me, the biggest one of course being my first solo book. And yeah! Like I mentioned before, I roll with the Intangible Collective! Our website is intangiblecollective.com and we are the bad asses of bad asses of ridiculousness and awesome and I love them. We are also on Facebook so you can go to our fan page and we have a blog! http://intangiblecollective.tumblr.com/! We were just named a Tumblr Staff Pick of the week! Also, of course, I roll with the SUNY New Paltz Slam Team and my team is a bunch of beasts. You can check us out on Facebook too!
AVANT - Last I saw you, you were hard at work on your own book! I was and still am so excited for you! Did that book come out yet? If so, where can people order it?
Tracy - I still am! And thanks Ceas, I am excited too! The book hasn't come out yet, it's still going through heavy writing, editing and organizing but I am working to see when to set a release date. Right now though, it's all about getting it perfect. However, I am a featured poet in the first installment of the Intangible Collective Anthologies & Static and Other Lungless Things published by Penmanship Books. I was a main editor and organizer for the book so it's another little baby of mine. That can be purchased at http://poetcd.com/index.php?item=285.
AVANT - How long did it take you to write your book & how many pages? What was your motivation in writing it? Did you ever feel like giving up mid-way due to the daunting stress of it all?
Tracy - Well, I can tell you since I am still writing my book that it can get very stressful. As this is my first book, I really want to make sure I feel right about the poems going into it; that they are perfected. A manuscript also needs to make sense, ya know? The format has to be right, the order of the poems, the way they flow. I don't want there to be a period in the wrong place. SO, YES. It can get stressful. Whenever I find myself buried, I just try to say to myself, "Whoa, you are writing a book. That's kinda crazy. This is a crazy time and a lucky time and it should be fun!" It doesn't always work, especially when writer's block is trying to take me down, but it is helpful and important to focus more on positive energy. And that motivates me to put out a good book that I'm proud of. I want people to relate to what I'm writing and feel something from it. This is a chance to do that which is also great motivation.
AVANT - Also, how many poems did you scrap that didn't even make the book? Is that frustrating when that happens?
Tracy - I can say during this process I have taken out and put in and taken out and put in and then changed some poems then taken some out then put some in then cut it down then added some. It doesn't stop. I don't know how many will be scrapped but there's definitely an interesting number that were in my mind that are not in there now. It's frustrating when you get nervous because you won't write enough or when you always want new poems. I don't know what it is but I move on from poems quickly, it's bad for sure. My friends make fun of me for it. I am trying to work out of being so hypercritical of myself. The whole process of putting a book together is exciting... me being hypercritical, not so much!
AVANT - How did you end up landing your book deal? Was it from the attention you attracted and acclaimed from winning competitions &/or being published in magazines, the internet, etc.?
Tracy - Last year was my first year competing outside of college slams and it was at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, a historical, well-known venue in New York City. I did very well there and was actually a finalist for the Nuyorican's national slam team. The Friday Night Slam host and the venue's Coach and SlamMistress, Mahogany L. Browne heard me perform at most of those slams. One day, she asked me to send her a bunch of poems. I did and she chose me for the award I mentioned earlier, The Cora Craig Author Award for Young Women which gave me and two other young female poets from around the country our first book. It was and still is an actual insane thing in my life.
AVANT - Where can people find your poetry? On-line? Indie zines? What poetry houses do you frequent? Where can fans & newcomers alike go to see you perform? What are your favorite venues to perform at?
Tracy - People can find my poetry on youtube.com, when they google my name, on my blog: tracysoren.tumblr.com, possibly on other parts of the interwebs. There are also Intangible Collective chapbooks (self-published books of poetry), the published book Static and Other Lungless Things. This year, since I was working on my book, coaching the New Paltz team, working with the Collective, doing a bunch of poetry events and trying to figure out how to handle art and employment, I let myself take some time off from slamming but I really want to hit the adult slam scene hard next year. Currently though, I am a Grand Slam Finalist for the Intangible Slam (the slam series started by my group in Midtown) and I go to the Nuyorican Poets Cafe a bunch. I also went and slammed at the Bowery Poetry Club for the first time which was awesome and I want to check out Louder Arts at Bar 13 in Manhattan. I also would love to check out slam venues outside of the state. I've enjoyed performing at various venues, all of them have a different energy and its important to experience different crowds and spaces. I will always have a place in my heart for performing on college campuses, the energy on many campuses I've visited has always been so vibrant. Of course, I'll always love SUNY New Paltz since that's where I started. Newcomers and fans (if I have fans, that's awesome and I want to thank them personally) can just check out on Facebook, my blog or the Collective's webpage to see where I am performing. I will be in Boston at Emerson College the second week of April for Collegiate Nationals, coaching my team and there will be major poetry going on. Then the Intangible Collective is on tour the week after! We will be hitting up various venues in New York State for the annual Where There's Smoke, There's Fire tour so people can catch me during those dates. I am working at my schedule but I will be at the SUNY New Paltz date (April 16) and at Port 41 in Midtown (April 17)! Personally, I am so excited for the poetry at both these events so I'd advise people to come check it out. It's gonna be sick!
AVANT - How often do you write? What do you write in? Are you organized: Moleskin, composition notebook, spiral notebook? Or more spontaneous: random receipts, brown paper bags, torn newspaper pages? Or digital: cellphone, laptop or desktop computers?
Tracy - I try to write every day. Recently, I've been going through a dry spell which has been horrible but I am pushing through it and still trying to write whenever I can. I also just started working a full time schedule which can be exhausting. I want to go home, granny it out and go to bed at 9. When you get home at 7, time gets tight. But it's all about scheduling and I am figuring out how to manage everything. No matter what, I will write. I don't care if I'm on the bus, walking the streets of Manhattan, half-sleeping (trick, leave a notebook and pen always by your bed cause the things you can come up with right before you fall asleep is bananas. I've hated myself for making myself get up but then loved myself for it in the morning.) You just need to push yourself to write it down even when it's inconvenient (if you don't want to take out your notebook, try notepad on your phone). If you need to get a bit more crafty, any paper surface. If you're really pushing it, eyeliner on your hand. Whatever you gotta do, do it because you will kick yourself later if you lose a wonderful thought. So I am all those things but out of the three you mentioned (organized, spontaneous or digital) I would say organized. My planner is my best friend, I bring some type of notebook everywhere I can. I enjoy writing things down, old-fashioned style. Sometimes if I know I am about to get a full, concise poem and or I am gonna be on a roll, I try to reach for a computer. Sometimes I wish I had a computer in reach. It's really how I am feeling in the moment.
AVANT - What are the more popular recurring themes in your poetry? Romance, family, friendship, coming-of-age tales?
Tracy - I focus a lot on various relationships. I don't know why but a lot of times that flows out of me. It's therapeutic and it's in my comfort zone but I am trying and have been trying to branch out of that. I also write about experiences I've had or am having for the same reasons. Unless something is flowing out of me, I try to make conscious choices to try different things and that's really exciting. I have been working on a poem for a while now about my weird take on the apocalypse. It's called "The One Whale Human Party". My friend and poet that I work closely with, Megan Falley, put the words together randomly and I ran with it. It actually might be two parts, right now I have it in two parts... anyway, the main focus is what would happen if the apocalypse came, the world flooded with water and everyone I know and loved ended up partying in a giant whale. See this, this is what writing allows you to do. And for some reason, I have wonderful opportunities for people to read, hear and comment on such a poem which is why I consider myself lucky. Writing truly can take you anywhere. I like writing about my personal experiences and relationships because it allows me to put them into different words and images while still maintaining their truth. I love using words and making them into something completely different, making punctuation and grammar into some weird silly putty I get to mess with. How does a certain line break change the mood, read or meaning of a poem? Who should narrate this poem? What different images can I create from the word "butter"? All of these questions allow me to take my writing anywhere I want. And I can open my mind and see from different perspectives. I am trying to write more persona pieces, poems where I speak from someone else's voice because that within itself is an insane trip. I get to make up or interpret another human's experiences? And I get to play with language in the process. What?! Also, I am trying to use this art for what so many people use it for and what it excels at: activism. I have a great tool for change. And this can be succeeded through any type of poem. I am trying to play around with allowing my writing to be a catalyst for social dialogue. If my poetry starts or contributes to any dialogue, that's a success right there. I realize I may have went off on a tangent because that's how much I love language and writing. Every tangent, try, speech, sound, word can bring you to something ultimately magnificent.
Tracy - Well, in my freshman year at SUNY New Paltz, I went to an event that the school's slam team was holding which featured a very well-known poet, Saul Williams. Before his feature, the slam team performed and I said to myself "I wanna try that." I always had a knack for writing but I was never really introduced to spoken word and it wasn't until then that I seriously tapped into it. So, I just tried it, wrote my first spoken word piece about an interracial relationship and went to the Rap Poetry Music Club (RPM) on campus that works closely with the team. The club is a really dope, relaxed atmosphere where a bunch of artists, poets, musicians, writers, MCs, beatboxers, you name it, come out to perform. I was so nervous but I had been practicing and had the whole thing memorizing but the room was packed out and everyone was screaming "Virgin, virgin!" because I had never read before; it was intense. Anyway, I performed. It was awesome. I was hooked. I got really positive feedback and the semester after that, I tried out for the team and ranked as a starter member (there are starting members who compete at tournaments and alternates for the starters) which is still nuts til this day. I haven't stopped since. Slam is the competitive aspect of spoken word poetry and it's a really fun forum that encourages people to write, perform, perfect their craft and creatively push themselves. It's an accessible art form that didn't necessarily flow from academia but currently works through, with and around it and in it just as it works in various communities and social spheres the same way. You don't need to get a PHd to slam but you can slam if you have a PHd. You can be rockin' New York City energy or coming by way of Arkansas. It doesn't matter because the stage is open to anyone. Equally as important, slam is a wonderful avenue for those who want their creations heard, who want to meet other artists and lovers of art, lovers of openness, dialogue, honesty and emotion. Behind the competition there is this incredible community of poets and supporters that inspire each other and grow from one another; magnificent humans connecting on deeper levels and generally being ill. That's the truly wonderful thing.
AVANT - What inspires you? Who are some of your favorite authors & poets? Any extraneous inspirations i.e. movies, cartoons, pets, sports, etc.?
Tracy - Truthfully, like I've gushed about, the community. The larger slam and poetry community makes me strive to create, keep or transform whatever place I have in it currently. In this crazy poetry world that I am in, your celebrities are or can be your friends.
The artists I am lucky to surround myself with are continuous inspirations and honestly, some of my favorite poets. I don't know how or when this all happened but I have submerged myself around some of the sickest artists. I am lucky to call myself a member of the Intangible Collective, a group of 29 of us who decided to do something with ourselves creatively after we graduated. All of the Intangibles are incredible people and the group just fosters me to strive for better things. I also currently co-coach the New Paltz Slam Team and the team is incredible. They have so much talent which pushes me and gives me more ammunition to keep writing. The SUNY Slam Fam which is really just a great bond between spoken word poets who competed for SUNY schools. And all the poets and writers I have met who have made me go "Damn, I suck at this. I can't possibly compete with any of that. I should stop now."
AVANT - When was the first time you took to the stage, commanded the mic & entranced your audience? Do you remember the first piece you performed? Were you nervous? Do you get nervous still, regardless of your experience & veteran wisdom?
Tracy - I touched on this in my first response but it was truly an incredible moment when I performed my first piece. I was incredibly nervous, more nervous than I've been for most things in my life. When you're performing your art there's a lot of room for your mind to go, "I can make a damn fool out of myself. What if I'm just spilling my guts, just spillin 'em and people are like, eh I'm bored. That sucked. I have written grocery lists more exciting than that. I can write the word "boring" and be more excited." But my first time performing, everyone was listening and seemed to really enjoy it. They were cheering-- that's a very important thing about spoken word poetry and slams, it calls for feedback. We want the audience to make noise and tell us what's up. It was a high that I still get but like most firsts, it's something you will remember. And as for the first piece about an interracial relationship, well, I think I still remember most of it. My writing style has completely changed but it really has a little soft spot in my heart. Took me a long way that first year. As of right now I still feel my nerves but rarely as bad as I used to. I used to have a superstition that if I didn't have my paper hiding somewhere on my body, in my shoe, anywhere, I would forget. I've let go of that security blanket. And I used to always think, "Well I'm up here, can't really get down, might as well try to perform the shit out of it." If I do get nervous it usually subsides after the first time I hit the stage in a night.
AVANT - Who was your mentor when you initially began? Do you have a bad ass crew of poets now, if so what is your group name? And if any, do you have a website?
Tracy - When I initially began, I didn't have a specific mentor and the team that always pushed me. My last year on the team, an alumni, Brian Omni Dillon, came to coach and he became a mentor of mine. As my coach, he helped me edit my poems, worked on my performance, brought me out of the college scene and on to adult poetry venues, helped me picked what poems I was gonna do and introduced me to different people. He taught me how slam works. Omni legitimately has done a ridiculous amount for me and I owe him so much to be where I am today. Mahogany L. Browne, my publisher from Penmanship Books has also given me a huge shot with honoring me the Cora Craig Author Award for Young Women. That has really opened a lot of doors for me, the biggest one of course being my first solo book. And yeah! Like I mentioned before, I roll with the Intangible Collective! Our website is intangiblecollective.com and we are the bad asses of bad asses of ridiculousness and awesome and I love them. We are also on Facebook so you can go to our fan page and we have a blog! http://intangiblecollective.tumblr.com/! We were just named a Tumblr Staff Pick of the week! Also, of course, I roll with the SUNY New Paltz Slam Team and my team is a bunch of beasts. You can check us out on Facebook too!
AVANT - Last I saw you, you were hard at work on your own book! I was and still am so excited for you! Did that book come out yet? If so, where can people order it?
Tracy - I still am! And thanks Ceas, I am excited too! The book hasn't come out yet, it's still going through heavy writing, editing and organizing but I am working to see when to set a release date. Right now though, it's all about getting it perfect. However, I am a featured poet in the first installment of the Intangible Collective Anthologies & Static and Other Lungless Things published by Penmanship Books. I was a main editor and organizer for the book so it's another little baby of mine. That can be purchased at http://poetcd.com/index.php?item=285.
AVANT - How long did it take you to write your book & how many pages? What was your motivation in writing it? Did you ever feel like giving up mid-way due to the daunting stress of it all?
Tracy - Well, I can tell you since I am still writing my book that it can get very stressful. As this is my first book, I really want to make sure I feel right about the poems going into it; that they are perfected. A manuscript also needs to make sense, ya know? The format has to be right, the order of the poems, the way they flow. I don't want there to be a period in the wrong place. SO, YES. It can get stressful. Whenever I find myself buried, I just try to say to myself, "Whoa, you are writing a book. That's kinda crazy. This is a crazy time and a lucky time and it should be fun!" It doesn't always work, especially when writer's block is trying to take me down, but it is helpful and important to focus more on positive energy. And that motivates me to put out a good book that I'm proud of. I want people to relate to what I'm writing and feel something from it. This is a chance to do that which is also great motivation.
AVANT - Also, how many poems did you scrap that didn't even make the book? Is that frustrating when that happens?
Tracy - I can say during this process I have taken out and put in and taken out and put in and then changed some poems then taken some out then put some in then cut it down then added some. It doesn't stop. I don't know how many will be scrapped but there's definitely an interesting number that were in my mind that are not in there now. It's frustrating when you get nervous because you won't write enough or when you always want new poems. I don't know what it is but I move on from poems quickly, it's bad for sure. My friends make fun of me for it. I am trying to work out of being so hypercritical of myself. The whole process of putting a book together is exciting... me being hypercritical, not so much!
AVANT - How did you end up landing your book deal? Was it from the attention you attracted and acclaimed from winning competitions &/or being published in magazines, the internet, etc.?
Tracy - Last year was my first year competing outside of college slams and it was at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, a historical, well-known venue in New York City. I did very well there and was actually a finalist for the Nuyorican's national slam team. The Friday Night Slam host and the venue's Coach and SlamMistress, Mahogany L. Browne heard me perform at most of those slams. One day, she asked me to send her a bunch of poems. I did and she chose me for the award I mentioned earlier, The Cora Craig Author Award for Young Women which gave me and two other young female poets from around the country our first book. It was and still is an actual insane thing in my life.
AVANT - Where can people find your poetry? On-line? Indie zines? What poetry houses do you frequent? Where can fans & newcomers alike go to see you perform? What are your favorite venues to perform at?
Tracy - People can find my poetry on youtube.com, when they google my name, on my blog: tracysoren.tumblr.com, possibly on other parts of the interwebs. There are also Intangible Collective chapbooks (self-published books of poetry), the published book Static and Other Lungless Things. This year, since I was working on my book, coaching the New Paltz team, working with the Collective, doing a bunch of poetry events and trying to figure out how to handle art and employment, I let myself take some time off from slamming but I really want to hit the adult slam scene hard next year. Currently though, I am a Grand Slam Finalist for the Intangible Slam (the slam series started by my group in Midtown) and I go to the Nuyorican Poets Cafe a bunch. I also went and slammed at the Bowery Poetry Club for the first time which was awesome and I want to check out Louder Arts at Bar 13 in Manhattan. I also would love to check out slam venues outside of the state. I've enjoyed performing at various venues, all of them have a different energy and its important to experience different crowds and spaces. I will always have a place in my heart for performing on college campuses, the energy on many campuses I've visited has always been so vibrant. Of course, I'll always love SUNY New Paltz since that's where I started. Newcomers and fans (if I have fans, that's awesome and I want to thank them personally) can just check out on Facebook, my blog or the Collective's webpage to see where I am performing. I will be in Boston at Emerson College the second week of April for Collegiate Nationals, coaching my team and there will be major poetry going on. Then the Intangible Collective is on tour the week after! We will be hitting up various venues in New York State for the annual Where There's Smoke, There's Fire tour so people can catch me during those dates. I am working at my schedule but I will be at the SUNY New Paltz date (April 16) and at Port 41 in Midtown (April 17)! Personally, I am so excited for the poetry at both these events so I'd advise people to come check it out. It's gonna be sick!
AVANT - How often do you write? What do you write in? Are you organized: Moleskin, composition notebook, spiral notebook? Or more spontaneous: random receipts, brown paper bags, torn newspaper pages? Or digital: cellphone, laptop or desktop computers?
Tracy - I try to write every day. Recently, I've been going through a dry spell which has been horrible but I am pushing through it and still trying to write whenever I can. I also just started working a full time schedule which can be exhausting. I want to go home, granny it out and go to bed at 9. When you get home at 7, time gets tight. But it's all about scheduling and I am figuring out how to manage everything. No matter what, I will write. I don't care if I'm on the bus, walking the streets of Manhattan, half-sleeping (trick, leave a notebook and pen always by your bed cause the things you can come up with right before you fall asleep is bananas. I've hated myself for making myself get up but then loved myself for it in the morning.) You just need to push yourself to write it down even when it's inconvenient (if you don't want to take out your notebook, try notepad on your phone). If you need to get a bit more crafty, any paper surface. If you're really pushing it, eyeliner on your hand. Whatever you gotta do, do it because you will kick yourself later if you lose a wonderful thought. So I am all those things but out of the three you mentioned (organized, spontaneous or digital) I would say organized. My planner is my best friend, I bring some type of notebook everywhere I can. I enjoy writing things down, old-fashioned style. Sometimes if I know I am about to get a full, concise poem and or I am gonna be on a roll, I try to reach for a computer. Sometimes I wish I had a computer in reach. It's really how I am feeling in the moment.
AVANT - What are the more popular recurring themes in your poetry? Romance, family, friendship, coming-of-age tales?
Tracy - I focus a lot on various relationships. I don't know why but a lot of times that flows out of me. It's therapeutic and it's in my comfort zone but I am trying and have been trying to branch out of that. I also write about experiences I've had or am having for the same reasons. Unless something is flowing out of me, I try to make conscious choices to try different things and that's really exciting. I have been working on a poem for a while now about my weird take on the apocalypse. It's called "The One Whale Human Party". My friend and poet that I work closely with, Megan Falley, put the words together randomly and I ran with it. It actually might be two parts, right now I have it in two parts... anyway, the main focus is what would happen if the apocalypse came, the world flooded with water and everyone I know and loved ended up partying in a giant whale. See this, this is what writing allows you to do. And for some reason, I have wonderful opportunities for people to read, hear and comment on such a poem which is why I consider myself lucky. Writing truly can take you anywhere. I like writing about my personal experiences and relationships because it allows me to put them into different words and images while still maintaining their truth. I love using words and making them into something completely different, making punctuation and grammar into some weird silly putty I get to mess with. How does a certain line break change the mood, read or meaning of a poem? Who should narrate this poem? What different images can I create from the word "butter"? All of these questions allow me to take my writing anywhere I want. And I can open my mind and see from different perspectives. I am trying to write more persona pieces, poems where I speak from someone else's voice because that within itself is an insane trip. I get to make up or interpret another human's experiences? And I get to play with language in the process. What?! Also, I am trying to use this art for what so many people use it for and what it excels at: activism. I have a great tool for change. And this can be succeeded through any type of poem. I am trying to play around with allowing my writing to be a catalyst for social dialogue. If my poetry starts or contributes to any dialogue, that's a success right there. I realize I may have went off on a tangent because that's how much I love language and writing. Every tangent, try, speech, sound, word can bring you to something ultimately magnificent.
Below: Tracy adventuring Australia.
