Laurie Kuntz’s 6th poetry book, That Infinite Roar, has just been published by Gyroscope Press. Her other poetry books are: Talking Me Off The Roof, Kelsay Books, The Moon Over My Mother’s House, Finishing Line Press, Simple Gestures, Texas Review Press, Women at the Onsen, Blue Light Press, and Somewhere in the Telling, Mellen Press. Simple Gestures, won Texas Review’s Chapbook Contest, & Women at the Onsen won Blue Light Press’s Chapbook Contest. She’s been nominated for three Pushcart Prizes & two Best of the Net Prizes. Her work has been published in Gyroscope Review, Roanoke Review, Third Wednesday, One Art, Sheila Na Gig, & other journals. https://lauriekuntz.myportfolio.com/
You can read The freedom from in the October 2023 issue.
How do you revise your work?
I sleep on it. I let the poem simmer for a while, then I go back to it. When I can, I share the draft with another poet whom I respect and take that feedback to heart. I look at revision as the fun part of writing because the skeleton of the piece is there and playing with a line or even a word lets me engage in the creative process. Once I have the bones of the poem on the page, the body will take form in the revision process, and I enjoy doing that
What are you working on now?
Perspective and appreciation…aka living well.
How or where or with what does a poem begin?
Every poem is a journey, and every journey a poem. My poems all begin in journey format. Whether it be watching a child cajoling her mom to buy her a lollipop at the grocery, or witnessing displacement of war torn peoples –the journeys we take in life, the journeys we witness, and the destinations we reach all can be the making of a poem.
Are there other art forms that inspire or inform your poetry?
I lived in Japan for over twenty years, and the Japanese forms of poetry have greatly influenced me. The elements of the haiku, haiga, and haibun inform my work. I love that in all of these forms human nature is reflected through nature.
How do you make space for poetry in your daily routine?
A routine task can become a poem. Poetry is in the details of the day to day. In my daily routines, I pay attention to details, to conversations I hear or are am part of, to witnessing the quotidian— this is what poetry is composed of. So, for me, I am open to look at the routines as a stepping stone to a poem– I do not differentiate between the two, that is routine activities and the process of writing, and that perspective in and of itself gives me time to write.