Zeid (he/they) is an author, poet, and scientist from Jordan. After writing for almost a decade, they’re finally submitting their pieces to be published. And here they are in Pinhole Poetry! Other poetry of theirs can be found in Assignment Literary Magazine, In Parantheses, Panorama, and Rising Phoenix Review.
You can read Kafka Teacups Tides in the October issue.
If you didn’t write poetry, how do you think you might access the same fulfillments that poetry offers in your life?
I suspect that, if I weren’t a writer, I would end up as a stand-up comic.
How do you revise your work?
Almost all my works start as a rambling stream of consciousness. Once that’s on the page, I go in once a day (or however often my schedule allows) and pick at things I like or dislike. Over time, the rambled words take form, whether as poem, prose, or something else entirely. When I go a while (a week?) without changing anything in the work, I’ll declare it as ‘finished’.
Sometimes, though, a work might be ‘finished’, but I won’t be satisfied by it. If that’s the case, I would come back to it once I feel I leveled up as a writer. Then I’ll repeat the process until it’s declared ‘finished’ again.
As a poet, what does creative success or achievement look like for you?
When the work I create is something I want to read!
Are there other art forms that inspire or inform your poetry?
Pictures, photos, & painting! I love ekphrastic poetry. In fact, “Kafka Teacups Tides” was inspired from a photo of a beach. I try to do about one ekphrastic poem a month. If nothing else, it’s a solid exercise that forces me to interact with someone else’s art. That, I feel, informs or inspires my own art.
How do you make space for poetry in your daily routine?
Whenever I think of something I reaaally want to write, I send it to myself as a message on my phone. Eventually I’ll find myself in front of a word processor, which is when I’ll go through those messages and find myself stitching a new poem.
Have you ever received advice (or has there been something you’ve learned on your own) about writing or revising poems that has made you a better poet? What was it?
Sometimes I try to remove as many words as possible from a poem to see if it can still stand. If it does, then I have to question why those words were there.
Do you belong to a writer’s group? If not, where do you find poetry community and feedback?
I move around a fair bit, but I tend to find writing groups in November. November is National Novel Writing Month, and I try to find a local group & see if I can write with them. That usually holds me well for a writing group until I have to move again. Other than that, I have friends I keep in touch with online with whom I might share bits of writing and they’ll share some of theirs back with me.