Memory Yard by Stephen Hemenway
How did you come to write Memory Yard?
I was taking a class with Myung Mi Kim, who was very generous with her time and feedback, and, as an exercise, she photocopied a book (Elizabeth Robinson’s Harrow) and told me to write between the lines, which I did. (Not sure if Elizabeth or Myung want to be associated with this book.)
You’ve been writing for many years. How has your writing changed?
It’s hard for me to say. When I first started writing in the nineties I always had to have a person in mind who I was writing to, but that had already changed by the time I wrote this in 2000 or 2001. Some ways of writing I’ve used just for one project and haven’t gone back to, such as Memory Yard. At the time I wasn’t sure about Memory Yard because it didn’t make sense to me. I wanted clearer connections and progress through the poems and so I set it aside. After I got out of school I wrote poems where each line would be just a slight movement from the line before it and learned to do that slow work. Now, looking back, I sometimes wish I could write more loosely like in Memory Yard, but really Memory Yard was always a one-off. I don’t really feel in control of my work most of the time, and just try to look at what I’ve written and see what I can like about it.
You’re a designer, artist and gardener. Do you feel that these other pursuits impact your writing?
I studied painting as an undergraduate, although I haven’t painted in decades, it does affect how I approach writing—I still think about advice I got from my painting instructors even. For example, in a painting when you paint over something it’s impossible to go back, or you have to recreate what you did before, but at the same time you can’t treat a painting as something precious when you’re working on it, or you’d be totally stuck in place. Although I do save earlier versions of poems, I don’t often reread them when editing or ever really. I just look at where I’m at and move forward.
What’s your writing process?
Lately I’ve been writing on loose sheets of paper. If I’m thinking about something and all of a sudden something sounds like a good line or train of thought I’ll try to write it down immediately and then use it later. Also, I’ll write exercises, or stream of consciousness and pick lines out of that. If I read a line I like by another poet I’ll write that down too. And then, usually on Sunday when I set aside time to write, I’ll use those to start a poem or collage them all together to make a poem. I also just sit down and write poems sometimes. It’s varied.
What do you do if you get stuck?
I think if you sit down to write and aren’t too critical of yourself and don’t have too many expectations, in theory it shouldn’t be a problem. It happens though. My favorite thing to do is to read, research, learn something new, some new way of looking at the world, a new vocabulary, so I can approach things I always write about from a different angle. Does that make sense?
Do you routinely get feedback from others on your work?
I’m in a couple Zoom groups right now where we do exercises and read our work and give some brief immediate feedback, which is awesome, but not full-blown critiques or editing suggestions like in school. If I wasn’t in those groups I don’t think I’d be writing honestly.
How do you know if a project is finished?
When my writing changes and doesn’t fit that project anymore.
Could you talk a bit about your sense of community with writing?
I think it’s everything. I consciously gave up writing for a couple years and didn’t start again till I suggested to a friend who had just gone through a breakup and was kind of depressed that we do a project together, thinking it would cheer him up, and that’s when I started writing again. Reading other poets and seeing their working process and talking to them is a pleasure.
Are you inspired/influenced by other disciplines or art forms?
I still like looking at paintings and photographs, and I do write about them, or write based on them. It’ll be nice once the pandemic is over and I can see paintings in person again.
What are you working on now?
I’ve written three poems that have figure in the title, hoping to start a fourth this weekend. They’re a little abstract, a little vague in some ways, and I’m not sure where they’re going when I start them. I guess figurative is a good word for them. We’ll see how many I can write before I start something new.