LatinosUSA

• Juan Re Crivello: Do you think poetry is back in fashion?

Nancy Bevilaqua: I’m not sure if poetry has ever really been in or out of fashion–there are so many forms, styles, eras, etc., that anyone with any interest at all in poetry should be able to find something that resonates for her or him. Someone who hated, say, Tennyson in high school may now stumble upon an experimental prose poem, or a contemporay re-working of sonnets, or even the work of another non-contemporary poet that really appeals. I have noticed, however, that the New York Times has been publishing a lot of reviews of and articles about poetry lately, so that may indicate that more people are becoming interested in reading what’s out there.

• J. R. C.: Is your poetry created daily, or do you wait to be inspired to write it?

Nancy Bevilaqua: Since high school, almost all of my poems have resulted from stream-of-consciousness exercises that I do from time to time. There have been times when I’ve written on a daily basis, but at other times I’ve gone for months or years without writing anything. Usually, there has to be something about which I’m feeling strongly at the time to get me started, although sometimes the exercises I do sometimes reveal other things about which I may have been thinking subconsciously and surprise me. «Writing prompts» don’t work for me; I usually feel that my best poems are already somewhere in my mind, waiting to be released onto paper. In many cases those poems emerge just as I want them to be, with almost no need for editing. Anything that I try to «force» usually fails, at least in my own opinion.

• J. R. C.: What is your next publishing project? 

Nancy Bevilaqua: I’m not really sure what my next project will be. However, lately I’ve become interested in trying to write prose poems, which is something I’ve never really done before. I find them very challenging (in a good way), because in many ways they have a lot in common with more conventional poems (rhymes and assonances, rhythms, and vivid imagery that «shows» rather than «tells»), and yet it’s not always easy to keep them from sounding like ordinary prose. It seems a little like trying to learn Portuguese or Italian when one already knows Spanish–similar, yet very different in practice. Eventually I hope to have a collection of them that I like enough to try to publish.

• J. R. C.: What city do you live in, and can you describe your favorite bar or café?

Nancy Bevilaqua: I live in Hoboken, New Jersey, which is just across the Hudson River from Manhattan (where I was born), and I love it. It’s a square-mile town, so it’s almost impossible to go out anywhere without running into someone I know. In the 1970’s and 1980’s, it was an inexpensive alternative to NYC for musicians, artists, photographers, and writers to live. (And of course Frank Sinatra was born here!) Many of those people are still here (although it’s no longer inexpensive!), and others have arrived, so there are almost always live music performances, gallery exhibits, etc., going on.

Since I love music more than just about anything (even poetry, although my favorite poems often also have similarities to music), I’m often out at shows and open mics where many of my friends, as well as people I don’t know, are playing. Although the famous and wonderful music venue Maxwell’s has been closed for a while (I practically lived there in the late ’80’s), there are still places in town where both local and «big name» musicians play on a regular basis. It would be difficult to name just one that I prefer over the others. However, my son (as well as some good friends) has played at an Irish bar with a back-room for bands called Finnegan’s, and at another bar called The Farside, so I suppose that those two are my favorites. Nothing makes me happier than seeing my son play live here in Hoboken or in one of the many clubs in downtown Manhattan!

• J. R. C.: Can you share a recent interview?

Nancy Bevilaqua: I don’t think I’ve ever been interviewed, but I’m one of the poets featured on the podcast «Poets Wear Prada» on Spotify and elsewhere. Additional poems should be added over time. Here is that link:

Morning Glory by Nancy Bevilaqua
 
…a flower, he was saying,
and it would not stop
growing, all over the wall, growing
spontaneously.
 
Stone seats, and the God who answers only
in a certain tongue, caustic, hard frost,
singular.  There are other ways to reach me:
 
observe light’s ecstatic tricks
upon the landscape, note how stars
remove their shoes for you, that you know
what birds’ eyes mean, that you have already
recipes for music.  Know yourself as migrant,
transient, bearer of strange songs.
Sleep undisturbed, iridescent fish, in space
of what’s not known.  Swim in the God
that is here, now, this.

Author Biography

Nancy Bevilaqua is a poet whose work has been published in literary journals including Feed the Holy, West Branch, Prelude, Tupelo Quarterly, Whiskey Island, Juked, and many others. She has also worked as a travel writer, and as a caseworker for people with AIDS (her memoir, Holding Breath, is about the latter). My most recent book of poems is Gelyana, which is available on Amazon.

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