An Interview with YWA Teacher and Poet, John Chinworth

John Chinworth is a much-loved Yellow Wood teacher and a talented poet. John took time out from his busy schedule to talk to us about everything from how he came to love poetry, where he studied, tips and tricks for writing poetry, and where to find the best books. This interview is filled with great stories, advice, and inspiration. Last week we shared videos of John reading two of his original poems and you can hear the poems HERE.

“I earned my M.F.A. at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, at the Naropa Institute. We had to workshop and get up and read on a regular basis, and though it was hard at first, I grew to love reading poems. I saw the poet Ai read at a Boulder coffee house, and I knew I wanted to read with her kind of sparseness, intensity, and joy.”

Do you remember when you first fell in love with poetry and some of the first poets or poems you read?

In 7th grade, Mrs. Sargent (she lived up to her name, trust me) made everyone in class recite a rhyming poem almost every Friday.  I dreaded doing it because of how strict she was, but I found I was good at finding and speaking the natural rhythm of the poems.  However, I didn’t write my own until I was a junior at Tucson High.  One day I bravely showed some to Ms. LeSeur, my awesome English teacher from Jamaica.  She read them, asked me if I had any more, and told me to always write poems.

I loved a children’s book we had called Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree.  It had exquisite rhyme and meter.  Later, I became totally poem crazy when I read ‘Sea-Fever’ by John Masefield.  I wrote so many versions of that poem, trying to emulate it.  It still stops me when I hear it.  

It seems like poetry is experiencing a resurgence among young people right now, with collections even appearing at Target. Do you notice this and what do you make of the trend?

Perhaps the many publications of novels in poetic form have helped with that.  I think it’s wonderful.  They make the form more understandable, and they show how sound can be integrated into writing.   The popularity of Amanda Gorman has really made young people take notice of poetry.  The brilliant Shel Silverstein collections continue to inspire young people. 

As far as poem publishing goes, I think the U.S. and Canada are in a poetic renaissance.  Poets & Writers magazine lists over 400 poetry presses, and another source lists 60+ new presses that started just in the past year. 

“If I see a new poetic form (like a sonnet, or a villanelle), I will try to write a poem in the form, and strictly follow the rules. This is one of the best ways to train and maintain a poetic ear.  I have invented my own forms as well.  ”

Your poetry encompasses a number of rhythmic styles that point to a lot of music listening. Where do you go for rhythmic inspiration? 

If I see a new poetic form (like a sonnet, or a villanelle), I will try to write a poem in the form, and strictly follow the rules. This is one of the best ways to train and maintain a poetic ear.  I have invented my own forms as well.  One I made up is what I call a 7x7x7 (7-cubed) poem:  7 syllables in a line, 7 lines in a stanza, and 7 stanzas in a poem.  If I’m stuck and can’t seem to get any poems generating, I’ll start writing in this format.  Often parts of the 7x7x7 become their own poems. 

I grew up in a musical family.  Mom and Dad were music teachers and played in an orchestra, and in a woodwind quintet.  My brother brought home Beatles and Queen records (he was kind of cool), I played ABBA too much (I was a disco dork), and my sister loved Scott Joplin piano rags.  The stereo was always playing. I remember symphonies, Dixieland jazz, John Denver, or Gordon Lightfoot, etc. on the radio at breakfast.  I was forced to play the cello against my will.  Grrrr.  Actually, cello lessons taught me about perfection in tone. 

“The Summer Writing Program at Naropa had this gigantic tent set up every night with a few mics and speakers where students would read poems past midnight.  We were drowning in verse!  ”

Were you always comfortable reading your poems aloud and do you remember when or where you first heard poets reading?

I earned my M.F.A. at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, at the Naropa Institute.  We had to workshop and get up and read on a regular basis, and though it was hard at first, I grew to love reading poems.  I saw the poet Ai read at a Boulder coffee house, and I knew I wanted to read with her kind of sparseness, intensity and joy.  

Naropa was great.  You could be standing in the lunch line at the cafe, and share a poem with the person next to you and get instant (and good) feedback.  At times, everyone in line would want to hear it.  Yikes!  

The Summer Writing Program at Naropa had this gigantic tent set up every night with a few mics and speakers where students would read poems past midnight.  We were drowning in verse!  

Is it true that you collect books of poetry and if so how many books do you think you have? Where are your favorite places to search for books?

I have too many books.  (I’m terrified of the actual number, so I’m not counting.)  All right, fine.  I may have 800. I feel bad for collections when I see them languishing at Value Village or GoodWill.  You can find current, top-quality poetry collections for a couple of bucks digging through those shelves, many of them signed or inscribed by the authors. 

I forgot another one of my influences:  The University of Arizona (where I got my B.A.) had a poetry library that began in a rented house, and now has a new building with over 50,000 titles.  That place is heaven.  Whenever I go back to my hometown, I head there pretty quickly (it’s nicely air-conditioned, by the way). 

I think there’s a part of me that wants to start a poetry library for Seattle.  There’s a huge poetry community here and there are a lot of published poets from Washington State:  Tess Gallagher, Kathleen Flenniken, Sherman Alexie, Rena Priest (the new Washington State poet laureate), Shin Yu Pai (a Naropa classmate), and Ed Skoog and many others.  That kind of library in Seattle would find itself really busy.    

“Try writing in a very simple form, like a pantoum or a diamond (diamante) poem. Take a favorite song and re-write the lyrics, making sure you rhyme in the right spots. Don’t be afraid to try something new.  ”

What advice would you give to a young person who has never written a poem but wants to try? How about a more experienced poet who would like to publish their first chapbook?

Try writing in a very simple form, like a pantoum or a diamond (diamante) poem.  Take a favorite song and re-write the lyrics, making sure you rhyme in the right spots.  Don’t be afraid to try something new.  

I pass my poems through four “nets” before I send them out.  First is the sound net (I make sure all rhyme and meter are tight).  Next is the image net (I want the pictures in my poems to be crystal clear for the reader or listener).  I do a wisdom net next (to make sure the poem’s narrative makes sense, and I don’t have any metaphors that don’t work).  The last net is a voice/performance net (I read each poem out loud because a poem off the page is vastly different from a poem on the page.  This is also a great chance to check where the poem naturally takes a breath.

Also:  Never end a line with a weak word (Richard Hugo).  And avoid pointless alliteration (Lisa Jarnot).  Don’t overuse the ampersand (Ted Kooser).  Always ask yourself, “Is this true?” (Ada Limon).

A chapbook has 15 to 30 poems.  Unify your collection by theme or a narrative arc.  You can hang all the poems on a wall and switch them around.  What poems logically lead you to others?  What poems clash against each other?  What part of the subject still needs to be told.  What poems are fluff and do not belong? 

Always be willing to workshop poems and get feedback from other writers.  Lots of feedback.  Share them out loud to see how they perform.  

Rejections?  Read any advice given (a lot of cool editors will do that), be proud that you sent them out, then move on and send out more.  Rejections are simply part of a writer’s reality, but every poem you send out leaves a little imprint.  You never know who’s heart or mind you’ll touch.