This week we're featuring a new poem by Jonathan Everitt, titled "Let Me Explain". The full poem - and the rest of our poetry offerings - are available here on our website.
Jonathan Everitt’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Laurel Review, Passengers, Stone Canoe, BlazeVox, Scarlet Leaf Review, Small Orange, Impossible Archetype, Ghost City Press, The Empty Closet, Lake Affect, and the Moving Images poetry anthology, among others. His poem, “Calling Hours,” was the basis for the 2015 short film, Say When. Jonathan has also led a workshop for LGBTQ poets and co-founded the long-running monthly open mic, New Ground Poetry Night, in Rochester, N.Y., where he lives with his partner, David Sullivan. Jonathan earned his MFA in creative writing from Bennington College.
Our editor-in-chief Julian Kanagy had the chance to talk with Jonathan about the new poem, and his work more broadly, and this is their conversation as part of our contributor Q&A series.
Julian Kanagy: Our editorial team really enjoyed 'Let Me Explain," especially for the concise and intimate verbiage - "shame is a sunburned face, / humiliation a fever" particularly resonated with me. I'd love to ask you first about the role shame plays in 'Let Me Explain,' and of strong motivating emotions in your body of work at large, if you'd like to speak on those.
Jonathan Everitt: I think shame is one of the most destructive (or self-destructive) forces in humanity. It makes us feel unworthy. It makes us hide. It silences us. In my own life, I’ve experienced shame many times, most significantly as a closeted teen. I was ashamed of being gay. Even before I found self-acceptance and came out, it started to show up in my poetry. In that sense, overcoming shame is certainly a strong motivating emotion in my body of work. Coming out and freely expressing oneself are on the same track. ‘Let Me Explain’ is, in part, about finding one’s voice—and valuing it.
Julian Kanagy: When writing pieces informed by trauma or societal commentary, do you feel as though you have a responsibility to write or to write a certain way? How does your poetry allow you to affect or differently understand the world? I found the ending couplet of this poem: "It is not a wasted life, this / searching for the words" to be a miraculously hopeful perspective.
Jonathan Everitt: Thanks for that. My responsibility as a poet is to write what I consider true, in as evocative and memorable manner as I can. When it comes to work informed by trauma or social commentary, one thing I consider is the difference between taking aim at individuals versus taking aim at systems. I prefer to write about the latter, because it’s so often the systems that we all get caught up in—political, religious, economic, social—that shape the way we treat each other.
In this particular poem, I’m aiming at the systems that cause us shame. I’m challenging those systems. For instance, a system that discourages us from telling others what how much they mean to us. Or a system that says poetry has no value because it doesn’t generate wealth. Or a system that says poetry is subversive because it criticizes some prevailing faith community. Standing up to harmful systems by finding the words to challenge them—and demonstrating to others what is possible—is not a wasted life.
Julian Kanagy: Is 'Let Me Explain' an example of recent work of yours, or earlier work? How has your relationship with your writing changed over the course of your development as a poet?
Jonathan Everitt: ‘Let Me Explain’ is a recent poem. It’s unusual for me to write a poem like this one because it’s so self-referential to the life of letters. As I’ve grown as a poet, my relationship with my writing has deepened. I’m more open. More fearless. And more consistent. I’ve formed a few habits that help. Not habits as in regimented daily practices, but in terms of the way I move through the world. Poets are like journalists in that we learn to keep our eyes open for compelling material all around us. We observe. We’re curious. I capture that inspiration and file it away all the time in a digital drawer full of prompts, photographs, and news stories, and fragments. I’m always watching for the next poem.
Jonathan Everitt
Jonathan Everitt’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Laurel Review, Passengers, Stone Canoe, BlazeVox, Scarlet Leaf Review, Small Orange, Impossible Archetype, Ghost City Press, The Empty Closet, Lake Affect, and the Moving Images poetry anthology, among others. His poem, “Calling Hours,” was the basis for the 2015 short film, Say When. Jonathan has also led a workshop for LGBTQ poets and co-founded the long-running monthly open mic, New Ground Poetry Night, in Rochester, N.Y., where he lives with his partner, David Sullivan. Jonathan earned his MFA in creative writing from Bennington College.
Julian Kanagy
Julian Kanagy is a Chicago-based poet and editor. His poetry samples a Midwestern upbringing peppered with loss and abandonment, thrives both in the confines of formal structure and the simplicity of its absence, and expands into an ongoing search for the beauty in everyday life when it seems to be hiding. He started Heirlock Magazine to amplify underrepresented voices and The Wild Umbrella to celebrate writing for writing's sake; both as an editor and in his own work, Julian follows the advice of a mentor: “find the poems that nobody else could have written.”
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