Meet the Poets: Stephen K. Kim

Stephen talks to us about his Issue Two poem, "Elegy for Joe", his writing practice and community.

What can you tell us about this poem?

This poem started as an exercise for a class at the Writers Studio. Each week, we analyze a model poem and then write an exercise using the craft of the model but with our own material. The model for the exercise that became this poem was Jack Gilbert’s “Elegy for Bob” from his collection Refusing Heaven. I was intimidated because Gilbert unspooled huge emotions with such honesty. I started with a close trace to figure it out. My breakthrough was seeing how he stitched together short evocative scenes to heighten both love and grief. That helped me also figure out how I needed to break from his poem to get to mine.

What poets and poems are you in dialogue with?

I remember reading Chen Chen for the first time and marveling at how poems could be wickedly fun (see: “I Invite My Parents to a Dinner Party”). I also remember listening to Solmaz Sharif read “Social Skills Training” and holding my breath through the entire thing. I’m still trying on different styles and figuring out who I am as a writer, but I want to evoke the emotional connection that I got from Chen and Sharif as well as many others. There’s something to learn from every poet I come across, and I’m elated that I get to write alongside their work.

What is your writing practice? Where and when do you write? By hand, laptop, phone notes…?

I write on weekend mornings because there are fewer distractions—my husband and most of my friends are not morning people. I write by hand to come up with ideas and switch to the computer when I feel like I have material to work with. I enjoy writing to music. Lately, it’s been the cast recording of Maybe Happy Ending or Max Richter’s recomposition of Vivaldi, The New Four Seasons. But the most important thing for me is my writing community. Through taking and teaching classes with the Writers Studio, I’ve found a community of supportive, dedicated writers. I also made a few poet friends I’m exchanging work with! It’s much harder to procrastinate when they’re expecting a draft of something. And once they’ve given me generous, perceptive feedback, I don’t want their work to go to waste, so it pushes me to revise things in a timely manner too.

What drew you to write poetry?

I wish I could say it’s because of a poet I really admired or because poetry creates new possibility for language or something else aspirational. I went to poetry because I can’t fathom writing anything long. Not that poems are easy for me. It’s daunting to arrange a small number of words so that they project a big idea, emotion, or paradox in a layered and beautiful way. But I’d rather try that than attempt a short story.I have a good friend who’s a fiction writer, and I’ve always wondered how she does it. She enjoys writing prose so much that it pushed me to face my fears. I’ve started dabbling in flash (fiction and creative nonfiction). Maybe one day, I’ll write something longer than 750 words.

What song helps us get to know you better?

Andromeda by Ryan Beatty.

What’s on your bedside table? Books, etc?

I just finished Blackouts by Justin Torres, so that’s there along with Severance by Ling Ma, The Tradition by Jericho Brown, and The Sky Was Once a Dark Blanket by Kinsale Drake. My husband also crocheted me a little basket to hold various knickknacks. Somehow, that discourages our cat from knocking things off.

What is your favourite text about the sea?

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki.

Stephen K. Kim’s poems appear or are forthcoming in Ghost City Review, Fifth Wheel Press, and elsewhere. He can be found online @skimperil.

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