10 Questions for Keith Leonard
- By Edward Clifford
There must have been a world
before the slender architecture
in the palm flexed the pistons
in the wrist and the chisel
shaped the hips of this;
there must have been a single tree
plucked and carved hollow
which drew from some of us
a wilderness; [...]
—from "Guitar," Volume 61 Issue 1 (Spring 2020)
Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
I actually still have them. I found them a few years ago in my parents attic, and they are unspeakably awful. Here are some sample titles: “Need for Speed”, “Staring at the White Wall”. I read them to my high school students at the beginning of each poetry course I teach. We all agree that nothing they write could be as bad as what I was writing at their age.
What writer(s) or works have influenced the way you write now?
Lately, I’ve been reading a ton of Carl Phillips and studying his sentences. I love the idea of playing with syntax, of how pushing the structure of a sentence could lead to a surprising turn in the poem. I turn to Ted Kooser when I need to be reminded of how imagery can carry a poem. I turn to my friend Kendra DeColo’s work when I feel dull and want to electrify my language.
What other professions have you worked in?
Currently, I’m a high school English teacher. But here’s a list of jobs I bumbled through: Deputy Shellfish Constable, grocery story cashier, landscaper, community orchard operations manager, waiter, pizza delivery guy.
What did you want to be when you were young?
I come from a line of post masters. My dad just retired from 35 years of working in the same post office his dad worked in for 35 years. I had romantic thoughts of continuing that lineage past 100 years. But maybe there’s something the delivery of letters and the delivery of poems have in common?
What inspired you to write this piece?
The first draft of this poem came during a stay at the Abbey of Gethsemane in Kentucky. I was there research American utopias for a class I would be teaching the following fall. One of the guidelines the monks expect you to follow during your stay is to remain completely silent. No talking. Even in a cafeteria full of people. I stayed for a week, and towards the end, I started to think about what it would be like to create a sound for the first time. In the poem, I was thinking of someone strumming a guitar for the very first time in human history.
Do you have any rituals or traditions that you do in order to write?
I’m a parent of a 5-year-old and 2-year-old, so I’m constantly adapting my writing rituals around their development. Last year, I hit a good stretch where I could write from 4-6am, and that was a wonderful way to open the day. That would be my dream ritual for writing, I think. But right now, I’m writing every night by a weak book light as my son falls asleep. I try to fill a page a day. Then, on Sundays, I get to go out for two beautiful hours and sift through the week of writing. Usually, I’m able to draft something in that brief window.
Who typically gets the first read of your work?
My wife, Jennifer Leonard. She’s a lovingly brutal editor.
If you could work in another art form what would it be?
My poem coming out in this magazine is titled “Guitar.” I’m all but obligated to say music.
What are you working on currently?
Two projects: my second poetry collection, and a collaborative chapbook with the poet Matthew Kelsey. I’ve been sending Matt a strange, maybe unanswerable question (such as “What’s the best imaginary museum you’ve never visited?”) and he weaves his magic. I think we should be done with that little book sometime soon, and I cannot wait for people to experience Matt’s brilliant mind.
What are you reading right now?
I’m a moody reader, so lately, I’ve been trying to keep multiple genres going at the same time. Fiction: Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal. Poetry: Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz. Nonfiction/Craft Book: Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative by Jane Alison
KEITH LEONARD is the author of the poetry collection Ramshackle Ode (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016). His poems are forthcoming in New England Review, Ploughshares, and The Believer. Keith has received fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the Sewanee Writers' Conference, the Sustainable Arts Foundation, and Indiana University, where he earned an MFA. He lives in Columbus, OH.
