10 Questions for Lynne Thompson
- By Marissa Perez
I don't want to pluck my burr from your flesh
nor do I want to be kind Or if I am to be kind,
I want to be a kind of chameleon,
night-blue flourescent.
—from "When Nothing Else Will Do," Volume 62, Issue 2 (Summer 2022)
Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
I can’t recall the year but when I wrote “How I Learned Where We Come From”, it led me to recognize that I had an “original voice”. The poem is included in my first collection Beg No Pardon and I credit it with being the piece that made me assert myself as a storyteller who understands the power of syntax and metaphor.
What writer(s) or works have influenced the way you write now?
This kind of question can get one into trouble, particularly if you identify living poets! Nevertheless, let me dive in fearlessly: Natasha Trethewey for her seamless blending of personal and public history (see Native Guard—and other books); Tyehimba Jess for his dexterity in situating language on the page (see Olio); Jane Hirshfield who brings the “still” (see The Beauty); and, John Murillo because I, too, have a poem that ends in reliance on lines from Larry Levis (see Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry).
What other professions have you worked in?
I am a lawyer by training and practiced for almost 15 years before deciding to seriously pursue the craft of writing poems.
What did you want to be when you were young?
To be a singer-dancer, preferably on Broadway! What can I say—I was young and completely in the thrall of West Side Story!
What inspired you to write this piece?
The poem was inspired by feelings of anger and insecurity and a need to be honest about those emotions.
Is there a city or place, real or imagined, that influences your writing?
Being a native of Los Angeles, the city shows up frequently in my work, hopefully in ways that reflect the diversity of its residents and its physical environment. As the daughter of immigrants, their homeland in the Caribbean is also an influence and ever-present in my work.
Who typically gets the first read of your work?
I’ve been a member of a workshop group led by the poet Dorothy Barresi for over ten years so they often see first or early drafts of poems. In addition, the amazing poet, Patricia Smith, is a friend and I often send work to her for her opinion and suggestions.
If you could work in another art form what would it be?
I’d love to work as a visual artist, particularly in the medium of sculpture. I’m a big admirer of the artists Simone Leigh and Vinnie Bagwell. The figures they create are nothing short of miraculous.
What are you working on currently?
A new manuscript, as yet untitled, is in the editing/ordering stage. I’m also developing a project that I hope to launch during my term as Poet Laurate of L.A.
What are you reading right now?
Non-fiction: On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed. Poetry: Original Kink by Jubi-Areola-Headley; Master Suffering by CM Burroughs; and, Now In Color by Jacqueline Balderrama.
In 2021, LYNNE THOMPSON was appointed Poet Laureate for the City of Los Angeles. She is the author of Start With a Small Guitar and Beg No Pardon, winner of the Perugia Book Award and the Great Lakes Colleges Association’s New Writers Award. Her manuscript Fretwork won the Marsh Hawk Poetry Prize in 2018. Recent work appears or is forthcoming in New York Quarterly, New England Review, Pleiades, Black Warrior Review, and the 2020 Best American Poetry, among others. Thompson sits on the Boards of Cave Canem and the Los Angeles Review of Books.
