[FINISHED] Winter 2023 Awards

Interview with @ecovapoet

ecovapoet is the author of Abandoned Star in the Best Poetry category. They have been randomly selected for an interview, pasted below!

What inspires the poetry you write? Are they specific life experiences or things you've heard about?

My poetry is inspired entirely by lived experience, and I often describe writing as a way for me to syphon off the excess emotions I am feeling and channel that into words. I'm a very emotional person and I often feel I don't understand how I'm feeling until I get it out into a poem. Before I started getting serious about my work, I would use poetry as a sort of diary, and I think this approach can still be seen in some of the poems in Abandoned Star.

Which poem would you consider your best poem and why? What are the components you think make a great poem?

This is a very difficult question! What may be considered the best literary-wise may not be one that carries a strong emotional sentience, and vice versa. I think in Abandoned Star, 'the things i love' is both my favourite and 'best'. It was written around a year ago, when I first started taking my poetry seriously, and trying to include more poetic techniques. Initially, I wrote it for a competition with a prompt of the same name, but I never submitted it because I was too nervous it would be rejected - which is definitely a shame because looking back it's not too bad and it's always good to give things a go!

I think what makes a good poem is having the capacity to give the reader the ability to see into the moment or feeling that you are writing about. Any poem I've read that's made me realise that somebody living far away (whether that's in distance or years), has also felt something that made me feel isolated from everybody else, is one that I consider a 'great poem'. Also, if I don't realise you're using poetic techniques, then I think that's a good thing, because it means it's not forced; I'd rather read a poem with very few devices than one which has forced them in there because the writer feels they have to be there to be a 'poem'.

You mentioned poems you've read and we were wondering if there is another poet you look up to? It could be someone on Wattpad or someone outside. Why did you choose this person?

I'm currently trying to get more into reading poetry and to read more broadly, but for now I would say Thomas Nashe, Sylvia Plath, and Lana Del Rey are my favourite poets outside of Wattpad, and poetriots and miserablemermaid are my favourite on here.

Thomas Nashe because I recently discovered his poem 'Adieu, Farewell Earth's Bliss' and it really struck with me; I found his perspective on death comforting.

Lana Del Rey because the themes she discusses are very specific and relatable to girl/womanhood today (unlike Nashe writing in the 1500s). I have a soft spot for non-rhyming free verse, even though I almost always write with a rhyme scheme in structured stanzas. The audio version of this collection has converted me to spoken word; there's something so captivating about hearing her read her own poems aloud. I have it on repeat recently.

Sylvia Plath is a new addition as I'm currently reading The Bell Jar, but I haven't been able to move on from her poetry since I studied it in class.

On Wattpad, I love poetriots and miserablemermaid  for similar reasons that I love Lana's work. The latter creates such vivid imagery which is entrenched in specific lived experiences yet somehow sustains its relatability. The former has put abstract concepts into words with creativity that I aspire to.

I know you said just one, but I like to draw inspiration from everything I read! ('I am large, / I contain multitudes' - Walt Whitman).

What advice would you give someone who is just starting in poetry or is struggling to write poetry?

I think it would be to just keep writing and reading poetry even if you think you are bad at it, because you won't get any better if you give up. Save scraps from the poems you don't like or won't finish, because they can be rescued and turned into something beautiful and remember that the message is the most important part of the poem.