Let’s Talk Poetry: A Q&A with Christodoulos Makris
Experimental poet and former member of the Fingal Libraries team, Christodoulos Makris, talks to us about his latest poetry book- the documentary poem this is no longer entertainment. He describes the writing process, what he has been reading lately, and also reflects on approaches to publishing and on the current literary landscape.
Can you tell us a bit about your latest book?
this is no longer entertainment is a book-length poem in 71 sections made entirely out of fragments of anonymous 'below the line' online commentary. It records and explores the interactions between some of the prominent social, political, technological and cultural concerns over a key four year period in the middle of the last decade (c. 2014-17) exclusively through such commentary taken from websites and digital platforms (e.g. YouTube, The Guardian, thejournal.ie, etc).
How do you go about choosing your subjects?
I put the process of writing ahead of the treatment of specific subjects or targeting a 'finished' product, so they tend to come out of my interactions with language. Typically I would follow my instinct and work with what excites me over a length of time through grappling with contemporary language use, especially at the spaces between what's public and what's private, and I stay open to possibilities arising in the moment of doing so.
Do you have any favourite poems and poets?
I try to avoid fetishizing individual instances of culture, and a lot of my influences are outside the confines of literature, but of course there have been (and continue to emerge) works of poetry that I engage with deeply or repeatedly. If you ask me this next week I may give a slightly different answer, but I often go back to Frank O'Hara; Claudia Rankine's Citizen is a book everyone should read; and recently I read Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky in one sitting - something I have rarely, if ever, done before. Many of my ongoing influences are friends and contemporaries like Sam Riviere, Caroline Bergvall, SJ Fowler, Kimberly Campanello, and Joanna Walsh.
What are you reading at the moment?
s usual I have several books on the go, some of which I am re-reading: A Line Made by Walking by Sara Baume; The Internet is for Real by Chris Campanioni; Chroma by Derek Jarman; Kingdomland by Rachael Allen; Shaved Rapunzel, Scheherazade & the Shearing Ram from Arcady by Orla Barry; Selected Poems by Veronica Forrest-Thomson.
How do you think the literary landscape has changed for poets since Covid?
That's a good question which I think for the moment is better posed than answered, because the landscape has revealed itself to be perpetually provisional, and also because Covid doesn't affect everyone similarly or equally, as we should all know by now. Therefore the individual circumstances of each poet and how they work (meaning their interests and writing process, and also the intentions of their writing and its relationship to their lives and livelihoods) determine what difficulties and opportunities have materialised or lie in wait for them. A lot has been made of the digital delivery of readings and events, but it's worth pointing out that pioneering festivals have been breaking this particular ground well before this year, and that it becomes much more interesting when actively embedding the tools and characteristics of the digital medium rather than attempting a flattened approximation of physical events.
What advice would you give to someone who is interested in publishing their poetry?
Not much different from most of the advice already out there: keep reading and keep engaging with the work of others, and keep writing. Avoid thinking of publishing as a hierarchical business, i.e. that publishing somewhere is a step up or down from publishing somewhere else. There are endless approaches to poetry and so many outlets that cater to (most of) these, so take time to explore what's out there. And if nobody publishes poetry like yours, why don't you start your own journal or press?
Christodoulos Makris is a contemporary experimental poet. He has published 3 books of poetry, his most recent being ‘this is no longer entertainment’. He has received awards from many bodies and institutions including the Irish Museum of Modern Art, European Poetry Festival, Arts Council of Ireland, and Maynooth University. He is the Poetry Editor for gorse literary journal.
More info: http://yesbutisitpoetry.blogspot.com/
Artist photo by Madeleine Rose
this is no longer entertainment is available to borrow from your local branch.