OUR POETRY
ARCHIVE FEATURED
POET OF THE MONTH
IULIA GHERGHEI
APRIL 2019
ALICJA KUBERSKA: What does poetry mean to you?
IULIA GHERGHEI: Tough question! Poetry is my shield against the ugliness of this world.
Like a sunscreen, poetry reshapes all the steep angles and filters all the
consequences of envy.
IULIA GHERGHEI: Same as always: to bring to the surface the naked truth on all the
topics in hand at this moment.
ALICJA KUBERSKA: Can you describe your creative
process while writing a new poem?
IULIA GHERGHEI: Oh, but I don't have a process, where the inspiration strikes, I start
writing, in the bus, at my place of work, in front of the TV set, sometimes,
even when I am waiting another poet to read his creation at a poetry reading
venue.
ALICJA KUBERSKA: Did it happen to you that a
poem was just your dream?
IULIA GHERGHEI: No, it didn't happen. I had many repetitive nightmares as a child so I
evaded them while awake. For some of these nightmares I find answers even now.
ALICJA KUBERSKA: Tell us about your inspiration. What’re the most important subjects to
you?
IULIA GHERGHEI: It seems my most important topic in my poems is the weather and its
effects on my mood.
MARIA MIRAGLIA: Which were the emotions that
inspired your first verses?
IULIA GHERGHEI: I remember my first poems were in fact little attempts of understanding
death, to overcome the fear towards it, to cope with my mother's suicide.
MARIA MIRAGLIA: Was your aspiration to become a
poet or did all happen by chance?
IULIA GHERGHEI For me, being a poet was written in my
genes, I had no chance but to be a poet. I am a poet’s daughter.
MARIA MIRAGLIA: Who is the first person you
read your poems to and why?
IULIA GHERGHEI: I read my first poem to my classmates on a poetry contest organised by
our teacher. I won that contest. Later on, I would read my poems to my father
as he was a poet too.
MARIA MIRAGLIA: Have you published any poetic
anthology, if so what did you feel the first time you got it in your hands?
IULIA GHERGHEI: Oh, yes, the feeling is overwhelming. It was so powerful that I have
second thoughts on publishing another. I don't know if I can cope with so much
emotions… My anthology is named “Prisoners of Cinema Paradiso “ published on
blurb.com by Brian Wrixon in 2012
MARIA MIRAGLIA: Who are the poets you prefer
reading? Do you get inspiration from them?
IULIA GHERGHEI: I have many poets friends on Facebook, I read them and, yes, I learn
from them. My favorite poets are Romanian and they are Nichita Stănescu, Grisa
Gherghei and Marin Sorescu.
APRILIA ZANK: How important is accessibility
of meaning to you? Do you challenge the readers to work hard to decipher your
poems, or do you prefer transparency of meaning?
IULIA GHERGHEI: I prefer to challenge the reader, that way the poem gets under their skin
and starts working its spells.
APRILIA ZANK: What kind of poems do you
write mostly? Do you have recurring themes, or are all your poems unique?
IULIA GHERGHEI: In one way my poems are unique but lately I noticed some recurring
themes too. It seems I have an obsession for fog. Once in my youth, I got lost
on a mountain trail and to make everything worse, the fog was so thick that I
couldn't see two steps in front of me.
APRILIA ZANK: Do you think your poetry is
typically feminine / masculine? If yes, in what way?
IULIA GHERGHEI: No, I don't think about poetry in these terms, poetry is poetry.
APRILIA ZANK: Do you write mostly about
yourself, or do you also have an open eye /ear for the issues of the world?
IULIA GHERGHEI: My poems are about me most of the time. The world issues stick in their
ugly face and I do write about them occasionally.
APRILIA ZANK: In what way is your poetry
different from that of other poets?
IULIA GHERGHEI: My poems are short enough not to bore the reader. My poems are
intricate so the reader must read them at least twice to sip their meaning. My
poems are addictive. The last assertion is more of a wishful thinking scenario.
LEYLA IŞIK: What are the main factors to make poetry real
poetry?
IULIA GHERGHEI: As I see it, there is only one factor, authenticity.
LEYLA IŞIK: Do you think imagery is important in poetry?
Where does the importance of imagery begin in a poem, where does it end?
IULIA GHERGHEI: Sure, imagery is important but it is only a mean to an end. One might
crowd its poem with so much imagery that the message gets lost, suffocated,
completely out of focus.
LEYLA IŞIK: What are the most used types of poetry in
your country?
IULIA GHERGHEI: Nowadays our poets prefer to write poems without rhyme, as I do myself.
LEYLA IŞIK: What’s important to be a good poet? To write
good poems!
IULIA GHERGHEI: For me and my sanity it is important to write. If I am a good poet or
if my poems are good, my readers have to decide this issue.
LEYLA IŞIK:
Who are the most important poets and their main properties nowadays?
IULIA GHERGHEI: All the poets are important. You must be patient and search for the
meaning. The main property of today poets should be straightforwardness. We
live very dangerous times.
DEBORAH BROOKS LANGFORD: Understanding poetry begins with visualizing
the central images in the poem. What do you see, taste, smell, hear, and feel?
What is the imagery of your poetry?
IULIA GHERGHEI: I don't know if a poem must be necessarily understood, it can be
tasted, felt, smelt, it may leave the reader in total amazement, struck by
beauty or by darkness, scorched by pain or elevated to the gods… A My poems are a mean of transportation to intricate
universes.
DEBORAH BROOKS LANGFORD:
What is the mood of your poetry? (Or How does it make you feel?)
IULIA GHERGHEI: The mood in my poetry is different. A different kind of dark, a
different kind of sad.
DEBORAH BROOKS LANGFORD: In
your poetry who is the speaker of the poem? Are you speaking to yourself or to
others?
IULIA GHERGHEI: In the majority of my poems I am the speaker, the story teller.
DEBORAH BROOKS LANGFORD:
What is the message of your poetry?
What messages do your poetry convey?
IULIA GHERGHEI: The message of my poems is that healing, happiness, fulfillment are a
process not a goal.
DEBORAH BROOKS LANGFORD:
Does the internet and social media contribute to the success of your
poetry? Is this the reason you write for?
IULIA GHERGHEI: Yes, the social media helped me a great deal. My voice got heard. My
poems were appreciated. I have many friends that read my writings and I am so
very grateful to them but success was never my goal. I hate promoting myself so
for sometime now, I post my poems only on my wall, only for friends.
NILAVRONILL SHOOVRO: Thank you so much dear poet for
the interview. We would like to know your personal experience with OPA as a
literary web journal. Would you like to share anything more with our readers?
IULIA GHERGHEI: Thank you for interviewing me! OPA, the web journal is a huge
opportunity for all the contemporary poets.
No comments :
Post a Comment