Q&A with poet John Bing

Describe your “writer Self” in three words.

Learner, listener, seeker

I am still interested in learning about poetry, nature, art, music and cultures.  In order to engage learning, I seek out new forms of art and music, and books by new poets.

What is the most challenging aspect about writing for you?

Use images, not thoughts

I am an avid reader. I enjoy conversations about current issues and books while walking with friends in the nearby mountains (the Sangre de Cristo mountains above Santa Fe). These conversations often require my moving out of my comfort zone. When I write poetry, I need to remind myself that images are best to convey emotion and sense of place, which is also outside my comfort zone.

Where, when and how are you inspired to write?

In solitude, anytime, anywhere

I carry a small notebook in my pocket which allows me to jot down ideas anywhere. I have found ideas gazing out the windows of our home in New Mexico. In the desert and quiet, there are sounds and scenes that attract my poetic sense. There is also solitude in a doctor’s waiting room, or listening to a new piece of “current, contemporary music” or a concerto by Mozart.

What are you reading right now

Bloom’s Best Poetry of the English language while quite traditional, is also very insightful.

Pinsky’s The Sound of Poetry, A Brief Guide, Pinsky, whom I once briefly met, is my best guide to contemporary poetry.

Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.  Dillard is a master of metaphor.

Ian Bostridge, Schubert’s Winter Journey:  Anatomy of an Obsession.  This book memorably yokes music and poetry.

Best piece of writing advice you’ve received? 

Describe what you see, not what you think.

For several years I took a poetry class, sometimes online, from the poet Anna Evans, in order to learn more about how to structure poems. My poetry is often “poetry of place” about where we live and how the desert is a kind of muse. Now I work with two other poets who are very different in background and poetic practice.  We work with each other a couple of times a month. We share our work, discuss individual poems, and make suggestions on how to improve them. Because their approaches are so different and they are so skilled, they have helped me understand how to better describe what I intend to convey and how better to convey these thoughts.

If you could tell your younger writer-self anything, what would it be?

You have less time than you think. Get to it!

I started writing poetry in high school. One of my teachers encouraged me but I did not continue writing. Now that I am in my 80’s I realize that I could have re-started writing poetry many years ago and although I am grateful for the chance to write now, I wish I had started sooner.

Which poet or character from a book/movie would you invite to dinner and why?

For the past five years I have been involved in a Shakespeare reading group. We work though a play doing a “slow read” to pull apart the language, the historic environment, and the characters’ intentions, after which we do a fast read. Shakespeare created so many real and durable characters, I would love to discuss how he did it. I am especially interested in the character of Falstaff.  I’d also like to meet Jericho Brown, who has invented new poetic forms and is an amazingly accomplished poet.

What does the old man of your poems mean to you?

The first line of the poems (“the old man looked out his window and saw”) is actually a prompt. I find it useful as this old man is a bit of an alter-ego who has visions, quite different from the writer’s more ordinary life.  The old man is free to imagine wild thoughts.

What one experience in your life had the biggest influence on your work?

My father was a German immigrant whose family was steeped in the European tradition of art and music. He and my mother were both musicians, although not professionals. My mother studied with Nadia Boulanger and my father would have been a professional pianist/composer had he not become a cardiologist. When I was growing up, my father used to invite me into his study to just listen to classical music.  That taught me focus and listening skills.  Although I have a degree in English literature I was not focused on poetry when I was young. Taking the local poetry class to learn more about poetic structure and meter really got me restarted writing poetry.  Now, my two poetry partners are the strongest influence on my work.