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Five Questions
Cynthia Manick

Please tell us about the making of “Notes Toward a Poem on Self-Care…” and “#45 Vibrations.”
 
Right before the election, I was so media/news fatigued that I couldn’t see or hear other types of conversations. Then after the election, the news changed but the tone stayed the same. I thought What is gonna keep me sane? Which led to “Notes Towards a Poem on Self-Care” as I talk about creating a path to things that make me happy. That could be guacamole, taking a nap, or listening to Outkast (because a sad mood can’t survive Outkast). The vibrations poem confronts how the tone of our environment fluctuates between acceptance and resistance. These conversations are happening everywhere.
 
Which common piece of writing advice do you loathe and why?
 
People telling me that creative writing is a muscle so I need to write every day. No. I don’t have the mental energy to do that. I need more thinking time! I’ve done 30/30 for National Poetry Month in the past, and it led to a lot of painful haikus and some interesting tankas.
  
What rituals or routines do you have to help maintain your writing practice?
 
While I don’t write every day, I read constantly. This includes poems, books, fanfiction, romance novels, and occasionally sci-fi. The use of words in any setting lends itself to creating something. I also take notes when I attend a reading just in case I hear something I like. 
 
Do you find yourself writing the same poem over and over again?
 
Yes and no. I think as writers we all have obsessions. At one point, mine was body and erasure. Then it changed to nurture and nature. Then it changed to culture. So I’ll write different poems that explore the obsession, and out of those poems, new things develop. And sometimes those things become the new obsession.
 
How do you approach revision?
 
Disbelief, a scalpel, silent inside tears, acceptance, and then something settles when the poem is where it needs to be.
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