Visiting with Jaydn DeWald
by Claire Guyton, Art + Life Editor
What inspired your poem “To Penia, with Love”?
The Brothers Grimm.
Tell us about your writing process—either generally or specifically with regard to the birth and development of this poem.
“To Penia” was written in columns—the first seven couplets in the left-hand column and the second seven couplets in the right—so that one could read the poem either horizontally (like a book) or vertically (like a newspaper). But this formatting was too wide for the website, and only this single, fourteen-couplet column remained. In any case, the couplets feel ambidextrous and look interchangeable, and I invite the reader to cut them out and rearrange them to his or her liking.
If you painted this poem, what colors would you use?
This poem has already been translated visually. The drawing, “what is an artist?” by carl richardson [see the lefthand column of this page] is this poem’s custom headshot—anonymity being typical of fairy tales.
What books have had the most impact on your writing?
Charles Simic’s White. Cormac McCarthy’s Child of God.
*Contact Claire with any questions or suggestions for Hunger Mountain’s Art + Life section at hungermtnal@gmail.com.
