Ask the Author: Diane Lockward

Diane Lockward’s poetry is featured in the March issue and she talks with us about deeds of darkness, unitards and the sound of poetry.

1. What defines a “deed of darkness” for you? Is it something as small as killing an insect or is it something more dastardly and vile?

Though I have killed a goodly number of insects, a “deed of darkness” for me is something more dastardly and vile, i.e., illicit sex! I used to caution my teenagers as they left the house on dates not to perform the deed of darkness. Have fun, but do not perform the deed of darkness. I lifted the phrase from Shakepeare’s King Lear.

2. What’s your drink of choice at happy hour?

Water. I am not a great party girl, though I was more so in my youth. I no longer drink at all. Maybe one or two glasses of wine a year. Oddly, my husband is in the restaurant-bar business, so our livelihood, to some extent, depends upon other people’s drinking. Happy Hour is a daily event at his place, but my title is ironic. I think that for many people, Happy Hour is really the hour of desperation, an hour of forced happiness. You can tell already I’m not much fun at a party.

3. What would it take for you to have a full body massage?

Firm flesh, a unitard, and a blindfolded masseuse.

4. How important is sound to you within poetry? Do you read it aloud as you write or do you trust the words on the page will sound right at the end?

Sound is of the utmost importance to me. It’s the music. Poetry is my way of singing—the only kind of singing you would want to hear from me. I draft in silence, but after several drafts, when I feel the poem is getting close to Poemdom, I record myself reading it and listen for the music. I don’t attempt to write in exact metrical patterns, but I do count syllables and notice the pattern of alternating stressed and unstressed syllables. I rarely use end rhyme, but I love all other kinds of sound devices such as internal rhyme, near rhyme, alliteration, and so on.

5. What would you make a deal with the darkness for? What would you give it in return?

In return for one poem per week, I would offer a box of homemade fudge, delicious and dark as mud.