Matthew Lippman on The Social Distance Reading Series

GMR: How do you begin a new piece of writing? What conditions help your writing process?

ML: Lately, I have been listening to the great Tunisian oud player, Anouar Brahem, to get me going. I find that music is the best catalyst because it puts me into a quiet, silent space. From there I am off and running.

GMR: What was an early experience that taught you language has power?

ML: Growing up in New York City in the 1970s and hanging out with my friends on the streets around our apartment building. I always remember that talking always felt like more than just talking. The slang we used. The way we used to rib each other. The back and forth song of conversation and ranting gave me a great sense of joy.

GMR: What poets or writers do you continually go back to?

ML: I always go back to these folks: Juan Felipe Herrera, Khadijah Queen, Kerrin McCadden, Michael Morse, Matthew Dickman, Tongo Eisen-Martin, Liz Powell, and Tina Cane.

GMR: What was the best investment you made in becoming a writer?

ML: Time. Allowing myself the time, no matter the circumstances, no matter the responsibilities that I had/have—to always find a space where I could and can write. Or, the $30 bucks I paid to Four Way Books to enter the Levis Prize competition.

GMR: Does an ego help or hurt writers? How does ego play into writing?

ML: This is a loaded question. I can’t speak to it globally. Only personally. Ego is difficult for me. I try and find a healthy balance in my relationship to it, in my relationship to myself on the tundra of ego. My favorite space is the writing space and I hope in that space that my ego can disappear. Writing, the act of making a poem, always puts the ego in check. It shuts it up, or, it quiets it down. I like that.

GMR: Name the work you are proudest of writing and why.

ML: My new book, the one coming out in March, Mesmerizingly Sadly Beautiful, is the work, the collective work, that I am most proud of. It’s clean. It’s tight. It’s short. I have always wanted to make a book of poems that exists and lives in the world like a great pop record. Something like Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors. For me Mesmerizingly Sadly Beautiful is that poetry record. A pop record book of a poetry thing. It makes me proud.

GMR: What is your favorite childhood book?

ML: Harold and the Purple Crayon.

GMR: Where can we find you? Link to your blog or website:

ML: www.matthewlippmanpoetry.com

GMR: What are your thoughts on social distancing (and/or COVID-19)?

ML: I am sad for the beauty of it. Italians are singing from their balconies. We get to walk more as families in the air and sunshine. Things, already, feel quieter, like, we are all more mindful and deliberate and slower. I like these things but at what cost? People are dying and getting sick. It sucks. It’s hard but it’s important so we can take care of each other, at least we can try to. But, on the daily, it’s hard.