“Lunar Confessions,” “Horoscope for a Sunday,” “Multiverse Theory,” and “This Is Not a Poem About Frank Ocean” by Maggie Finch appeared in Issue 47 and can be found here.
We’d love to hear more about this set of poetry.
It’s the curse of my lifetime to be a mood writer who is forever dependent on writing only when inspired. There are long periods of silence until suddenly…a spark. I could be anywhere – driving, the grocery store, watching Gilmore Girls – and the whole thing will tumble its way into the world and onto the page at once whether I am ready or not. I am left to manipulate the pieces into something lovely. I think my goal is always how I can wordsmith something to squeeze the most amount of emotion out of it. I love a poem that can metaphorically punch me in the gut with words, and maybe that’s my modus operandi, too. For these pieces, I had started a new project that was heavily influenced by what it feels like to wade through the thick of grief. When I grew tired of sitting in that space, like Alice in Wonderland, I found myself peering into the rabbit hole of multi-verse theory. I loved this idea that there are endless iterations of you existing in other lives at this very moment. I found comfort in that knowledge and so began a new project the gave me space to wonder about where Maggie might be. So here, you have poems that stare at the sharp edges of heartbreak, of love, of wishing your life was different, of having an unrequited crush. I have the tenderest love for “lunar confessions,” which is meant to feel as intimate as talking to your best friend on a couch when you most need to be seen and understood even when you feel like a mess.
What was the most difficult part of writing this set?
Wrestling the words and punctuation into submission was one thing. Transmuting pain and love onto the page was its own beast — like pulling out raw strings of my grief, love, and unhealed parts, and trying to make art of them. My poetry is truly the most vulnerable offering I can give to others.
Recommend a book for us which was published within the last decade.
I love Emily Henry books. I could read each one over again and never tire of the worlds she creates. If you want your heart torn out and put back together if a lovely sort of way, please read Happy Place by Emily Henry.
If you could have a drink with any living author, who would it be? Why?
Hell, am I allowed to say Emily Henry again? I’d love to pick her brain about her writing process, the voices and tone of her novels, inviting humor into sad parts of stories, and how she’s dealt with writer’s block.
What are you working on now? What’s next?
Currently, I am working my way back into writing after a hiatus that felt like an eternity. I have been working on my next collection of poetry, which has been fun and challenging in ways I had forgot were possible. In my wildest dreams, I become good at writing fiction and try my hand at writing my own novel. I might just be crazy enough to try it anyway.
Our thanks to Maggie for taking the time to answer a few questions and share these poems. Read “Lunar Confessions,” “Horoscope for a Sunday,” “Multiverse Theory,” and “This Is Not a Poem About Frank Ocean” here.
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Maggie Finch is a Wisconsin-grown writer. She is the author of A Series of Little Damnits (Ghost City Press 2021). When Maggie is not writing, she enjoys reading romance novels, doing aerialist arts, and drinking too much iced coffee. More of her words can be found in Mistake House, Pidgeonholes, Hobart, and elsewhere.