“Body Facts,” “Hello My Name is,” and “A Mad Dad Lib” by Morgan Eklund appeared in Issue 32 and can be read here.
We’d love to hear more about this set of visual poetry.
My three poems came from a few different writing exercises in visual/other forms. One of my professors called the exercise a “hermit crab,” and I loved how she described the process of writing finding a new shell. When writing these pieces, I loved the idea of form truly dictating content. For all these poems, I first chose the form (nutritional facts, name tags, and a mad lib) and then let that dictate the images and story.
What was the most difficult part in creating these pieces.
Overall these exercises were freeing in many ways; there was a great sense of play and planned surprise inherently built-in. However, there is pressure to “stay true” to the form. I think the most difficult to write was “Body Facts.”I still felt the need to include percentages and calories, but I wanted to show a meaningful representation between the numbers and what story I was trying to tell.
Recommend a book for us which was published within the last decade.
There are so many! If I had to choose one, I always keep going back to recommending Ada Limón’s Bright Dead Things.
If you could have a drink with any living author, who would it be? Why?
Again, there are so many. I wish I could host a huge dinner party full of poets. Right now, I would say Maggie Smith. I love the way she writes about light and grief. I love the duality she brings into her work in the most sophisticated and poignant ways.
What are you working on now? What’s next?
I am currently finishing up my MFA in Poetry at Northwestern, and I’ll be working on my thesis over the next year. Right now, my thesis is looking to uncover the personal and public sphere of the father image. My poems are about famous and infamous fathers such as Darth Vader, King Lear, Homer Simpson, Atticus Finch, and Bill Cosby. Through writing about these public fathers, I hope to understand my father. I hope to answer the questions, what is the difference between understanding and forgiveness? Can I forgive without understanding?
Our thanks to Morgan for taking the time to answer a few questions and share these poems. Read “Body Facts,” “Hello My Name is,” and “A Mad Dad Lib” here: https://www.sequestrum.org/three-visual-poems-by-morgan-eklund.
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Morgan Eklund’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in the North American Review, Hippocampus Magazine, Jet Fuel Review, The Louisville Review, ABZ, Whiskey Island, and the Whale Road Review. She has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Best New Poets anthology. She received the 2012 Emerging Artist Award from the Kentucky Arts Council and is the winner of the 2008 Sarabande Books’ Flo Gault Poetry Prize. Originally from Kentucky, she now lives in Chicago and is pursuing her MFA in Poetry at Northwestern University. You can find her on Instagram at morgan_eklund_poetry.