A Conversation with M. Travis Lane

M. Travis Lane

I had the privilege of conversing with M. Travis Lane, an accomplished poet, teacher, wife, and mother.  I was warmly welcomed into her house of interesting things, greeted by the beautiful cat Sylvia, and fed delicious tea and ginger snaps.  We discussed much–beauty, truth, art, life.  I left with a new awareness of both the act of writing and reading, and of the world around me. Here are some excerpts from that conversation.

What is the duty of a writer? Does writing serve a necessary function in society?

“I think it depends on the writer.  Many of us feel that what we are doing is really needed.  But whether it is needed for society or for our own soul, I don’t know.  There are some poems that are clearly meant to focus people’s attention on things that are wrong.  But, sometimes, one feels that one is simply bearing witness to how things are.  There is more than one way of bearing witness.  Is this necessary?  I think it may be necessary for us as a species.  And it is certainly a lovely way to live.”

Does one choose to be a writer?

“No.  I never understand when someone says ‘I want to be a poet!’.  If you are a poet...you write!  You may be a bad poet, you might want to be a better poet, or you might be an inept or dull poet, but if you write you write.  It’s like saying, ‘I want to be blue’. Either you’re blue or you’re not.” 

Of all of the virtues you have as a writer, which do you feel is the most important to encourage?

“The ear.  Listening to the sound of the sentences.  Much of the poetry I write is musically intensified prose.”

Ash Steps, Cormorant Books, 2012

How important is it that the reader gets a message from your work that was intentional?  

“It depends on what they read [into it].  Basically, my work is emotional.  If they get the emotion right, if they want to interpret it one way or another...[it makes] no difference.”

What is the best way to go about reading poetry?

“With love.  Sometimes the poem has no message.  It’s more like music. 
      I think we can get too involved in the minutiae.  It is fun to do the minutiae, if you enjoy that sort of thing.  If I were to teach poetry to high school students, I wouldn’t ask them to understand it; I would ask them to memorize great gobs of it and stand in front of the class and recite. I wouldn’t care if it was Robert Service or Robert Browning; love it first."

She explained that this is also how to approach writing poetry–feel first, love first, and the minutiae will happen if it is meant to.  Poetry is natural, and one’s role as a poet is to express the world to itself.

M. Travis Lane has a large body of work; I encourage you to explore it with love.