Yes, today I was the featured guest on Rattle magazine’s weekly Rattlecast podcast. (Episode 351).
Regular readers of this blog know that my love of Rattle magazine is deep and of long duration – it’s a great magazine, the monthly Ekphrastic challenge and poetry prompts have give me heaps of new poem ideas, and I’ve discovered loads of new poets in their pages. They published one of my poems in the most recent issue (“#92 – Tribute to Invented Forms”, and yes, it was a decima), as well as including Portrait of my father as the Count of Monte Christo in the Best of the Ekphrastic Challange chapbook. So I was already filled with a warm glow towards them before Tim asked me to be on the podcast.
It’s been one of those strange mixed-feeling things. I start out with a huge and enthusiastic YES!!!, because it’s a great podcast, and a big deal to be asked to be on it. Talk about poetry in general and my poems in particular? Yes please!
Aaaaand then I started worrying about making a mess of things. Or stuffing up one of the poems when I’m reading. Or getting stuck and unable to remember someone’s name. Or swearing. Or saying something that makes me look like an idiot. Or offending someone. Or getting myself put on a no-fly list. Or the roof falling in. Or my clothes falling off. Or … you get the picture. (As did I, in my nightmares. Repeatedly.) Yes, I know it isn’t likely, and that no-one but me would care (unless I did something truly spectacular). But there’s always that little voice in my head that says yeah, but what about when you—
So I didn’t post the link to the live broadcast here beforehand, but did drop the details in a few places, so that people who were really keen could tune in live, but I wouldn’t be worried about what X would be thinking as I spoke.
Now I’ve started breathing again, how was it?
So good! I had an amazing time. I kept forgetting it was a broadcast, and just chatted away as though poor Tim had known me for a decade and we were just sitting over a coffee somewhere talking poetry. But even better, because he let me read all my favourite poems … and asked me great questions.
I haven’t watched the broadcast yet, because I can guarantee that every umm, ahh and facial twitch will hit me as though it’s been isolated, enhanced, and generally pumped up to the point where no-one in an eight block radius could fail to see it and be appalled by it. I’ll come down from that soon though, and will enjoy thinking a bit more about the questions. (Always the sign of a good interview!)
Thank you to all the people who left positive comments. Apparently at least half were comments about my voice and how much they enjoyed hearing me read, which is
- very flattering, thank you!
- difficult to know how to respond to, and
- definitely not the poetry-reading equivalent of “But you have a lovely personality …”
A Dark Feathered Art 