This month, the amazing Mag Gabbert sits down with our host, Aaron Tyler Hand, to discuss her two chapbooks Minimal Poems and The Breakup, as well as her brand new debut collection Sex Depression Animals. The two talk about the difference in sitting down to write from an emotional place versus forcing oneself to write in a poetic form. To this point, Gabbert speaks on the importance of finding a creative space where you feel okay to play, have fun, and be a bit messy. Going deeper into this, she talks about the value of seeing poetry as making art and the gravity of writing towards the unknown. Hit play to learn more about all of this as well as her invented erasure form!
Mag Gabbert:
It's important to think, what kind of angles, demons, and guides am I bringing into the [writing] process.
Poems:
Born King
it’s the end of 2022
the year of the tiger
they kept me locked-up
denying me my god given
right to support my family
I was captured and kidnapped
forced against my will
to be in a place made of
iron and concrete
I used to see animals
at the zoo and thought
to myself that that could
never be me now look
at me at the beginning
of 2023 a lion
king of the jungle
untitled
the tiger of the year for me was the police
everybody with a badge was after me
hands up don't shoot they say
but before your hands go up they shoot just pray
a tiger is something you see in the wild
but the tiger i see riding around with a badge & a smile
so if you see a tiger don't be alarmed
we all know somebody that got attacked by a tiger in a uniform
THESE TIGERS ARE TIRELESS AS I SCRATCH MY SKIN
I see track marks, it’s a bright day today but I can’t
escape the dark needles gnaw away my innocence so far
to the point I want to die but my heart keeps beating
feeling like I’ll never know the reasons why.
In jail I sit in my cell I shit wishing I
could be home so I get on the phone but my calls
aren’t answered so to slumber I go. These tigers
are the reason for this time they tick & tock like
hands on a clock. Fucking tigers.
Disaster Recipe
This recipe I’m about to share
with you is made with love
so keep in mind that the Heart
is the main ingredient to this
secret recipe. So without further
ado, first you get your Heart
and put it in the pot. Bring the
flame to a real low temperature
just enough to hear the meat
sizzle. Remember you don’t want
to over cook it. 2nd you add
the spices which in this recipe
will be emotion and pain. Last
you add alcohol and rage.
Now you can turn up the heat
to the pot until it starts to
boil and bubble. This is best
served warm with a glass of
red wine. Now take it to the one
you care and love the most and
watch her take that first bite
before you collapse to the floor
cold and dead because alcohol & pain
emotion & rage is the recipe for
disaster
Dead Dreams
Put everything on the table. Don’t forget to wash
your hands. We gon start off with a big cup of
impossible. Add just a little to much will have you
intoxicated. Grab the small spoon of opportunities
and mix it with nonexistence. Pour trouble and
negative in a big pot then turn the stove on
high. We gon let that boil for 10 minutes. While we
wait bring out the cutting board so we can chop up
1 bag of bad decision. Move that to the side
now chop up a half bar of mistake. Turn
the pot on low now add your ingredients. To top
everything off add a teaspoon of poverty. At
this point everything should be done. That's the
recipe we used to kill our dreams.
RECIPE FOR A FUCKED UP MIND
ok start w/ one happy innocent, undeveloped kid
good, now add it to the large pot & prepare your bad
ingredients. A dose of sexual abuse comes first. Then
peel off the happiness slowly but surely cut off all
innocence until you’re left with a slightly developed
teenager. Now pour a gallon of whiskey on it & be sure
to completely submerge. Bring to a slight simmer but be sure
not to kill it or you’ll ruin it. Now add a spoonful of
cocaine & stir. Keep the heat low so it cooks evenly. Just as
the simmer starts to boil add a couple spoonfuls of heroin.
Cut the heat off & throw it in the fridge for a day or
two, the same way a cop throws a drunk in jail. Once
you’ve forgotten about it then you’ll know it’s ready.
This is the receipt for a fucked up mind.
untitled
she’s stuck with me like i am at attention
want to forget you like you say that’s my song
wish i never confronted real with real
stuck with you like the word who
wish i never linked up a voices energy that nude
and goes for a side of wicked and she still has no clue
when i know it's the truth
Writing Prompts:
Mag Gabbert uses her poem “Rat” to speak on the things she is hoping to leave behind in the new year. She uses the rat as a metaphor for many of the people and places that caused her harm in the previous year. In the Chinese zodiac, 2022 was the Year of the Tiger. Now that it is 2023, think of the metaphorical tigers that hunted you last year. Write a poem about those tigers and what you hope that 2023 will bring to replace them.
In n the poem “Goat”, Gabbert invokes the animals in several different ways. We see her speak on the tragedy surrounding the animal in lines 12 and 13, and in some lines we can’t help but feel as if it’s used similar to the acronym G.O.A.T. (Greatest of All Time). To connect these different ideas she uses anaphora, or the repeated word at the beginning of the line. Playing off of this idea, write a poem about what makes you the G.O.A.T. Be playful and try to include self-deprecating humor so that it doesn’t come across as being too cocky. Also, mimic Gabbert’s anaphora and use “Because” at the beginning of each line.
For “Recipe for Quiet Ferocity”, Gabbert creates a poem that imitates a cooking recipe. Instead of edible ingredients, she uses imagined personal attributes and events to reflect on aspects of her life that she wishes were different. Take this wonderful idea from Gabbert, and write a poem where you create a recipe for a better life. What things would you need to gather to make this better life? What things from your past would need to be different for you to make it? What actions need to happen in the future for you to make it? Put these ingredients together to show us how to make this perfect life.