I think you have license to take whatever your experiences are and turn them into whatever you want them to be. – Steve Henn
By Natasha O’Hara
On January 11th, I attended the event, Winter Stars, at an art gallery in Warsaw, called Atelier. This event was a release celebration for the chapbook 4 Prayers, by IUSB alumni, Steve Henn. Henn teaches high school English in northern Indiana. His previous works include chapbook American Male from Main Street Rag (2022), Guilty Prayer (Main Street Rag, 2021) and Indiana Noble Sad Man of the Year(Wolfson, 2017). Henn’s latest chapbook, 4 Prayers, contains four longer poems, and one of the poems, “Sanity Mantra”, is a pop-out poem where readers can re-arrange the lines as they choose.
To kick off this event, Professor Joe Chaney shared some of his poems with the audience. Chaney is known around IUSB’s campus for teaching in the English department, as well as being the Director of Wolfson Press. His work has appeared in Apple Valley Review, Prairie Schooner, Poem, Crazyhorse, Spillway, Stoneboat, Off the Coast, South Florida Poetry Journal, Valparaiso Poetry Review, and The Cresset. Most recently, his poem “Riches” was selected for the forthcoming Best New Poets anthology. Chaney’s poems “Bad Priest,” and “The Eclipse,” are among some of my favorites that he read.
In this Q&A session, we delve into the minds and creative processes of Steve Henn and Joe Chaney. From the intricacies of their poetic craft to the inspirations that fuel their verses, this conversation offers a glimpse into the world of words through the lenses of these accomplished poets.
Joe Chaney
What is your creative process like for crafting poems?
Normally, I have a certain faith that if I sit down with an idea, I can make something of it. My process is really just not to give up—to keep working on it, keep thinking, finding an angle on the subject matter. And often that works. If I was speaking to a young person, I’d say that it does help to be inspired. But there are times when you find your inspiration by simply thinking about something in detail.
How do you balance imagination and personal experience in your poetry?
I think, at least theoretically, that all of us are like fictional creatures. We play to an audience, and you aren’t the same person to your mother as you are to your best friend. This suggests that we aren’t merely one thing, one person. And so, as a poet, you can exploit that multiple personality kind of aspect of your life. You’re asking yourself when you write a poem, sometimes, to put yourself in the position of somebody else. So, you have to imaginatively play that role in your mind.
How does performing your poetry live influence your connection with the audience, as well as your work?
It’s kind of a test, you know, to read in front of other people, because you’re going to get nervous approaching it. I sort through my poems and think about which ones people will like. I think the effect of having an audience is that maybe I’ll hear the poem differently. I can find out whether a poem is easy to read, whether it seems to make sense to an audience. I basically write for the page, unlike Steve, who is thinking about performing. My poems don’t really work that way. So, I do have to choose pieces that I think will perform relatively well and be understood. I think I learn from the readings, especially when I read newer poems. For instance, perhaps I can tell whether a poem needs to be longer or shorter, things like that.
Steve Henn
What inspired you to create this chapbook?
I had it together and I submitted it to a bunch of places. I made it myself, because the only traction is got was a finalist for one contest. The idea came from having a handful of poems that were all longer, two of them are definitely elegies. I also had the concept for “Sanity Mantra” (the pop out poem) for a while. I knew the only way to get that done, or anything like what I was looking for, was to do it myself.
Was it a difficult process to get it printed yourself?
There’s a local company here in Warsaw called, Allegra, that I’ve worked with before. They made the same kind of effort, as they had years ago, to make it look good and they were very detail orientated with the product, so I’m very happy with it.
Do you have a special process when crafting your poetry? Something specific you do every time?
No, a lot of people have that same time of day thing, but I don’t really have that. I guess there’s certain things I do when I sit down, and I sit down at anytime. Sometimes something clicks, something sparks in my head, and I go to the notebook. Sometimes I just sit there with the notebook and wait, and just see what comes up. But it’s kind of a mix. Sometimes I’m inspired when I go for the notebook, sometimes I pull it out just as habit, just to see if I get anything. I’m not always successful when I pull it out and just sit and wait. I think, to me, the important thing is to do that frequently. I never had to have the same set time everyday, I just need to have the notebook on my lap, in front of me, preferably three, four times a day.
How do you navigate between personal experience and imagination in your work?
I like to tell people that everything is true, even though it’s not. So, to me that’s just fun when you do a reading like this. And sometimes the details of the poem, they’re really bizarre, and kind of out there, so officially, in front of an audience, I don’t let anybody know that any of it is imagination. I pretend like it’s all my life. I think you have license to take whatever your experiences are and turn them into whatever you want them to be.
How do you choose the order of your poems for a reading?
I do craft the set list. I think it’s because what I always really wanted was to be, if I didn’t have to work at it and learn it, was a musician. I have this idea that I’m like Bob Dylan, like the set lists on his website. I design them, the set list, ahead of time. I kind of go by intuition, and I tend to have an accordion effect, so if you have long poems, then you want to go with shorter ones. You want to have kind of a mix, so you’re not quite doing the same thing on every one. But I just experimented with it, and that’s one of my favorite things to do, for things like this, is to come up with the set list. I want to know how it’s going to go, from start to finish.
The Deadline 