tende rloin poetry journal / new work + video by joe novelli + interview (below)
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| photo by Ralph Wong |
shelly
taylor
interviewed by Jenn Marie Nunes
and Mel Coyle
Jenn & Mel: What’s scarier: the outside coming in or the inside coming out?
Shelly Taylor: America is problematic. Outside is all job. Inside is honeycomb. Inside com[go]ing out is to hustle: (v) Roxette’s mantra of “you know she’s a little bit …, she’s got what it takes…” you must, lest you fall back and stay inside all day; can I?; the world went and got itself in a big damn hurry (Shawshank); them girls is now a-workin’ the street and even more than; always has been. Got to go to work now! Work: (n) to pillage or leave off yourself; in bar layman’s terms, as is the case of the weekend, you best get your dollars out; life: one dollar at a time! Inside: clawfoot tub, harmonious melody-y-y.
Jenn & Mel: What sign was your poetry born under?
Shelly Taylor: That Cancerian moon that hung so low.
Jenn & Mel: Go outside and spin around until you fall down. Then describe the relationship between the earth and sky.
Shelly Taylor: Is like to be seasick; you will never recover but you will shop frivolously on-line for shoes you will gift yourself with special messages to yourself; gifts for days, the earth, the sky, new shoes.
Jenn & Mel: A lot of voices in your poetry move but don’t seem to leave. What keeps them?
Shelly Taylor: “You cain’t never get by where you from girl.”
Jenn & Mel: What’s the first thing you remember learning that you didn’t want to know?
Shelly Taylor: Blue Smurf guitar, red and white oilcloth tablecloth: something of leaving.
Jenn & Mel: Give a list of 5 possible titles for the movie version of these poems. Then reject them.
Shelly Taylor: Making Time, aka Knockin’ Sugar in the Gourd; Jesus and the Penny-Gatherers, Babies in the River-Sun; Shine on, Byzantium!, aka How Sugar Got Her Honeycomb Back; Olde Pueblo Singsong, aka Better Watch Out For Those Man-Eating Jackrabbit and That Killer Cacti; Blossom and the Cherryscope The Ladies Don’t Mind. I reject them.
Jenn & Mel: Share your second most secret hiding spot for your gold.
Shelly Taylor: Oak tree, Bridgetown, Ga, unincorporated, mason jar/sss, if you’re lucky.
Jenn & Mel: Who’s the boss of the horse?
Shelly Taylor: Nobody I ever found.
Jenn & Mel: Is place a person, or are people a place?
Shelly Taylor: The land is birthright, you do so love fields; the moon, your doldrum lover; dirt roads are Peacock; Carter’s is chicken; home, mama.
Jenn & Mel: Who are your best sweethearts right now?
Shelly Taylor: The Green Bay Packers.
