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Featured Poet - July/August 2018
7 years ago
General
We at PoeticFurs would like to celebrate our fine featured poet for the months of July and August 2018, 
LoquaciousFaux!
Here are some of our favorites from him:
Wistful Weavings - The Last Lightkeeper
Wistful Weavings - Let Me Freeze
Wistful Weavings - Chiaroscuro
And now, on to the interview questions:
1. When did you begin writing poems and verse?
LoquaciousFaux: "I've been writing "something" for as long as I can remember-- mostly just random shards and fragments of stories that, inevitably, got buried under mountains of disheveled prose, or simply lost in the winds of time. The first time I really wrote poetry, though, would've been with "Sky of Mine" back in 2015, the result of a kind of insomnia-fueled jam session that ultimately spit out four distinct stanzas, rather than just paragraphs. After that, it became something I experimented with every so often until it eventually became an integral part of my repertoire. Hooray insomnia, I guess?"
2. What inspires and/or motivates your poetry the most?
LoquaciousFaux: "If I had to nail it down to one singular thing... my poetry is, at it's core, a release valve; whenever something NEEDS to come out, it generally does now through lyric and rhyme. However, it'd be tough to press my words through a sieve and not see homogeneous parts art, music, etc. interspersed along with it. These days, I'd definitely say music is the most common avenue of inspiration I find these days, though I'm always combing around for pictures and artwork that get the ol' hamster wheel moving, too. That's one of the reasons I always include a picture with my poems-- nothing I do, and so certainly nothing I write, exists in a vacuum. Besides, I'm fairly sure engaging multiple senses at once has been proven to be more effective than only one."
3. Does your work take influences from any poets in particular?
LoquaciousFaux: "It does and it doesn't, which sounds stupid as I'm writing this, but I'd still say it's fairly accurate. I'm familiar with a decent number of poets-- probably not as many as I should be-- but I don't know if I really take too much conscious influence from them. Rather, I tend to think EVERYTHING I read (and hear, and see...) takes its subliminal toll on me. It's not at all uncommon for me to receive feedback along the lines of: "this reminds me of (insert poet's name here.)" To which my first reaction is typically... oh yeah, I think I read that at some point. Sure enough, after checking, it's very obvious what they mean, even though it might've been many years since I last encountered that author or poem, probably long before I started writing poetry in the first place."
"That's one of the reasons I love, and so often use, the concepts of mimicry and deception in my writing-- poetry really is one of the purest forms of imitation, whether we want to admit it or not. The words themselves may be unique, but read enough classical literature and you'll find that, all those feelings you have aren't maybe as unique as you once thought. Which is good; I mean, how is your reader supposed to empathize with you if we all had a bunch of crazy, unimaginable emotions?"
4. And, similarly, who might be your favorite poet of all time?
LoquaciousFaux: "This is a tough one for me, for basically the same reason as above. I'm not nearly as well read as I probably should be, so no one writer really stands out for me as head and shoulders above the rest. But, so I can still answer your question, I'll go-ahead and piggyback off question 6 for a moment and say that my favorite poet is, at least as of this second-- you'd probably get a different answer from me every day of the week-- is not a poet at all, but a band... by the name of Kamelot. Their ability to weave stories into their music, often the entire album sewn together in an overarching tapestry... I've always been envious of that. Just the way they craft their lyrics feels so... impactful, from word choice to the rhythm and flow; I've probably learned more about writing from breaking down their (and similar bands') music than any English class I've had."
5. What about your favorite poem of all time? Explain?
LoquaciousFaux: "Surprisingly enough, though I chose Kamelot as my favorite "poet," my favorite "poem" isn't by them-- although again, my mind changes about every other minute on this. Rather, it's a song called "Gravenimage" by Sonata Arctica, and to be honest, I don't really know why... That song just has an arcane resonance to it, and any music that can light my soul aglow like that one can are part of a very, very short list that I keep very close to my heart. Another one being "Elan" by Nightwish, and "I'll Be OK," by Nothing More; just a sample of songs that several of my poems were inspired by. In this case, the two being "Delve the Deep," and "It's For the Best," respectively."
"Whenever I can find a song that affects me strongly, I slap it on repeat and just zone out with a pen and pad for a few hours. Sometimes it's good, sometimes its not, but I always come out the other side knowing whatever the THING was that pulled me in in the first place, and how to apply it to my own work."
6. Aside from poets, do any others arts or artists inspire you?
LoquaciousFaux: "I think I've ranted long enough about musicians already, so I'll just quickly mention that visual art inspires me all the time as well. I'm basically the definition of a lurker, so don't expect to see me commenting or favoriting anything, but I'm always skulking around, admiring the view. Traditional work is definitely my favorite, as that's my preferred medium of choice to work with, but some of the things people can do with a tablet (or a mouse) is just mind-boggling..."
7. Similarly, do you practice any other arts besides poetry?
LoquaciousFaux: "Well, as I said earlier, for years I pretty much only wrote fiction, though I wouldn't say I ever got particularly good at it. There's still a few bits of it on my page, here on FA, though recently I've been REALLY tempted to scrap it. I keep stopping myself before I do, thinking there's some .000001% chance someone might want to see it still, so I guess it's there. For now, anyway."
"As for separate disciplines, I'm still giving the whole "artist" thing a shot, though I'm woefully lacking in the whole... "talent" department regarding that. It's one of those things I've always wanted to be able to do, but I can't seem to consistently commit the time it requires, and yet I can't quite give it up either. I guess you could say I'm just lazy, and you're probably not wrong... but I will say, when you're already decent at one thing, and pretty terrible at another, even though you may LIKE both, it's hard to keep up the motivation to stick to the latter long enough to improve. If there's some kind of Gameshark code I can enable in my brain to stop getting so frustrated with my artistic endeavors, feel free to DM it to me. They always left that one out of my Nintendo Power mags..."
8. And what hobbies and interests, if any, do you have outside the arts?
LoquaciousFaux: "Oh, thank you- finally, an easy question! Gaming and watching Twitch are my vices. During my non-productive hours, I'm pretty much always doing one or the other (usually both.) During my productive hours... well, yeah I'm pretty much doing the same; god I have an awful work ethic. Most recently, the new Path of Exile league has basically consumed my soul, or at least shared it with the illness that's decommissioned me for like 6 weeks now. (Hey, at least they found it, I was starting to think I'd lost it between the couch cushions or something...)"
9. Would you like to provide one interesting fact about yourself readers should know?
LoquaciousFaux: "Eh, I'm really not all that interesting. I try to be honest with people whenever they ask me questions (probably too much so, if the wall of text above is any indication) but I never know quite how to respond to broad questions like these. To make up for it, I'll keep an eye on the thread for a bit. If anyone reading this has a question for me, feel free to either comment it or DM me. I like questions."
"It still feels kinda like cheating but it's the best I can think of at the moment."
Thanks to LoquaciousFaux for agreeing to be our featured poet!
~
Corvus32346 (Founder)
LoquaciousFaux!Here are some of our favorites from him:
Wistful Weavings - The Last Lightkeeper
Wistful Weavings - Let Me Freeze
Wistful Weavings - Chiaroscuro
And now, on to the interview questions:
1. When did you begin writing poems and verse?
LoquaciousFaux: "I've been writing "something" for as long as I can remember-- mostly just random shards and fragments of stories that, inevitably, got buried under mountains of disheveled prose, or simply lost in the winds of time. The first time I really wrote poetry, though, would've been with "Sky of Mine" back in 2015, the result of a kind of insomnia-fueled jam session that ultimately spit out four distinct stanzas, rather than just paragraphs. After that, it became something I experimented with every so often until it eventually became an integral part of my repertoire. Hooray insomnia, I guess?"
2. What inspires and/or motivates your poetry the most?
LoquaciousFaux: "If I had to nail it down to one singular thing... my poetry is, at it's core, a release valve; whenever something NEEDS to come out, it generally does now through lyric and rhyme. However, it'd be tough to press my words through a sieve and not see homogeneous parts art, music, etc. interspersed along with it. These days, I'd definitely say music is the most common avenue of inspiration I find these days, though I'm always combing around for pictures and artwork that get the ol' hamster wheel moving, too. That's one of the reasons I always include a picture with my poems-- nothing I do, and so certainly nothing I write, exists in a vacuum. Besides, I'm fairly sure engaging multiple senses at once has been proven to be more effective than only one."
3. Does your work take influences from any poets in particular?
LoquaciousFaux: "It does and it doesn't, which sounds stupid as I'm writing this, but I'd still say it's fairly accurate. I'm familiar with a decent number of poets-- probably not as many as I should be-- but I don't know if I really take too much conscious influence from them. Rather, I tend to think EVERYTHING I read (and hear, and see...) takes its subliminal toll on me. It's not at all uncommon for me to receive feedback along the lines of: "this reminds me of (insert poet's name here.)" To which my first reaction is typically... oh yeah, I think I read that at some point. Sure enough, after checking, it's very obvious what they mean, even though it might've been many years since I last encountered that author or poem, probably long before I started writing poetry in the first place."
"That's one of the reasons I love, and so often use, the concepts of mimicry and deception in my writing-- poetry really is one of the purest forms of imitation, whether we want to admit it or not. The words themselves may be unique, but read enough classical literature and you'll find that, all those feelings you have aren't maybe as unique as you once thought. Which is good; I mean, how is your reader supposed to empathize with you if we all had a bunch of crazy, unimaginable emotions?"
4. And, similarly, who might be your favorite poet of all time?
LoquaciousFaux: "This is a tough one for me, for basically the same reason as above. I'm not nearly as well read as I probably should be, so no one writer really stands out for me as head and shoulders above the rest. But, so I can still answer your question, I'll go-ahead and piggyback off question 6 for a moment and say that my favorite poet is, at least as of this second-- you'd probably get a different answer from me every day of the week-- is not a poet at all, but a band... by the name of Kamelot. Their ability to weave stories into their music, often the entire album sewn together in an overarching tapestry... I've always been envious of that. Just the way they craft their lyrics feels so... impactful, from word choice to the rhythm and flow; I've probably learned more about writing from breaking down their (and similar bands') music than any English class I've had."
5. What about your favorite poem of all time? Explain?
LoquaciousFaux: "Surprisingly enough, though I chose Kamelot as my favorite "poet," my favorite "poem" isn't by them-- although again, my mind changes about every other minute on this. Rather, it's a song called "Gravenimage" by Sonata Arctica, and to be honest, I don't really know why... That song just has an arcane resonance to it, and any music that can light my soul aglow like that one can are part of a very, very short list that I keep very close to my heart. Another one being "Elan" by Nightwish, and "I'll Be OK," by Nothing More; just a sample of songs that several of my poems were inspired by. In this case, the two being "Delve the Deep," and "It's For the Best," respectively."
"Whenever I can find a song that affects me strongly, I slap it on repeat and just zone out with a pen and pad for a few hours. Sometimes it's good, sometimes its not, but I always come out the other side knowing whatever the THING was that pulled me in in the first place, and how to apply it to my own work."
6. Aside from poets, do any others arts or artists inspire you?
LoquaciousFaux: "I think I've ranted long enough about musicians already, so I'll just quickly mention that visual art inspires me all the time as well. I'm basically the definition of a lurker, so don't expect to see me commenting or favoriting anything, but I'm always skulking around, admiring the view. Traditional work is definitely my favorite, as that's my preferred medium of choice to work with, but some of the things people can do with a tablet (or a mouse) is just mind-boggling..."
7. Similarly, do you practice any other arts besides poetry?
LoquaciousFaux: "Well, as I said earlier, for years I pretty much only wrote fiction, though I wouldn't say I ever got particularly good at it. There's still a few bits of it on my page, here on FA, though recently I've been REALLY tempted to scrap it. I keep stopping myself before I do, thinking there's some .000001% chance someone might want to see it still, so I guess it's there. For now, anyway."
"As for separate disciplines, I'm still giving the whole "artist" thing a shot, though I'm woefully lacking in the whole... "talent" department regarding that. It's one of those things I've always wanted to be able to do, but I can't seem to consistently commit the time it requires, and yet I can't quite give it up either. I guess you could say I'm just lazy, and you're probably not wrong... but I will say, when you're already decent at one thing, and pretty terrible at another, even though you may LIKE both, it's hard to keep up the motivation to stick to the latter long enough to improve. If there's some kind of Gameshark code I can enable in my brain to stop getting so frustrated with my artistic endeavors, feel free to DM it to me. They always left that one out of my Nintendo Power mags..."
8. And what hobbies and interests, if any, do you have outside the arts?
LoquaciousFaux: "Oh, thank you- finally, an easy question! Gaming and watching Twitch are my vices. During my non-productive hours, I'm pretty much always doing one or the other (usually both.) During my productive hours... well, yeah I'm pretty much doing the same; god I have an awful work ethic. Most recently, the new Path of Exile league has basically consumed my soul, or at least shared it with the illness that's decommissioned me for like 6 weeks now. (Hey, at least they found it, I was starting to think I'd lost it between the couch cushions or something...)"
9. Would you like to provide one interesting fact about yourself readers should know?
LoquaciousFaux: "Eh, I'm really not all that interesting. I try to be honest with people whenever they ask me questions (probably too much so, if the wall of text above is any indication) but I never know quite how to respond to broad questions like these. To make up for it, I'll keep an eye on the thread for a bit. If anyone reading this has a question for me, feel free to either comment it or DM me. I like questions."
"It still feels kinda like cheating but it's the best I can think of at the moment."
Thanks to
LoquaciousFaux for agreeing to be our featured poet!~
Corvus32346 (Founder)
V.
~