diVERSES reKINDLED: In Conversation With Junious Jay Ward

A poem is a street, a collection a neighborhood.

Just because poems appear together does not mean there was any real urban planning going on.

Some poetry collections are full of poems forced together. Maybe the poet felt they were the best hits. Maybe all the poems were written at the same period of time.

But a best hits album is not a band’s best album. Being from the same era does not automatically lead to cohesion.

When Jay Ward spoke about his collection, Composition, he spoke on what he wanted the work to home in on. Central to the book was an exploration of form, whether in its absence, its subversion, or its purity—fitting for a group of poems under the title, Composition. With this attention, suddenly each piece becomes an additional comment on composing.

I often tell writers that when any two poems are put side by side, they naturally converse. What I don’t say is that, with intention, the quality of the conversation can improve.

In college, a former roommate of mine became an RA; each dorm was responsible for having a theme. The theme he chose: randomness. Name badge decorations on doors went from horses to toothbrushes to surfboards. Hall parties had random colors of whatever construction paper he could find. He adhered to theme flawlessly, and arguably impactfully since I’m still able to remember it to be honest. It made for maybe a laugh, even some curiosity to see what the plans for the next event were.

However, even these acts could have taken a greater level of depth for connection. The surfboard could've gone to the student from the beach town, the horse to the equestrian captain. Suddenly randomness goes from emotionless to considerate.

Part of what makes books greater than poems is the expansion. If a poem is a street, the book is the neighborhood. I can walk down streets with sidewalks that appear, disappear, turn into highways without warning, yes. But a neighborhood that planned for me to be there is a neighborhood I want to live in.

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Full conversation between poet Jay Ward and poet Geoff Anderson: https://youtube.com/live/cx4aSk3Ai0A