An interview with Fireblossom

Morning Toads!

This week I talked to Shay Simmons, known among us as Fireblossom/Coal black, a devoted follower of Saint Creola, owner of a great mind and an incredible storyteller-poet. 

“Hates Haiku. Flies solo” - is it the shortest poem you have ever written? (smiles)

LOL yes!

How long have you been writing? Have you always written the same style? Do you have any formal education in poetry? 

My style has evolved, to say the least. I began writing poetry when I was a teenager, and had my first publication at age 18. I had about three dozen publications in small press magazines by the time I was 26, then stopped writing for twenty years before taking it up again in 2006. Even though a lot of those older poems got published, only about three of them are anything I would ever let see the light of day today. The thing that really helped me - besides writing writing writing - was losing my fear of taking on any subject, and learning to just be honest about how I feel about a thing, without worrying about reaction. I learned that the more honest I could be, the more people would identify with what I write. In other words, if I feel a thing, so do a lot of other people.

Writing is like anything else. If you have a little talent, that’s fine, but it is the constant working at it to get better, the constant working to improve, that pays off.  

Tell me a little about your family. Are you the fourth child of a hippie family? 

You almost guessed! I am the third child of a very conventional conservative family, and the youngest by nine years. My parents were the age of my friends’ grandparents. My father was a newspaper editor and I grew up in a house full of books. He used to read to me, and instilled in me a love of words, and of American history. He always wanted to write novels, and completed three, but they were never published. He once said to me, “If there is a writer in the family, it is probably you.” 

My mother always acted like my writing was a foolish waste of time. She is a very practical woman, not warm and fuzzy by any stretch of the imagination. She basically has always tried to get me to be like her, and I’m just not.

I have two brothers, both children of the 50s and early 60s, both successful, both much older than me. I’m a child of the 70s, and a creative type to the core. 

I’ve been married twice, the first time for just a few months. I have a son who is 28 and the apple of my eye. Really, if I have done one lasting thing right, it is whatever I may have done to have such a fine son. I have been single now since 2001.  

I have a dog, an Australian Shepherd named Bosco. He is the star, around here!

I read many stories told by Fireblossom. How much of Shay is there in these stories?

In my story collection “Night Blooms”, there are really only two that contain a lot of things that actually happened in my life: “Emeraude” and “Blood & Promises”. However, there is something of me in most of my stories and story poems. The “soul” of it, you might say. “All stories are true” is one of my favorite quotes, attributed to many.

You spread science fiction in your poems whenever you have the chance to. How much do you like Science Fiction? 

I love science fiction, as distinct from science fantasy, which I don’t care for at all. To me, the best science fiction relies on character, on human complexity, not mechanical complexity. When I write science fiction, I am really just writing about people, but sci-fi allows me to isolate them, stress them, and expose them to extraordinary situations. I love science fiction that includes important female characters. My sci-fi stories are never shoot ‘em ups. I think the most interesting conflicts happen within.

Which three poets, dead or living would you like to have over for coffee and conversation?

Emily Dickinson, of course. I feel a personal connection with her ever since visiting her home in Amherst, where I felt her strongly. She wrote her own way, ignoring contemporary “rules”. She listened to, and honored her own voice. And she was in love with a woman she couldn’t have, but who lived right next door. I feel like we would have lots to talk about!

Edgar Allan Poe, because he had such an amazing imagination, and was aware of his own genius, which I find interesting. He invented whole genres of writing, and had such an eye for the bizarre and strange, not to mention the sheer beauty of his poetry. He always seemed to need a muse, a woman to appreciate his creations, and his life was never easy. I don’t see how he could be anything other than fascinating.

And Stephen Crane, because his poetry is so ahead of its time, so blunt and visceral and thought-provoking. I am including him for his poetry, but I think it is interesting to note that, at the time he wrote “The Red Badge of Courage”, he had never witnessed a battle. He had the big imagination, the courage to say what he thought and to write what he felt in the way he wanted to write it. 

I’ve always been REALLY curious about the hands in your banner. Are they your hands?

No, that’s just a picture I found on weheartit.com, that I felt expressed me. Until pretty recently, I wrote all my poetry longhand, in notebooks, as she is doing, and I like what she’s wearing, including all the rings and what-have-you. I am basically just an old after-the-fact hippie chick. 

I love reading your poems because you’re among the best storytellers I’ve ever read. Is there a story you’d like to tell and still haven’t found the best words to?

Yes. Yes. I’m sure there are dozens, hundreds, but there is one particular one that I want to tell, that I just haven’t found the perfect words for, yet. As the song says, sometimes I feel like a motherless child, and I’d like to express that mother-hunger in poetry, but it’s very tricky to express exactly what it is, and to do it unguardedly.  I haven’t managed it, yet. When I was a child, I got this National Geographic magazine for kids, and one issue was about these monkeys that some idiot scientist studied to determine if they needed mothers. The cover picture was this little monkey holding onto a wire mesh “monkey” with cloth wrapped around it, and the little monkey looked so destroyed. I stared and stared at it, thinking wow, it’s me. I may never find the words for that.

Do you follow any writing ritual?

Yes! I have to slowly get into the zone. I use prompts, pictures, music, a hot bath, anything that will allow me to let my mind wander over a particular situation or emotion until a line or a phrase comes to me. Once I have that, I’m on my way. Also, I need quiet, to write. I can’t write if there is noise. My street is as quiet as the library, fortunately!

Do you write every day?

Pretty much. There are days when I am simply too tired, or something, but generally speaking I do write every day. And I READ every day, too.

What would your friends tell me about you if they could say anything?

Oh goodness, probably that I owe them ten dollars or something! I guess I would hope they might say that I have a good heart, that I’m loyal, funny, hard-working, and stuff like that. They might also say that there is a little of the drama queen in me sometimes. I’m always wanting things to be stories, and also, I don’t keep my emotions inside. It’s a difficult question to answer! Someone said that each person is really three people: who they are to themselves, who they are to others, and who they really are. You should ask Mama Zen and Hedgewitch, my talented co-authors. They know me as well as anyone.

Is there a poem you wrote you’d have liked more people had read? 

Poem On January 1st

I adore your poem "For young poets":

First, stop banging away at silence 

like you would with a snow shovel against the ice.

A poem is not a dancing dog,

summoned to perform on its tiptoes at parties.

Put away all spirituous beverages.

Those who write while pitching in a sea of booze

do so in spite of such idiocy, not because of it.

If you haven't the imagination to see things differently without such props,

then become a mail carrier or a bus driver. (continue reading)

There are a few other quite famous poems written on advice to writers/poets like Bukowski's 'so you want to be a writer'. Has there ever been a piece of advice on writing you received/read about and it proved to be totally bullshit?

Oh gosh yes, where do I start? One is "write every day". Yes, if a person wants to be a writer then they obviously need to write, but I find that the Poetry-Making Machine needs breaks, at times. The PMM is a racehorse, not a plough horse, and some days there is a big race, and other days just a walk around the track, which might be reading other people's poems, or spending time outdoors, or just recharging by plopping on the couch and watching a movie. One must write regularly, but not daily. Trying to write daily is abusing the gift, in my opinion.

Another is the old chestnut "write what you know." While it's true that a person can't write about a subject they are ignorant about, let's leave room for imagination and for research! Maybe you don't know your subject YET, but there have been countless, countless times when I have wanted to write about something I didn't know much about, and so I researched it first, until I DID know about it. Some things don't even need that... imagination alone is enough, when combined with basic life experience. I've never been on a space ship or visited another planet, but I can imagine it.

One bit of advice that I DO agree with is "read,read,read." I can't tell you how many blogger poets I run into who say they don't read. It shows. To learn any craft, study those who have mastered it. Read the best poetry you can find, and by that I mean, the poetry that moves you, astonishes you, makes you wish you had written it. There are plenty of famous names who don't move me, and plenty of unknowns who do. I read what moves me, inspires me, and challenges me to be better.

Thank you very much for your time, Shay, it was really delightful to talk to you.