Getting Dangerous
Meter Speeder with Sandra Marchetti
On this episode of Meter Speeder, we get a quick peek into Sandra Marchetti’s latest book Diorama.
Sandra Marchetti is the 2023 winner of The Twin Bill Book Prize for Best Baseball Poetry Book of the Year. She is the author of three full-length collections of poetry, DIORAMA, forthcoming from Stephen F. Austin State University Press (2025), Aisle 228 (SFA Press, 2023), and Confluence (Sundress Publications, 2015). Sandy is also the author of four chapbooks of poetry and lyric essays. Her poetry and essays appear widely in Mid-American Review, Blackbird, Ecotone, Southwest Review, Subtropics, and elsewhere. She is Poetry Editor Emerita at River Styx Magazine. Sandy earned an MFA in Creative Writing—Poetry from George Mason University and now serves as the Assistant Director of Academic Support at Harper College in Chicagoland. You can find out more at: https://sandramarchetti.net/
1) What poet’s work are you currently in love with?
This book is a love letter to my influences. Of the poems in this reading, the influences of Anne Sexton, Edward Hirsch, Jane Hirshfield, Li-Young Lee, and Mark Strand stand out to me. Their voices are humming through these poems, I hope. I dedicated the book to “all of the artists I stole from, and for my husband,” and I hope they know (living and dead) that it’s a compliment.
2.) What advice would you have for an earlier version of yourself?
Keep going. Writing is just so hard, and there is so much rejection. But you’re going to achieve a lot of your dreams too. Write because you have to, and to find your readers—there’s no shame in that. Don’t let anyone tell you how to do it.
3.)What advice do you think an earlier version of yourself would have for you now?
Keep really feeling the poems, and don’t be afraid to go there. I always tell myself the Dave Smith line, “no threat, no poem.” My younger self knew that, my older self is a little scared to go right to the truth of the matter and say it in the work.
Are you inspired to do a little writing? Me too!
1) Set a timer for 10 minutes. Freewrite about the difference between your comfort zone and your safety zone. Keep your editor voice turned completely off, just write and let it flow! Not sure what to write? Maybe think of a time that the line between comfort and safety became very clear for you. Write for the full 10 minutes.
2) Set a timer for 10 minutes. Now freewrite about the most dangerous thing you’ve ever done. Where were you? Were you there by choice? What happened after? Let your mind go wherever it will, nothing is off topic. If your brain starts to head somewhere else, go with it, it knows what it’s doing.
3) Now time to en-rhythm! This is based on a process the poet Annie Finch talks about, make it work for whatever you need. We’ll set the timer for 10 minutes. You’re going to either read a single poem over and over for those 10 minutes or move your body for 10 minutes. Any metrical poem will work, but the fewer metrical substitutions it has, the better. I’m going to suggest Shakespeare’s Sonnet 64, just because it feels a little dangerous and isn’t as well known as some of the others.
Or, if you’re looking to move your body instead of reading a poem aloud, I’m going to suggest the song “Bird of Pray” (not a typo) by Ukrainian progrock band Ziferblat.
4) Now it’s time to draft! Set a timer for 10 minutes. Write a poem, short story, or essay about whatever is on your mind. Not sure what to write? Try answering the question “How dangerous is too dangerous?” Your editor voice can be up to about a 3, but no more than that. Let it help you shape your piece, but that’s it. No crossing out words or fretting anxiously, keep letting it flow.
And there you go! Now you have a piece to work on revising this weekend, next week, or the 12th of Never.
Thanks for letting me stop by!