By Door County Pulse , June 29th, 2022

Albert DeGenova is an award-winning poet, publisher, teacher and author of four books of poetry and three chapbooks. His most recent book is Black Pearl: poems of love, sex and regret; and his collection of haibun and poetry Postcards to Jack was recently released in a second expanded edition. DeGenova’s chapbook Mama’s Blues is forthcoming in August from Finishing Line Press, and his work has also appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. 

DeGenova earned his MFA from Spalding University in Louisville. He’s the founder of After Hours Press and co-editor of After Hours magazine, a journal of Chicago writing and art, which launched in 2000. In 1996, he began attending Norbert Blei’s writing workshop at The Clearing Folk School in Ellison Bay. Eventually, DeGenova began assisting Blei with the class and has led it since Blei’s death in 2013. 

DeGenova is also a blues saxophonist and former contributing editor to Down Beat magazine. He splits his time between Sturgeon Bay and the metro Chicago area. 

What’s your writing routine?

I generally start my day with a cup of coffee and a book, followed by writing/journaling or thinking about writing, or working on my varying publishing projects. Morning is my literary time.

I’ve built a writing studio for myself, which I spend most mornings in when I’m in Door County. There are also those moments, however, when an idea or image comes out of nowhere at any time of the day or night, and that’s why I always have a notebook and pencil nearby. My first poem drafts are always in pencil.

What do most poorly written poems have in common?

They tell the reader what to think and how to feel, or what/how the poet thinks. Often these poems end with an explanation of the poem.

What do most well-written poems have in common?

A single metaphor that takes the breath away, a turn of phrase and rhythm that creates a physical reaction. The gut punch, the exhaled “ohh.”

Consider a couple of famous poems. From Sylvia Plath’s “Lady Lazarus”: 

Dying // Is an art, like everything else. // I do it exceptionally well. // I do it so it feels like hell. // I do it so it feels real … 

Or the opening lines to Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl”:

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, …”

Is it important to understand the meaning of the poem or for the reader to be able to “solve” it?

No. Poems should not be thought of as riddles – there are no solutions. Poems should be thought of as experiences. Sometimes it takes years before we can understand something we’ve experienced.

Of course, many poems can be understood for their meaning and purpose, but most important is whether the poet can elicit an emotional reaction in his/her reader, an emotional reaction to the meaning. 

What book are you reading right now?

I’m never reading just one book. Currently I’m reading Three-Martini Afternoons at The Ritz (The Rebellion of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton) by Gail Crowther; The Village by David Mamet; Seven by 7 (the poet laureates of Door County), primary editor Mike Orlock; and Wherever I’m At: An Anthology of Chicago Poetry, editor Donald G. Evans.

Peninsula Poetry is a monthly column curated by the Door County Poets Collective, a 12-member working group that was formed to publish Soundings: Door County in Poetry in 2015 and continues to meet.

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