Creators on Creating: John Compton
"I see a poem as its own individual being...each poem is its own entity and lives as its own self."
john compton (b. 1987) is a gay poet who lives in kentucky with his husband josh and their dogs, cats, and mice.
Your writing has such wide range, moving between moments of tenderness and intimacy to those of violence and pain. Could you speak to this a bit and to simply surviving as a human in the world?
my poetry comes from my life, my mind: my mental health, my body: my physical health, the way my eyes see things, the way my consciousness elaborates things. i love to play with words and images. i love to create new things. it is hard to survive in this world. capitalism is our ultimate demise and it is killing us. so i write my poetry in which i see the world and i see myself in a mirror. i write my poetry so i can live understanding things in my own way.
my husband holds my hand because i may drift away & be lost forever in the vortex of a crowded store (FlowerSong Press, 2024) is such an awesome book title. How did this book come to be?
the book originally had a different title, which i did not like too much and intended on changing. edward, publisher of FlowerSong Press, had posted some random question on social media and the comment i made to his post, randomly to be funny, became the title right before i submitted the manuscript to him.
the book came to be the same way all my books come to me, by writing poems. i see a poem as its own individual being. i do not write poems to rearrange them in some organized novel. i do not write novels. i do not write poems to instruct them to make a book, instead i write poems inside a manuscript and am done when it is deemed necessary. so the first poem is the first poem i wrote and the last poem is the last, with bad poems removed. each poem is its own entity and lives as its own self. my poems do not interact with each other.
You write in one poem in the book called "i pretended that he liked me," that: "i contemplated being alive; / the fulfillment i caused in another" and "i’m trying to learn love, but no one will teach me." Could you talk a little bit about love with our Poetose readers? How can we create more of it in the world?
love is tricky, hard, and complicated because we are human and different. no one person is alike. we have to compromise and learn from each other to make things sustainable. we can create more love in the world by not being so superficial. we can teach more love in the world by raising boys correctly, as humans, and not as robots. we can teach them that emotions are natural and one should not hold them inside until they explode. we can teach love more by letting girls defend themselves against people instead of brushing it off as “that's what boys do.” we can create love in the world by teaching that everyone is the same no matter what sexuality, race, sex, or gender they are, or where they live. we can create more love by loving people as who they are instead of how they look. to teach that ugly people can be beautiful and beautiful people can be ugly. we live on one earth and we are all human.
Did you always know you wanted to write?
since i began writing in 2001. i was around 14 and since then i have never wanted to do anything else. i have dedicated my life to poetry.
Who are some of the writers or books you hold most dear?
some of the poets i hold dear to me are: fanny howe, william corbett, christopher bursk, jim dunn, caconrad, tommy sheffield [who is also my editor], micki topham [one of the greatest slam poets in the d.c. area], sandra feen [my ride or die], chad horn, aldo amparán, chris butler… but there are thousands of poets that i love, cherish, and am grateful for for helping me along the way and giving me the opportunities that have guided me to where i am now. i cherish every poet who has ever given my books a blurb, every person who has written a review. another person i find very important in my life is tavo arrieta, who is a brilliant artist and has let me use multiple paintings they've created as book covers.
How do you know when a poem is ready to send out into the world?
the poem tells me when it is ready and i listen to the poem because otherwise i could accidentally destroy it.
Do you have any tips for writers when it comes to contributing to the greater literary community and being literary citizens?
firstly, you will get a million rejections because that is the way of the poet's life. you'll also get jealous, you'll get mad, you'll get tired, you'll get stressed, you'll want to quit a thousand times because we are human and have emotions. you have ten-thousand poets in the same room with you trying to get the same thing as you want. if you really want to be a poet, you'll not give up. secondly, celebrate your fellow indie poets. if one of us wins, we all win.
How have your many book projects come to be?
i befriend publishers, get to know them and let them know me, then cordially ask them if they'd like to read my manuscript.
You've published many books and chapbooks. How do you decide whether a body of work will take the form of one or the other?
i never decide what a group of poems will do, they let me know when they are ready to build a home in the world and to explore it.
Do you have tips on how to be so prolific as a writer?
don't do anything else but write, read, edit, and network. let poetry take over your whole body, life, and soul. i do nothing else besides poetry. love what you do and cherish your poetry. poetry is not a hobby or a side quest.
How has living in Kentucky influenced you and your writing?
i have no clue because i've never lived anywhere else!
Do you have any favorite writing habits or rituals?
i enjoy listening to music when i write. i have found i write better in chaos because it causes me to focus more. i only write when i want to write, i never sit down at a blank screen and force myself to write. a ritual, i guess could be, i edit my poems as i write them, line by line, stanza by stanza, and the whole of the poem once completed. i edit the poem later, and i edit again before i send the manuscript off.
You seem to be very active as a writer on social media. What are some of your thoughts and feelings about being on social media as a writer?
for me social media is a job. i do it to be visible, to network, and to promote. i use social media to be present and to expand my reach. i spend over 40 hours a week on social media. i use social media because i am unable to go out and go to festivals, book fairs, or in person readings. social media is my platform, and it is where all my friends are.
What do you hope readers will take away from your writing? Do you have an overarching aesthetic, artist statement, or ethos?
i always say i write the dark onto the page because the page can handle it, and i keep the good in. so i hope that readers see that living is very important and being yourself is the best way to survive.
What are you currently working on?
my new book house as a cemetery came out from Rebel Satori Press on march 10th, and has been nominated for the national book award; i finished my next full length collection milk scissors and it is currently at a publisher waiting for a response; i have a secret project at a publisher which i cannot speak about; and i’m currently working on a chapbook titled: this is what silence taught me.
Do you have any advice for young writers?
have fun, practice and practice more, always want to learn, and read as much as you possibly can. read everything, not just the poetry books thrown in your face. there are more poets that exist in this world besides the 1% of academia poets that you are constantly bombarded with. read living poets because living poets exist and you can speak to living poets. you can love dead poets, but people forget to read the poets who are alive. celebrate all poets equally. and, very important, you can be a successful poet without an mfa.