A METAPHORICAL BLOODLETTING THROUGH POETRY THE

Love, womanhood, motherhood, and existence as a whole are just a few of the complexities of life tackled by Jessica Helen Lopez in her most recent collection. As an experienced poet, a statement that comes after her term as ABQ’s second poet laureate, Lopez has learned that writing her truth is more important than praise from the outside. “I gave up trying to write to please others, right out of the gate,” she says. “I am not a sensationalist for the sake of sensationalism, though I am rebellious. The status quo is boring, falsified and stringently compliant in the ways it limits our ability to create art that speaks to the raw and to the real.”

ATM: When you began writing the poems in this collection, did you do it with the intention of compiling them for publication?

JESSICA HELEN LOPEZ: “The Blood Poems” is my fifth collection of personal poems published, and I was lucky in that I was asked to send a collection to UNM Press by the City of Albuquerque Poet Laureate Program when I was. I happened to have been locked and loaded with the poems that I had recently written in what I describe as a flurry of creative and emotional release.

ATM: For some poetry comes out very naturally and unexpectedly, and for some it’s about putting pen to paper and getting down to it. Can you walk me through the beginning stages of your process?

JHL: My process vacillates between a tidal rush of messy, though personally gratifying, confessional and organic writing, as well as very deliberately planned and executed poems. To plainly answer the question, I write all of the time. My process is: just write.

ATM: Intensely personal themes are the hallmarks of this collection. What was it like for you to explore yourself through this project?

JHL: I would say that my previous collections consist of extremely personal topics, too. This collection was yet another

Blood Poems

By Jessica Helen Lopez University of New Mexico Press

112 Pages $18.95 opportunity for me to fine tune my penchant for confessionalism, free verse and exploration in experimenting with craft.

ATM: You are of course much more than your already impressive accomplishments, but what would you like to tackle in the next five years, either personally or professionally?

JHL: I would like to continue to publish additional collections. I think about the poetic greats, my personal favorites such as Pablo Neruda, Charles Bukowski, Langston Hughes, Rumi…they wrote, wrote, wrote and/or write, write, write. That’s what I will continue to do.

ATM: What has your experience been like as an Albuquerque Poet Laureate?

JHL: For the most part, I was provided opportunities to share my writing on a larger local, national and international platform. During my two-year tenure, I became the poet in residence at the ABQ Museum of Art and History. That was an adventure unto itself!

ATM: Is there a writer or poet that has had a profound impact on you?

JHL: Tough question! I’m fond of Obsidian Knife to Cut the Shit Out. For me, it’s fun to read aloud, though certainly not for any given audience. I’m going to cheat and also add, Kicking It With Death on a Sunday and also, Our Transgressions.

ATM: The graphic language included here is quite impactful. What would you say to people who might call it gratuitous?

JHL: The human experience can never be graphic. Over time we individually or collectively designate what is taboo or explicit or graphic, therefore deem what is to be feared, censored, or excluded from the shared narrative of how we understand who we are and how we live our lives. There is great danger in labeling someone’s truth as gratuitous. ET