Carla Dodd

This article is part of a weekly feature we will be running for the weeks to come, highlighting one of our contributors here at Troubadour 21. It is our hope that we may give you a peek inside the lives of the artists who create the art and the poets who create the poetry you see here on the site.

Our feature this week is Carla Dodd, one of our editors here at T21. Carla’s behind-the-scenes contributions to this site are many and very much appreciated, but where she really sets herself apart is in her writing. If you’re not familiar with her work, we have a few fine examples here on the site, and her own site is linked below in the interview.

T21: How long have you been writing? Was there a moment or moments you remember helping you BECOME a writer?

Carla: Well, I slipped a note under my parents’ door to get the last word in an argument when I was 9; after that, it was junior high school; then a little in college and fast forward to today, some 30 years later. Besides a creative writing class, I credit the Southern lilt of my Calculus teacher’s voice at 8:30 a.m. MWF for me nearly flunking calculus and deciding that being a writer would be more worthwhile than being a doctor.

T21: How would you describe your style? What do you want your poems to say about your viewpoint on the world? What do you want your reader to come away with when he or she reads one of your poems?

Carla: “Style” is an interesting question. I would say the one style element of my poetry that always comes through is that it’s crafted to be read out loud. Rhythm and flow are as important as images and words. I think each poem says something about me; I would say what I want is for my reader to come away with some understanding: a little understanding of me from my viewpoint, a fresh understanding or “take” on the world from both my eyes and their own.

T21: Who is your favorite poet? What is it that attracts you to his/her work? Whose poetry have you studied recently that inspired you, caused you to think in new and different ways?

Carla: I’m pretty darned stubborn to be influenced, though I know I am. My poetic tastes are broad: Dr. Seuss, Shel Silverstein, Emily Dickinson, Billy Collins, Langston Hughes, and just about every local metro Detroit poet that I’ve met. I DO come away from poetry events with ideas and thoughts that sometimes land in my poetry.

T21: Tell us something quirky about yourself. Is there anything about you that people might not suspect? How does that come out in your work?

Carla: Quirks, I think, are usually perceptions from other people. However, here are two things people don’t always know:

1. I have taken many belly dance classes, and I dance in my car…from the waist up. This amuses little girls, and entertains truckers on Telegraph Road.
2. I have an invisible tattoo on my forehead that says “Sure. Tell me.” I asked a woman shopping in CVS if Children’s Pepto would help my visiting nephew’s stomach ache, and 15 terrifying minutes later, she parted with “and that sonofa*$%#! Ex-husband beat the h@#! out of me and took everything I had!” I know about alcoholism, suicidal tendencies, eating disorders, divorces and other trauma from more total strangers than I can count. The crazy thing is that it hasn’t landed in my poetry. YET.

T21: Who is your favorite band and what is it you like about their music? Do you find yourself emulating lyrics, rhythms, musical beats in your poetry? Whose music do you listen to when you’re writing, after you’ve finished a piece you’ve stuggled with, when you feel you are blocked?

Carla: My musical tastes are varied: jazz/smooth jazz (love John Legend, Robert Cray, Jonny Lang), Motown, classical, Middle Eastern pop and belly dance music, about anything at least a little. I don’t emulate lyrics, but since my poetry is to be read out loud, there is a musical quality to it. Jazz is the music of preference most times, but I can rock out, find rhythms to dance to. When I am looking for a quiet moment, I sometimes seek out George Winston. He can manipulate the hammers inside a piano to sound like a woodpecker, and combined with the outer workings of the instrument, transport me to the forest.

T21: What are the major themes you deal with in your writing? Have you added themes, changed direction, or played with new themes as you change and grow as a writer?

Carla: The theme is whatever falls out of my head. I’d say that most things have a grain of my observations on ordinary things in the world. I will experiment with just about any form, direction or idea as I continue; I am challenged by spoken-word and admire those who are masters of such. However, the broad spectrum goes from body image, self-image, racism, abuse, nature, and political issues on a personal level.

T21: When you are gone, what would you like the world to remember about you?

Carla: Hopefully, that something I’ve written or done has inspired them or given them a new way to look at the world.

T21: Where, other than Troubadour 21, can our readers find your work?

Carla: Back issues of Poetry Life and Times online, Facebook, and my blog, www.yourewritedear.com (which is a work in progress.)

T21: What do you think of the answer to the great question, as expressed by Douglas Adams in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy?

Carla: The answer is simple, elegant, and brilliant…and right there in front of your face. Sometimes life is that way; it’s what we DO with that information that makes it worthwhile.

Thank you, Carla, for taking the time to share a bit of yourself with us today. I can say for certain that your writing has inspired at least one person, as I personally have had the breath taken out of me by a few of your pieces. Of course, I can only speak for myself, but I think it’s a safe bet that a few more of our readers out there could say the same. We wish you the best of luck in your continued writing career and look forward to seeing much more from you in the future.