An Egg-Like Poem
by David Fladger
Arizona State University
David Fladger is currently a Creative Writing student at Arizona State University. He loves poetry, weird fiction, medieval history and cats. After his undergraduate degree, he plans to pursue his Masters, so that he can teach and encourage others to pursue their creative passions.
After Mai Der Vang
What is the body of a dream,
But ink stained eggshell
Grip smothered
In your failed-god hands.
What could be its blood
But sterile yolk splattered
On your shirt, curdling
In spotlight after you held too hard.
What is the name
For incubating it dead—
This poem you refuse to name
Because you hate yourself,
It’s body of yolk and blood,
Broken in the moment of your clasping,
Still was born,
Still, with breath refused, sings bright bird songs:
More is possible in you
Than is impossible without you.
Let beloved
Be the name which names you.
But what is the name
Of dropping the dream?
An emptiness of hands,
An arrival to paradise starving.
Interview with the Poet
1. What inspired you to start writing poetry? Are there any specific poets or writers that inspire you to write?
There have always been words and phrases that echo around in my mind that beg to get out. I don’t always understand their significance at first, but poetry gives me a place to put them, understand them and bring them out into the world. I love so many different poets. Lately, I’ve been inspired by Dianne Seuss, Dean Young and WS Merwin. But really I have to give credit to Sylvia Plath. Her work showed me how to be honest and use language in a fearless way, and I’ve been writing ever since I first read her.
2. What is the biggest challenge in your creative process?
I consider myself a poetic scientist. While drafting I am testing hypotheses, but I can’t always stay objective when looking at the results of my poetic experiments. Perfectionism and self doubt creep in and masquerade as fixed truth. And so, to continue working I often have to find definite ways to step back from my work in order to see it clearly.
3. Is there a reoccurring or central theme to your work?
It may seem cliche, but I am all about flowers and bird songs. Where I live in the Phoenix suburbs, nature is only really found in manicured bushes and the birds that creep in from the desert, so their images are always showing up in my work. I am also obsessed with sunlight. In Phoenix the sun is always present and larger than everything, and I’m always coming back to how my memories are linked to different colors of light.
4. What role do you think poetry plays in our society today?
We are always trying to understand things, to impose a story or an interpretation on the media and art we encounter. But poetry challenges us to wait and experience before we understand. Often it speaks in the language of the senses, and it does not require logic to exist. Because poems teach us to experience before we understand, I think that just by reading them we become more open to life itself.