A fragmented poem for your Friday
Publishing "Through a Sieve" by Alina Kalontarov + podcast interview
We’re here. We made it to Substack. And we’re delivering poetry hot off the press every Friday.
Last week we published “Booked a Three-Night Stay in Innity”—a stunning poem by
and we’re back this week publishing a “Through a Sieve” by Alina Kalontarov.
Alina Kalontarov is a teacher, poet and photographer from New York City. Her work can be found in various literary journals but most of it lives in her Notes app, where she can safely overthink it. Connect with her on Instagram @alinakay66.
🪑Interview with Alina…is poetry a rant?
Maria: Alina! I’m so happy your poem found its way to us. Tell us, what is the story of this poem? How did it find you? Or did you find it?
Alina : This poem was born in a Gather session after you led us through a beautiful, probing sequence of meditative prompts. It was a jarring experience at first since I don’t typically do well with timed writing of any kind, especially in rapid fire succession. I honestly felt a bit paralyzed for the first half of the meditation but somehow this poem stretched its 5 legs out in different directions and still walked out.
Maria: What is the best craft advice you’ve ever received?
Alina : It blew my mind when Danusha Lameris said that at some point, “the poem must lift its head and look around.” What a revelation! As a reader, I love a poem that offers me what I actively avoid in real life: tension, gray area, heartache, unease. I’m always looking for the pain point in a poem, for it to hurt just a little, and it can’t really do that if it hasn’t acknowledged the shadow in the room. What’s more wrenching than a love poem that glances over its shoulder and sees, however briefly, the paint chipping on the wall? Or a poem about heartbreak that does the same, for that matter. I’ve written my share of myopic poetry, and that one piece of craft advice brought so much into focus. Now I want to go back to everything I’ve ever written and make sure it has eyes.
Maria: I always ask this question because I find the answers so interesting. Many poets experience physical feelings when they read a good poem. Emily Dickinson famously said she feels like the top of her head is coming off. What physical sensations happen to you when you read or write a good poem?
Alina : When I read or write a good poem, I feel like I’m contracting and expanding at the same time. Not quite like a breath being caught in my chest, but it’s as if I’ve inhaled and exhaled all at once. There’s a sense of merging with everything outside of me. I lose my edges.
Maria: Who were your early poetry influences? Your heroes?
Alina : I think my very first poet crush was Edgar Allan Poe. My high school boyfriend plagiarized “Annabel Lee,” changed the title name to mine and gave it to me as a love poem. Needless to say that relationship didn’t last, but my affair with Poe’s poetry did. In college, it was Emily Dickinson who stole my heart; she seems to be every fledgling poet’s gateway drug. My influences since then have expanded a bit and I’ve grown to love Pablo Neruda, Sylvia Plath, Leonard Cohen, Mary Oliver, Ellen Bass, Ada Limon, Tom Snarsky, Maggie Smith, Jane Hirshfield and Joseph Fasano, to name a few. I’m also often inspired by some of the exceptional poetry coming out of the IG community lately, yours among them.
Maria: Lastly, we often speak of what poetry is. I’m curious what you think poetry isn’t.
Alina : Poetry isn’t a rant or a soapbox. It’s not a dictate or mandate for others to feel, think or live a certain way. If a poem grows too big of an ego, it no longer belongs to the world.
Maria: Thank you so much for giving us the honour of publishing your work. Tell us where we can find you, say hi, and read more of your work!
Alina : I love to connect with other poets and readers. You can find me on Instagram: @alinakay66.
🪑Listen to our 60 minute podcast here:
Keep an eye out next Friday for
Hennemann’s poem “Marriage - Breaking Hex.”Lots of love friends,
EIC and Founder of Gather
🪑Gather is a writing table, lit mag, and podcast. In short: a home for poets.
You can join the waitlist for our writing table, submit your work to our lit mag, or watch our podcast episodes here.🪑
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Wonderful poem!
“The poem must lift its head and look around” I love that. And I loved your poem as well.