KARAN

Thank you for these bold and radiant poems that refuse to look away, Gray. In “Cum Sonnet,” you write, “The days I remember to give thanks for my life, / I open my mouth and it catches in my throat” – a line that beautifully captures both gratitude and resistance, with heavy sexual undertones (overtones?) that mark these poems (fan!). Let’s begin with the process question. How do you start writing a poem? Does it begin with an image, a line, or an idea? Do you have a writing routine? And most importantly, why poetry?

GRAY

Thank you for this thick and juicy question. Most often, I’ll find myself catching a line, or particular word that entices me and writing towards that. Often there’s an image associated with that, that for whatever reason I feel excited by in the moment. I only started writing poetry seriously about four years ago, and at the start of that time, wasn’t really writing towards an idea, but have found that within the past year, and particularly entering into this “Cum Sonnet” project, I’ve had a series of questions—what my relationships to sex, gender, transition, queerness, friendship and becoming are, and wanting to explore and understand those relationships more. To the “why poetry?” question—both my parents make their living through song and music, and my journey with lyricism very much began there. Somewhere in my mid to late teens (I’m 23 now), the songs I was writing became poetry, and stayed that way. Poetry is all around us, and attempting to write towards the beauty, pain and complexity of that, knowing that I’ll never make it “perfect,” reminds me that I’m human, and reminds me that I’m real, and reminds me that I’m here.

KARAN

Your “Cum Sonnets” series brilliantly subverts both form and expectation, turning a classical form into a vehicle for exploring identity, desire, and resistance. In “Cum Sonnet with Cornflakes,” you write “Kellogg underestimated the needs of the body.” Tell us about your relationship with form. What drew you to the sonnet as a container for these particular explorations?

GRAY

I kept writing cum-filled, fourteen-line poems, without realizing the length. I think there’s something about the sonnet that allows you the space to say one, two, maybe three things well, while still forcing (or allowing) you to contain it within a relatively small space. One night before class, I showed someone in my MFA cohort one of these cummy little poems I’d been writing, they pointed out that it was a sonnet, and the “Cum Sonnets” idea blossomed on the train ride home that night.

KARAN

In “Things My Yoga Teacher Tells Me,” dedicated to your “trans siblings,” you write “The body is not a permanent residence.” (Ooof, love that line!) As both a poet and dancer, how does movement inform your understanding of the body and its possibilities? Does your work in different art forms influence how you think about transformation in poetry?

GRAY

Movement is how I enter, or enter back into my body. Whether it’s dancing (or running, or swimming or singing or making food…etc.), the act of movement and creation reminds me where and who I am in the world, and that’s another part of what I’m writing towards when I’m writing poetry.

KARAN

Your poems often confront political realities while remaining deeply personal, as in “Cum Sonnet with Prepubescent Titties” where anti-trans rhetoric collides with intimate bodily experience. How do you think about balancing the political and personal in your work? What role do you see poetry playing in resistance and transformation, especially given the current political climate? 

GRAY

The personal is political, and poetry, as an incredibly intimate form, carries an inherent politics within it. I don’t know how, or why, or if I even could write poetry without engaging the political forces around me that are shaping my life and the lives of people I love. What role do I see poetry playing in resistance and transformation? Someone once asked Ada Limón how poetry can change the world and she said something like “it isn’t poetry’s job to change the world.” I agree with that. I don’t think it’s the job of poetry, or any artform, to change the world, to address increasing climate catastrophe or growing fascist and authoritarian regimes globally, but it can remind us of shared experience, of collective impact, and of what it feels like to be in a body knowing that everything we touch and love and know is temporary and disappearing. 

KARAN

Humor appears throughout these poems as both weapon and shield. In “Cum Sonnet with Friendship,” you write with such joyful defiance about community and connection. Could you talk about the role of humor and joy in your work, especially when dealing with difficult subjects?

GRAY

This is why comedians exist. We need to, we have to laugh at the messy, complex, and untalked about stuff that constitutes the majority of our existence in order to find pleasure in our being. As with your proceeding question, I’ve always done that in my writing and can’t imagine writing and not doing it.

KARAN

This is a staple question for us and I’m always surprised by the range in everyone’s responses: There’s a school of poetry that believes a poem or a poet can categorize their work in one of these four ways: poetry of the body, poetry of the mind, poetry of the heart, poetry of the soul. Where would you place your work within this framework, if at all? And do you see your poetry moving in a different direction?

GRAY

Yeah. I disagree with that. I think it can, and often is all, or some amalgamation of those things at once. Poetry of the soul interwoven with poetry of the body. Poetry of the mind at one with poetry of the heart, and all of them swimming together, within and across each other. This project, as a whole, feels very much in conversation with all of those categorizations.

KARAN

Tell us about your chapbook Waterfall of Thanks. How did you think about putting this collection together? Has working on a longer project influenced how you write individual poems? What are you working on now?

GRAY

For that project, it was more a realization that I had a body of poems that felt cohesive in what they were saying and that I had a desire to put into the world, rather than writing towards a vision for a book. On the flip-side, right now, I’m very much envisioning longer projects and the narratives I want to tell within them, which is influencing what, and the ways in which I am writing. To your last question, I’m working on a collection of “Cum Sonnets” (there are 32 at the time of this interview), and another manuscript project that’s been marinating for the last couple years. 

KARAN

You’ve described yourself as a hot chocolate alchemist – I love that! How do your various creative practices – dancing, singing, even cold water plunging – feed into your poetry? Do you see these different forms of expression as separate or interconnected?

GRAY

Oh, everything is interconnected! I find that an idea most often sparks for me when I’m in motion, such as dancing or singing, and especially after jumping into ice-cold water. Making and drinking hot chocolate is a grounding exercise for and, and in the case of really cold water, a much needed warming one.

KARAN

We always ask our poets for a poetry prompt at the end. Would you provide a prompt for our readers, to help them kickstart a poem?

GRAY

Make a list of all the people you’re writing for, maybe that’s your teachers or your beloveds, your friends, someone who’s no longer in your life, and write a poem for them.

KARAN

We’d also love for you to recommend a piece of art (anything other than a poem) — perhaps a song, a film, or a visual artwork — that you find particularly inspiring or that you think everyone should experience.

GRAY

To Noise Making (Sing) by Hozier has been bouncing around in my head for days so let’s go with that (I cheated because everything that man makes is poetry). 

KARAN

Finally, because we believe in studying the master’s masters, we would love to know which poets have influenced you most throughout your journey as a writer.

GRAY

In no particular order: Diannely Antigua, sam sax, Sharon Olds, Andrea Gibson, Ross Gay, Terrance Hayes, Akwaeke Emezi, Ocean Vuong, Martín Espada, John Hennessy, and so, so, so many more.