Poetry News
A new writing studio, writing poetry in my sleep, and a new Instagram page devoted to my poetry.
My partner, Claudia Campazzo, and I recently started renting a studio where we can work on our art. Claudia is a renowned botanical artist, and hasn’t had as much time or space as she’d like to devote herself to her art recently. And my tiny office at home is cozy but isn’t the most conducive to immersing myself in my writing, especially poetry. Here are a few photos.
Poetry needs time and space and quiet. You don’t crank out a 5,000-word poem in an afternoon. (Not that I’ve written a 5,000-word poem, nor do intend to.) Two of the most recent poems I’ve written I wrote almost in my sleep. One night I woke up around 4 am, and as I was trying to get back to sleep, a line came to me.
Beneath the moon and stars, the horrors of daylight appear calm and docile
I usually keep a small notebook by my bed, but reaching to the bedside table, I couldn’t find it. I didn’t want to turn on the light, but my hand did find my phone, so I opened the Notes app and dictated the line, closed the app and my eyes and . . . another line came to me.
Above the naked plain, the universe waits with trepidation
This kept happening until my semi-conscious mind decided I was done. But then another line came to me . . . for another poem, apparently.
Her ears are frozen in daylight.
And so on. When I woke up, I checked my phone and to my surprise and bewilderment, there were two nearly finished poems waiting for me.
I’m not really sure whether either of these are finished, but they seem to be. I have learned over the many years of my life that I can’t direct things as people often wish to. What happens to me is often more important than what I try to make happen. For example, you’ll notice that I have signed these two poems Scott David Nygaard. I recently received proofs for the poem of mine, “Adicto,” that will be soon published in an anthology of new Latin-American poems called El peso del deseo. I was surprised to see the inclusion of my middle name, but it seemed fitting. Possibly because people in Latin America are often referred to by three names: their first name, their father’s last name, and their mother’s last name. To register for health care here in Chile, I had to do that, so my name to the medical bureaucracy here became Scott Nygaard Damuth. Anyway, I decided to make Scott David Nygaard my poetic nom de plume.
I also recently created a new Instagram page dedicated to my poetry, to differentiate it from my personal page, where most people know me as a musician. I called the new page scottdavidnygaardpoeta, in part because I intend to include Spanish and English versions of all the poems I post there.
I’ll end this Substack post with an “older” poem (pre-2000) I’ve posted there.
