An Interview with Cara Morgan

by Katie (she/her)

K: Hi Cara! Thanks for joining me, we love your poetry. Super excited to get to know all about your creative process. So can you tell us about how you started to write poetry?

C: Yeah, I took a creative writing class in high school because that was one of the very few English electives that were around. And that was really when I first started to write.And I was like, I like this. This feels like me. And I got really into Poetry Out Loud. Are you familiar with Poetry Out Loud?

K: It sounds familiar. Could you describe it?

C: So I think it's every April because I think April is National Poetry Month. Students pick a poem to memorize and recite to the class. And then the class will vote on whose was the best to send to the school wide competition. And it goes like all the way up to nationals to the point where the people competing at nationals have to have, I think, five poems and one of them has to be over a certain number of lines. It's very, very specific. But my senior year, I was like: I'm going to get more into it this year. I'm going to really try. And I knew I wanted to do Caged Bird.

K: I love Maya Angelou, I used to read Caged Bird with my students when I taught language arts. How’d this experience inspire you?

C: Oh, yeah. I was passively familiar with it. And I was like, I know it's such a beautiful poem. And that was the first time that I was like, poems can sound cool. But yeah, in high school, and then in college, I majored in English. And I did some more creative writing my second year, a little in like creative nonfiction, and a little bit of fiction as well. But then I got really into slam. I started writing these like long form slam poetry, spoken word pieces, mainly inspired by Neil Hillborn. I'm a Neil Hillborn stan. I have a poster of him. And I have his handwriting tattooed.

K: No way. So you're his number one fan.

C: He came to the University of Maine, and I got to do a workshop with him. And he stopped me in the middle of sharing what I had written and asked me to like repeat a few lines. And he was like, that is just incredible. And I was just like, Oh, that's so cool. Oh my god. But he signed my poster and wrote: Keep being talented, please. And thank you.

So I have talented tattooed right here on my arm in his handwriting. So Neil was really great, he gave me a hug and everything. He could tell how much this meant to me. And he was like, thank you so much for coming out. Like, it was so good to meet you.

K: I love that so much. Would you say he’s your greatest inspiration?

C: I would say if I had to have one answer, Neil Hillborn, definitely check out his videos on button poetry. So OCD, Joey, and definitely The Future.

K: I've never heard of him before. I'm so excited to check out his work.

C: He's amazing. And he's such a cool person. He has a writing circle on Zoom with a discord, like sliding scale. So you pay what you can. He does that every week, with a few breaks in between. He calls them seasons. But he started that in 2020, I think, because he couldn't tour, you know, because everything was locked down.

K: Have you have you attended any of his courses or his zoom meetings before?

C: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I was really around for seasons one and two. And then it did start to get a little overwhelming for me, because there are just so many people. But I am still in the Discord community. It's so wonderful and supportive and just full of really great, talented people.

K: Okay, so what themes do you find yourself coming back to with your writing? Are any of them inspired by other pieces that you've read?

C: I think definitely hope. I think really is the one answer. And my view of it has definitely changed over time. And I think I've definitely been informed more by fiction. And especially this book Why Fish Don't Exist by Lulu Miller. This question of why do we continue? Why do we carry on? Like, how? How do we do that? We just do. And definitely stories like Lord of the Rings, I'm very, very connected to Frodo. And also The Hunger Games. Which I know is young adult, but like, it's so good. It's amazing. I love The Hunger Games.

It's so well done. But yeah, definitely a hope. I think recently, I've noticed in talking to folks that it's a really difficult topic for a lot of people. A lot of people feel hopeless, and they don't know how to find hope. So I think me writing about my relationship with how to carry on hopefully might affect other people in the way that these stories and books have affected me.

K: I really liked that you brought up the theme of hope, because I was listening to your last episode on the Sunshine Lounge. I wrote down the last line that you said in a recent episode, because I just really liked it. “The work the world needs is impossible if we get lost in despair.” I think that it like really just packs up that message that you're trying to send with your poetry very nicely into like one statement.

C: You know, I also think that despair is necessary. I think despair is necessary. I think you cannot connect to hope if you don't feel despair. And part of these conversations that I've had with people, somebody was asking, isn't hope just optimism? And I was like, No, I don't think so.

K: Right. I don't think so at all.

C: I think hope is realism. And looking, viewing the world realistically. And because thinking of it as just optimistic, I think trying to only connect with the beautiful things. I think you have to connect with the hard, awful things.And you have to sit with it and you have to feel it and you have to cry a lot.And I think connecting with, you know, both the beautiful and the unbeautiful things is part of why we're here. Maybe I don't think there's really an answer to the question of like, what is the meaning of life? But if I were to assign meaning, I think that I would say we are here to experience fully and deeply.

I think that's also like, ideally, you know, if your needs are met and you are safe and okay and fed. Hope is right now and has been the major theme of my life. And I think I'm at a place now where I can start to share that through my writing.

K: How do you feel like your writing has changed over time? Like within maybe the past year, the past two years, because you mentioned that you're feeling like you're actually able to convey that theme. So what do you think has changed?

C: Honestly, I think assessing my privileges as a person. I used to just write about how I felt. You know, I think that's where a lot of people start. I used to only really write about my experience, the things that I saw, things that happened to me. And now, you know, being aware with a fully formed brain and having the ability, thanks to technology and the internet to actually see the world. I think things happening in the world, history and, you know, current events have definitely changed what I have to say. And now, to me, only writing about the way that I feel and the things that I see doesn't feel as important anymore. And I think I have a duty to the craft of my art to talk about those things.

So I think definitely deconstructing a lot. You know, ableism, transphobia, capitalism, racism, you know, all of these oppressive systems. I definitely do read back through even things that I wrote a few years ago. And I'm just like, this is not important. I don't think it's what I'm meant to say, if that makes sense.

K: So you feel like now your work has a new focus – helping people understand topics that they wouldn't have if they read an article or something to help connect with emotion through poetry.

C: Yeah. And I don't know if I'd say I'm totally there yet. I'm not sure if I would ever feel like it's fully realized, but there's definitely been a shift. Like I can't watch what's happening in Gaza and just like write about my Tuesday. It feels wrong.

K: That being said, what project are you the most proud of?

C: I think I have two answers. Definitely the sunshine lounge. I think that is something that feels really important now for me to do because that started out with me reading previously published poems by established poets. And then I was like, well, what if I get people to submit their own stuff? And so then it became like an exercise for me in synesthesia. I'm really proud of the Sunshine Lounge and I have a lot of fun doing it. Brings me a lot of joy.

K: I was just listening to it and I really enjoy it. And the songs are excellent. There was a couple that I discovered through the sunshine lounge.

C: Yeah, I started it really just for fun. Yeah, because I hit a point where I realized that I only listened to really mainstream music or like I just replayed a lot of stuff that I already knew. And one day I was just like, I am missing so much. So I really wanted to like dive into the underground of Spotify. And there are a few artists I found early on, I played Corook before they went viral and I played Flyana Boss before they went viral.

K: Oh, I love them. I f*cking love Flyana Boss. I love their videos.

C: I’m really proud of the Sunshine Lounge. And for a piece I’m proud of, I'm really excited about my For You Page series. Part four is coming out, so my For You Page series is meant to read like you're scrolling through TikTok. TikTok is a wonderful place to build community. You can really connect with other people who are like you. And there was a focus on, you know, like queer people, fat people, disabled people, people of color, and just like joy. And then it has really turned into, you know, you can be scrolling and you can see like, oh, what a cute dog. And then like two videos down is like a dead kid. And it's just like such a strange experience.

K: Yeah, it's emotionally draining.

C: Yeah. So part four is about Gaza. And it may be the longest thing I've written. I'm very, very proud of it. It really turns the theme of the first few parts into your phone becoming like a portal you enter into. You can bear witness to so many different things. And you know how TikTok has felt so special during this time, because we're able to see things that aren't being shown like anywhere else, really. So it's kind of about that too. But I'm really proud of that piece and that series. I'm really inspired by the internet.

K: I love this concept of structure. And I'm excited about these topics that are coming up in our conversation too, because it really matches the themes that we're using for this edition. So that's very on point. So the last question I have for you, what do you hope to accomplish this year in your writing career?

C: That's such a big question. I think I definitely will continue to come into my voice as a poet, because I think poets are very important. And I want to be the kind of poet that says things. I think I feel I just called to and I think it's important to use my art for activism. Instead of escapism. Because I think, you know, I was really settled into a lot of privilege there to be able to write in that way while living in this world. And as I recognize that and deconstruct it, I think there's a lot more than I could be doing with my work, I think. So I've been writing a lot more about disability and writing about disability in terms of like, saying what I have to say and not being scared of what the response is going to be. I think also being more blunt, in that way too.

I also have this goal to write a manuscript that has a one unifying purpose. Manuscripts I put together thus far are more just like collections of poems that I wrote during like specific times of my life. And I want to write something with a specific goal.

C: So something I'm working on right now is I have this short story called There is a Dead Body Here. It's a horror story. I've gotten into writing horror and it's very fun. Horror is such an interesting genre to like talk about different topics. And it's a horror story where essentially it's about self imposed gaslighting. What happens is a haunted house situation and the house gaslights the main character to death. So I've written it out like in prose and I think I want to write a collection of poems that's like the same story but told in a poetic way. With like different perspectives. Like the perspective from the house. I started working on that and I'm having a lot of fun.

K: That sounds amazing. I would love to see it when you're done. That's really exciting.

C: Oh, definitely it’s something that I'm really proud of. But I just been reading a lot of like really cool poetry collections like Magic with Skin on that are really changing how I see genre. And I want to play with that too.

K: What other work inspires you?

C: I want to talk about “I, the Revolution” and Exercises in Devotion. My peers really inspire me. So definitely, I would say it started with the Maya Angelou poem. Yes, in high school. Like her lyricism and just like her rhythm and repetition. And I just love how her poems sound. And I read this poem that I can't find for the life of me. But it was by Charles Simic in college. And it was about war, I believe. Okay, running from bombs. And I was like, Whoa, poems can say something.

But as I've gotten deeper into poetry, I think I'm most inspired by the people around me writing. So Exercises in Devotion by River E. Styx is a self published chapbook. It's really about love in different ways. So Like love for yourself, queer love. River is trans and disabled.

C: And it was really the first time that I bought a book and was like, I see myself in this. I really see myself in this. I feel like I could have written these things. And then “I, the Revolution” by Valois J. Vera is, here it says on the back, a collection of poems that screams for justice for marginalized people. And poems about disability, justice. And these are just like, if you want to read something that has you like, yeah, yeah, I, yes, I want to be part of this. I am part of this.

These poems are just gorgeous. And also his use of rhythm and the way that these poems like beating like a heart like there's like lifeblood in these pages. And Val, also known as Crip Lyrical, is just such an incredible, incredible poet.

Check out Cara’s work at @caramorganpoet and @sunshineloungefm on IG. Their book, Dear Dieseased Body, is available through BottleCap Press.