Mary Lou Buschi is the author of the new poetry collection Blue Physics. Her other poetry collections include Paddock. She is a special education teacher in the Bronx, and she lives in Nyack, New York.
Q: Over how long a period did you write the poems in Blue Physics?
A: The shaping, tightening, and editing took about four years. I began writing the manuscript during lockdown. However, there are two poems, “Gettysburg” and “Body Parts Messenger,” that are older than four years, but they fit into the reoccurring theme of absence, so I included them.
Q: How was the collection’s title--also the title of one of the poems--chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: Blue Physics had a few other titles until the real bones of the book emerged. “Blue” appears or is suggested throughout the book. I was also teaching a few units on physics in my high school (something I never imagined I’d do).
The study of matter, its motion and behavior through space and time; essentially what moves us seemed to get at the elusive character of John (who disappeared) as well as the other missing boys in the collection.
Q: The poet Jennifer Martelli said of the book, “Absence is weighty in Mary Lou Buschi's Blue Physics.” What do you think of that assessment?
A: I think Jennifer’s assessment is spot on. My brother’s disappearance and murder was life altering for my family. The memory of him and what we never knew about him grew. The enormity never waned—an expansive absence that shaped all of us and ultimately the book.
Q: How did you decide on the order in which the poems would appear in the collection?
A: There are so many ways a collection can be ordered. I work intuitively rather than deliberately, which means everything takes me a lot longer.
When I look at my wall of poetry books, I see albums. When I begin to shape a collection I read a poem, especially thinking about the last line, and listen to how that line/poem will meet the next poem.
Maybe it’s a change in mood or style I am going for, an intentional disruption. I tend to enjoy leaps, where a poem that could have been connected to a section sequentially, is found later in a collection, like an echo that brings the reader back to a thread they were following.
After the structure feels right, I look for spaces that may need a hinge for fluidity. Finally, I write the opening poem last. I suppose that’s backward design.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: Right now, I am in-between poetry projects, but I get up every morning at 4:00 a.m. to see what happens. I give myself about an hour to edit, write, play, and read. It’s wonderful because no one is expecting anything.
I am also trying my hand at a YA novel. I’m writing it with my students in mind. Their unique voices and desires. Hopefully I can see that through to the end. I am terrible with plot. That’s why I’m a poet.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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