A Chat with Sabina Leybold
Sabina Leybold is a copywriter by day and poet by night. Her work has been heard at the Portland Poetry Slam and been read in Honeyfire Literary Magazine and NEW NORMAL Zine. You can find Sabina hunting for street art in Philadelphia or on Instagram at @finding.finesse.
When did you become a poet? How did you know it was the right medium for your stories?
The earliest poetry I remember writing was in seventh grade for a school assignment to write an “I’m from” poem about where we were from, both literally and metaphorically. I had always loved writing, but until that point, all of my stories were about perfect fictional protagonists who I aspired to be. With the “I’m from” poem, there was no hiding vulnerability behind the ideal. Turns out that’s what I want and need from writing—to explore what I’m actually made of and find catharsis through its imperfection.
What inspires you to write?
Writing deepens my connection to both my inner self and the literary tradition that surrounds me. Sometimes I feel these connections simultaneously (for example, writing after another poet) and sometimes I fluctuate between feeling one more strongly than the other. This thread is what keeps me going.
What are you currently reading?
I almost always read a fiction, a nonfiction, and a poetry book at the same time, so I can pick what to read depending on my mood. To that end, I’m currently reading The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn for fiction, an essay collection called Palestine: A Socialist Introduction edited by Sumaya Awad and Brian Bean, and Hanif Abdurraqib’s poetry book Fortune for Your Disaster.
What was your last project?
I recently finished 100 Days of Cutout Prompts, a project in which, for 100 days straight, 1) provided a prompt to the Instagram community based on an image found in magazines, junk mail, etc. and 2) wrote a poem with words cut from those same print sources. At the end of the project, I collected all 100 prompts and poems into a pay-what-you-wish e-book supporting InsideOUT Writers, an organization that provides creative writing classes and other social support to reduce recidivism for currently and formerly incarcerated youth.
What are some common themes you see in your own work?
My husband jokes that I write about blood and death a lot (which is true), but that theme isn’t necessarily an obsession with morbidity. Instead, I think that my work often examines what it means to be alive and human, especially what it means to have a body and experience the world through it. Hurt and death are part of that—and so are healing and birth! Also, I can’t stop writing about cities or the ocean.
How do you beat writer's block?
If I’m low on ideas (or the energy to follow through on them), I turn to visual art, nature, and people-watching. To me, the border between the quotidian and the novel is crucial for inspiration, so I go on frequent walks and runs around my city and often stop to relish in street art, an unusual tree, or interactions between strangers or families. Even better if I can get out of my city too, which heightens my awareness of the world and its eccentricities.
Do you feel that sharing your poetry is a vulnerable process?
It can be! Sharing regularly on Instagram has helped lower the stakes and my self-imposed pressure to be a poetic genius, but that sense of vulnerability and imposter syndrome does creep back in when reading published collections I deeply admire.
What influenced you to become a poet?
In high school, I discovered a love for spoken word poetry through the Portland Poetry Slam and Clementine von Radics in particular. That love continued into my college spoken word group, but after graduation, I took a hiatus from poetry that lasted until 2020, when the pandemic sent me back into the arms of Billy Collins, Sonia Sanchez, Mary Oliver, and so many more.
What does "good poetry" mean to you?
Claudia Rankine once said that “poetry is the place where feeling gets investigated.” To me, the more a poet can probe their own feelings in order to evoke them precisely on the page, the better.
How do you research for your poems?
I love to add small scientific, historical, and cultural references to my pieces, but I’m not an expert in any of those topics. Google is my best friend for reminding me of all the terms and concepts from ecology, biology, chemistry, and physics that I learned in school and have since forgotten. For cultural or historical phenomena, Wikipedia often has surprisingly poetic descriptions of a moment and its impact on society, and I’m not above admitting how much time I’ve spent going down the related page rabbit hole when I’m supposed to be writing.