Poet Interview: adam Shove
adam Shove is an Estonian English poet, who writes poems laden with cryptic metaphors and pop culture references; doused in vodka and thrift shop ideas. Inspired by RZA, Frank Ocean, second-hand clothes, models, tattoos and expensive cars.
When did you become a poet? How did you know it was the right medium for your stories?
Am I? I guess it just is the right thing, it’s so much more than life to me. In saying that, recently my mom gave me my old school reports and all but one of my teachers said that I didn’t have an understanding of poetry, how I couldn’t write it, but I never saw any of this until nearly twenty years later. Maybe they were right back then, but not now. Mrs Cargill told me to stick with it, I guess she was the one who was right.
What inspires you to write?
Everything, no, that’s a really clichéd answer to give. That’s so corny, it’s like when people say they need a prompt to be able to write. Shit, life is a prompt, you just need to know when the moments are happening and to be able to document it. I feel most comfortable just putting on instrumental music (J Dilla beats or instrumental versions of D’Angelo or BANKS) and just building everything up from a single word or a sound. But I consider myself to be a person who monologues on life, you just need to read between the lines like a barcode to fully get what I’m saying.
Who are some of your literary or artistic crushes or influences?
Emily Perkovich, that woman is my sister. I have her back, her sides and if need be I’d be there throwing elbows. Frank Ocean, there’s so much poetry to how he writes; I tell my mom that my biggest regret is that I can only hear Nights for the first time once. She doesn’t get what I mean by that, but meh. Dennis Coles is a wild compulsive storyteller, Philip K Dick had bizarre titles before emo bands, Jamie Meline and his dystopian rhymes are found throughout so much of my poetry along with Ian Bavitz.
What are you working on next/what was your last project, and can you tell us a little about it?
Currently, I’m working on a book called Desire, that’s set in Tallinn. It’s a series of love poems that never mention the word love. That will be part five in my Lost Of The Heat Of The City series, earlier in 2021 I finished up writing Fling, that was set in Amsterdam, which was so different from my previous work, I call it my dirty book, or my XXX thoughts. I guess after Coast, I had to make a huge left field turn to not be complacent.
What are some common themes you see in your own work?
I talk a lot about food, cars and fashion. Grey Poupon is something that I often mention, but that’s an inside joke. I try to avoid in a full-frontal way talking about ubiquitous topics, I use food a lot as a metaphor because it’s a means of being able to talk in a different language to what others do; isn’t that what poetry as an art is about? It is to me. Cars, that like poetry is a dying art; guess I like the idea of looking after it like an antique. Fashion is laced throughout my work, I often talk about thrift stores and 511’s, custom-made Vans. I’ve not bought a new t-shirt in years, maybe I should, but I’d rather buy books.
Do you believe in writer’s block?
If I can’t write, I admit defeat for the day and continue when I feel ready. Really, it’s an ecumenical matter that I’m not intelligent enough to understand or answer. I mean clearly, it exists to people, and it can be called multiple things, a slump, a brain fart, but I don’t really know how to answer the question, sometimes I just need to find a new beat, sometimes I need to find something in an old beat that I haven’t heard before.
Do you feel that sharing your poetry is a vulnerable process?
I know that so many people say yes, but I don’t. I wouldn’t say that I have a layer of separation between me and the poetry, but I certainly have my personal life guarded through multiple cryptic metaphors in my cyphers or poems, whatever. I don’t lay me full-on display. Well, I do, but there’s a lot of reading and trying to unlock what's happening to be fully able to get to it.
How many unfinished or unpublished books do you have?
Two that I’m working on, two that nobody will ever see; and one that I destroyed, and I’d never be able to remember. I move on to getting my prep work for my next project when I’m doing my checks for mistakes. If I have poems that I don’t think are good enough I find the lines I like and reuse them, I don’t want to be someone who dies with hundreds if not thousands of poems that someone else has to go through and try to decipher.
What is the first book that made you cry?
Sylvia Plath, The Colossus. I can’t really explain why, it just did.
Do you take poetry classes or read books on poetry?
No, I guess that I don’t want to be told how to do something that someone could or couldn’t tell you is right, as it’s all subjective. How much does Rupi Kaur charge for her poetry masterclasses? ;) All I do with my time is read poetry books, but no, I don’t read books on how to produce poetry, mainly because I don’t limit myself to a singular topic.
Do family and "real life" friends read your work?
Some people know I write, but for the most part, nobody knows that I do my writing hustle. Of the people who do know I write, very few ask me about what I’m talking about, but when they do ask me about it, most of it goes over their heads for the most part. I remember back when I must have been in my early twenties, and he found some of my notes and tried to tell me that if I was going to do poetry, it wasn’t for him. If a friend wouldn’t give love, then are they a friend.
What does "good poetry" mean to you?
Good poetry is something that chips away at your mind long after you have read it. I spend days musing over things, so I can have three or four poems from different writers in my head for days or even weeks at a time, all the while I’m writing my shit.
What is your revision process like?
I check for mistakes. I don’t really know what else to say. That’s all I do because I think so much when writing on what words to pick or what poems I’m going to include in a project. I’m not one of those people who do like 14 rounds of edits and makes sure that I have multiple different styles of subject and rhyme schemes. Who uses things like iambic pentameter?
What is your writing process like?
I think up lines all day, write them onto scraps of paper, when I get home I find a way to string them all together on my phone, while I’m putting it all together I start thinking, do I want to put a co-sign to someone else in, take a shot, subliminal diss at someone. But my phone throws rhyming words at me, it’s all convoluted if I’m to be honest.
How do you research for your poems?
Travel, drink, enjoy life. No, that’s such a bullshit answer. I will pick my theme on what the underlying idea of the book is, at the moment what city I want to set the book in, how do I want to title them, when I did Paris and London I used underground stations, for my current project which is set in Tallinn, I’m using tram stops. But I think about word choices, have I learnt any new words that I want to use?