The Inspirational Artist Series spotlights some of the artists featured in our issues and anthologies, and who have moved us in specific ways.

Today’s guest is Poet Daniel Lyons, whose work has been featured in our magazine.

How does a poem begin for you? Does it start with an image, a form or a particular theme?

My poems always begin with an emotion I can’t quite define. The specific nostalgia of autumn air, for example. Each of my poems is an exploration of that emotion, a definition, as it were.

Are there any forms you haven’t tried yet but would like to?

After several creative writing courses at Western Washington University, I think the only poetry form I haven’t tried yet is epic poetry.

What is your relationship with your speaking voice and your written voice?

My written voice is considerably more articulate and less prone to hyperbole than my spoken voice. As a high-functioning autistic, writing is a more accessible way for me to communicate (most of the time) with other human beings compared to the spoken word.

Have you considered getting other people to read your poetry or is it important for you to be the one to perform your poetry to an audience?

I don’t know if this has ever been an issue for me. It would be strange to hear someone else read my poetry, though I have no fundamental objection to it. Given a choice, I suppose I would prefer to perform my poetry myself, simply because I consider rhythm and pacing to be the soul of poetry.

How important is accessibility of the meaning of your poems? Should we have to work hard to “solve” the poems and discover their deeper meanings?

Poetry is like abstract expressionist painting, or at least my poems are. The point is not what it means but what it makes you feel. Whatever that is, is what it means.

Has your own opinion or idea of what poetry is changed since you first started writing poetry?

I started writing poems when I was in elementary school. It used to be very important to me that poetry rhyme, also that it tell a story. Now I regard it more as a way of painting with words, a way of capturing one moment or state in time, whose past and future are entirely open to interpretation.

Anything else we should know?

Since my father and grandmother passed away in 2020, I have embraced painting as a creative outlet, in addition to working full time and attending online school with Washington State University to pursue a second Bachelor’s, this time in Political Science.

While it is one of my dreams to write about politics and history for a living, I try to keep my personal politics out of my creative work — not out of my themes, but out of my creative content. In this, I draw inspiration from my favorite novel, Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess, whose politics were about as different from my own as it is possible to be, were subtly evident in all of his work, and yet which I am always able to forgive because Burgess filled every page he ever wrote with humor, warmth, wit, and compassion. As we gird ourselves for another round of divisiveness, I hope we can all try to imbibe some of that spirit in our creativity, in our personal relations, and in ourselves.

Changing Seasons - Daniel Lyons


gilded autumn lightfall
glows on leaves golden
as the disappearing summer…
what a wonderful time to be…

the summer remnants fall
on fall leaves glowing
with the light of season’s dying…
what a wonderful time to be…

wintry air blast mocks
the warm colors that blanket
so much hibernating life…
what a wonderful time to be.

Changing Seasons is featured in issue 2 of the Auroras & Blossoms Poetry Journal.

Bio:

Daniel Lyons graduated from Western Washington University in 2016 with a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing. He is a published poet and the self-published author of All-American Aphrodite.

Daniel lives in SeaTac, Washington.

Links:

Daniel, thank you for answering our questions and supporting Auroras & Blossoms!

Cendrine & David

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