“Coffee”: Six Questions for Matthew Dickman
Matthew Dickman was born on August 20, 1975, in Portland, Oregon. He attended Portland Community College and graduated with a B.A. from the University of Oregon in 2001. Matthew and his twin brother, Michael, also a poet, studied creative writing at the University of Texas at Austin. They both went on to have brief stints as actors, featuring as twins in Minority Report, a film directed by Steven Spielberg. Matthew Dickman has written three full-length poetry collections: All-American Poem, published by American Poetry Review (2008); Mayakovsky’s Revolver, published by W. W. Norton and Company (2012); and Wonderland, published by Norton (2018). His collections have received numerous awards, including the 2008 American Poetry Review/Honickman First Book Prize in Poetry, the 2009 Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and the inaugural May Sarton Award from the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Currently, he resides in Portland, Oregon, and is a visiting assistant professor of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Oregon.
I came across one of Matthew Dickman’s poems, “Coffee,” while flipping through the 2011 edition of Best American Poetry. The poem caught my attention because it differed from the rest. It focused on a simple everyday object in coffee, hence the title, and was able to create and center the poem around it. As I kept reading, I began noticing techniques such as enjambment, which gave the poem a certain flow that others didn’t have. Every time I read it, I came away with a different meaning, leading me to want to interview him and learn more about his ideas. I then read some of Dickman’s other poems, like “Wonderland” and “Empty Lot,” which were able to tackle big important topics while focusing on such small everyday things. This juxtaposition in his work, combined with the emotional journey his poems took me on, made me excited to interview him and learn more.
Coffee, hence the title, seems to be the central metaphor in your poem “Coffee”. What led you to choose this, and is there a story behind it? If so, could you please share?
The poem “Coffee” simply came from wanting to write a poem and at the same time I was drinking coffee and thinking about how much I loved coffee! I had also just finished writing a suite of poems about my older brother’s suicide and wanted a break from writing about his death. But, in the end, I couldn’t avoid it as the poem naturally found its way to him at the end.
In “Coffee” your use of enjambment made your poem stand out to me. What would you say is your favorite example of enjambment, and what was the intended effect of it?
I love enjambment. I love how it takes a line, breaks it, and continues. It’s like a river flowing or a waterfall. It offers speed and can create multiple meanings.
For example a line like:
I never loved anyone as much as you.
When enjambed:
I never loved anyone
as much as you.
Changes the meaning for a moment before reconnecting again.
During my research, I found out that both you and your twin brother are poets. Did he influence you in some way to follow in his footsteps, or was it just a coincidence? Also, in “Coffee” the speaker’s brother plays an important role in the poem. Does this have some connection to you and your brother?
My twin brother, the poet Michael Dickman, and I began writing poems around the same time in high school. And we both influence each other deeply. All of our poems have each other’s fingerprints on them. The brother in “Coffee” is our older brother, Darin.
“Coffee” contains many sensory details regarding the smell and taste of coffee. What role do sensory details play in your writing process?
A lot of my poems, if not all of them, come from the world of memory so sensory details come up all the time. They are, in part, the body of memory: smell, taste, touch. They are the ghosts of memory that we can access.
Do you expect your readers to interpret your poem in a certain way, or do you intentionally leave room for multiple interpretations?
I never have any expectations for any reader. I have hopes! I hope they can connect to something I write, I hope they have an experience when reading something I write, but that connection or experience is up to them. I would have no way of controlling that.
How long did it take you to write “Coffee,” and would you change anything about it if you had the chance?
I wrote “Coffee” in an afternoon. Later that week I made some small changes. So let’s call it two days of writing. I wouldn’t change anything in the poem today. There’s no reason to. That poem is an articulation of my mind and heart in that moment. Why re-write history of your heart or mind? The poem is not a “perfect” poem if that means anything at all. But I am a human being which means I am not perfect and have no business trying to make “perfect” things. In my writing I am only ever trying to reach out to myself and others.