“Avoidance”: Five Questions for Elaine Equi
Elaine Equi’s latest book is The Intangibles from Coffee House Press. A new collection, Out of the Blank, is forthcoming in 2025. Her poems have appeared in the American Poetry Review, Brooklyn Rail, Big Other, Plume, New American Writing, and many other journals. In 2023, she served as guest editor of the annual anthology Best American Poetry. Throughout the years her work has become internationally known as her poems have been translated into Italian, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and Arabic. She has taught at many different creative writing programs at New York University and City College of New York.
“Avoidance” is one of Elaine Equi’s poems that appears in Best American Poetry 2024. I chose to interview her after reading this poem because I felt it really reflected a recurring problem in today’s world with people wasting their time on things that bring them no joy. In the interview she talked about distractions and how when we need to get something done we waste our time doing busy work and activities that just fill up our important time. As I interviewed her, I realized that distractions come in two forms: one that brings joy, like watching your favorite show, and another that fills time with meaningless activities that prevent you from doing what you need or want to do. That is the type of distraction that is shown in the poem “Avoidance”. It is the random distractions that take your time away and drain your energy. At the end of the poem the distractions fade, and the task that was being avoided is finally completed. The lines “I’ve also put my book down and have begun / writing this poem– obviously the activity/ I was avoiding all along” captures moving on to the important work. Distraction brought motivation at the end. The way I interpret this poem is that in the world today there are all kinds of distractions and you have to ask yourself how you get the real work done and where to focus your time.
Given that the film you are watching and the book you are reading in the poem are not “so great either,” do you feel we often squander our attention on poor quality things or activities?
To be honest, I rather like the idea of squandering my attention on something unproductive. It’s sort of how I got into writing poetry. Of course, I love poetry, but it’s not the most practical of pursuits
Is distraction part of your creative process? Do poems often come to you when you’re doing something else?
It certainly is. I like to write about distraction because I feel it’s a big part of everyone’s daily life. So many things are always competing for our attention. How do we cope with it?
Often, I like being distracted, but I think there are different kinds of distraction. I enjoy being absorbed in something silly or relaxing like watching cat videos. What I don’t like is the jumpy restless feeling where your mind can’t settle on anything which is more like the feeling I’m talking about in “Avoidance.”
Most of the time, my poems are pretty clear, though it often takes a lot of effort for me to find that focus. Distraction can motivate you to crystalize your ideas or it can be a detour where you discover something new.
Given the repeated criticism of the film “I’m not watching the movie,” “the film like an unpleasant topic,” “something about it offends me,” and “pretentious dated melodrama,” what was the film and what prompted you to sit down and watch it in the first place?
It was probably something on Turner Classic Movies that my husband and I put on because we couldn’t find anything else. I don’t remember much of it except that it was about a rich couple getting a divorce and I didn’t like either of them. Maybe I was just in the wrong mood.
Regarding the lines “It would seem any activity / one chooses might be motivated by the desire / to get away from something else,” do you feel this applies to almost everyone as they go throughout the day completing tasks large or small? Do you do this often?
I don’t think we’re always aware, at least I’m not, of when we’re doing something because we really want to, or in order to get away from something else. Often, it’s a combination of both. What made it fun for me to write this poem was how in that moment I saw my decision-making process more clearly.
When you wrote the poem “Avoidance” did you already know the subject before you turned the movie on and picked up the book? Or did it come to you during the act of avoiding?
The subject came to me during the act of avoiding. I can almost never write about a subject I pick out in advance. It usually has to evolve as I’m writing it. Also, I often find that what you consider to be “bad” movies or books can be just as inspiring as good ones. Maybe more so, since they’re less intimidating.
These lines, “Not only am I busy avoiding the movie, / I am using it as an excuse to avoid continuing / to read the book I had started” interest me and makes me wonder why people will do things that do not bring them joy just to avoid the thing they need to do or even want to ultimately?
Now that is a truly profound question which I won’t even attempt to answer. Why we do things that don’t bring us joy is something we should ask ourselves every day. I think it’s the perfect note to end on.