The Landing: An Interview Series seeks to gain insight into the diverse creative processes of some of our favorite writers with the hopes that we can inspire others through this sharing. Each quarter we will highlight one previously published poem in a short interview.

Cortney Lamar Charleston’s poem, “The Details Get a Little Fuzzy, I Apologize” was published February 2017 at Heart Journal.

or they said something about killing, or they said
something about a school, or they said something
about a boy, and a killing, and a school, and a boy,
a killing, a school, a boy — one who liked a girl
so much, who wanted a girl so much it hurt,
or so much he hurt, or they said, or said something
about her body being hurt, or they said something
about a body, as if it was some inanimate object.

Cortney discusses his interest in merging disparate vocabularies, how juxtaposed images are transformed by associative thinking, and how, as writers, “at every turn, we must humanize, humanize, humanize.” Read our interview here.