Shirley Bolstok talks about her style, what inspires her and what advice she has for aspiring authors.

 

In conversation with Karunesh Kumar Agrawal, Managing Editor, Cyberwit.net, Shirley Bolstok talks about her style, what inspires her and what advice she has for aspiring authors.

 

Karunesh Kumar Agrawal: Tell us about you and your background.

Shirley Bolstok:  

I grew up in Denver Colorado in the U.S. My parents were first generation American as they came from Europe after the liberation in World War II which helped me become more multi-cultural. I am very free spirited and tend to be a little eccentric. I live in my head really as I enjoy art, writing, theatre and study quantum physics and I love history. I also design jewellery and paint with oils and acrylics.

Karunesh Kumar Agrawal: What inspires you to write poetry?

Shirley Bolstok: 

My father was a poet, so I guess I got his D.N.A.  I love the use of words in formulating ideas and deep thought. There is as synergy to poetry as it takes on its own life force. It is a legacy that survives thousands of years and gives us a way of connecting emotionally to different concepts and viewpoints throughout time. It is the art of words and I see it as a legacy that will outlive me. People will know me by my poetry past the time of my existence here. Poetry is an imprint of my soul.

Karunesh Kumar Agrawal: Do you write every single day?

Shirley Bolstok: 

No, I wish I had the time as I keep very busy. I do get ideas for poetry every day though.

 

Karunesh Kumar Agrawal: What is the measure of success as a poet?

Shirley Bolstok: 

I think a measure of success is when your poem translates a feeling that another cannot communicate in the way they would like to. A poem should give perspective and inspire. When the use of words transcribes understanding, a vision or takes you on a journey in thought, you have succeeded.

Karunesh Kumar Agrawal: Tell us about poem Broken Doll. When and why you wrote this poem.

Shirley Bolstok: 

There seems to be a virus in humanity where the macabre is considered fascinating. It is an archetype of primordial images that reside in the subconscious. When we cannot save ourselves from perceived inequities, we often try to save others in lieu of reflections of our own ragged edges. But perfection is never achieved as it is only impressions of what we consider perfect. It is the dark side of beauty and of our egos. Instead of greatness, we see the destruction of our grandiosity. A metamorphosis occurs, and we see brokenness in its place. Our frail complexities mirror a beautiful fragile doll who too often is a real person becoming shattered trying to live in a fragmented world. This was inspired by a beautiful actress who took her life.  She was a “Live Goddess” in life and a “Broken Doll” in death creating a legend.

Karunesh Kumar Agrawal: Impassioned Soul features many good poems. I want to know which one is your best and why?

My best poems are always the ones that immortalize real people and real experiences. It’s hard to pick an actual favourite because each one I wrote was its ultimate manifestation of its topic. Survivors Child was my own expression of my parents being holocaust survivors. I had it published prior in a newspaper in remembrance of my father. I went to a gathering that was related to such and people were pulling the poem out of their wallets and purses as they were carrying it with them. This made it one of my “best” poems.

 

Karunesh Kumar Agrawal: I see you have written two books of quotes, Apples from the Tree of Life and Grapes From The Vines of Life. Who inspired you for these books?

Shirley Bolstok: 

I was always writing down little inspirations and my own quotes until I had pages and pages of them. I loved quote books, so I found there was wisdom and philosophies that can be taken from anything and anywhere. All quotes are originals in both books. I also liked and found collaborations for different viewpoints. Children say amazing things, so I included Madison Lily Vogel, whose Mom wrote down the quotes and was the real author in the back section of Apples from the Tree of Life. I also included a collaboration with Maryse Schouella, who resides in Brazil in Grapes From the Vines of Life as she wrote very inspirational and beautiful quotes as well. I am the north side she is the south. 

Karunesh Kumar Agrawal: Which contemporary poets do you personally believe will be remembered in the coming years and why?

Shirley Bolstok: 

This is a combination of song writers and poets. Sylvia Plath for her stark concepts that penetrated our own realities. I wrote a poem for her in my Book called “She sleeps in the middle of a song.” Bob Dillon for his brilliant use of words and their interactions. RUMI, the ultimate poet of all time, will reign forever as a poet of love and wisdom and remains contemporary to this day.  I am a huge fan of Elizabeth Barrett Browning who painted symphonies with her Sonnets. Jack Kerouac was an iconoclast in his field with his beatnik poetry and still reigns in generations of free thinkers.    

Karunesh Kumar Agrawal: Has your idea of what poetry is changed since you began writing poems?

Shirley Bolstok: 

I would not say it’s changed but rather it broadened it. I am more experimental in my use of words and concepts. I still prefer prose to free form as my “style”, in poetry as I like the synchronicity of the rhyme and words.  I write both regardless. Haiku was something that I grew to really appreciate. The contradiction in Haiku is its mostly free form and I really think about what I am creating when I write it. It is a different type of challenge in working with words as it often works with abstruse concepts.

Karunesh Kumar Agrawal: Your poems are based on your personal experience or other things such as facts?

Shirley Bolstok: 

All, of the above, plus I jump into others for their experiences. I like looking through their eyes and get a different view or take other than it was just me. I don’t stray from darker topics and don’t always keep everything light, loving and happy although I love that type of inspiration. Life can be complex, and I like to write about the dualities that present themselves. As far as fact; I think fact or truth is ever changing. The only real fact we know is what we feel and experience and what we accept as “solid fact” and is ethereal.  A poem or haiku cannot be a fact, it can only present a side of the fact in a turning world that throws facts around. Love is the concluding truth that is fluid. Love also gets stuck in boxes of our lives and can take on a form that is unrecognizable. Poetry transcribes boxes of experiences that touch our lives.

Karunesh Kumar Agrawal: Your experience of writing Haiku.

Shirley Bolstok: 

It is 17 sounds of all senses. I prefer the 5-7-5 English Dogma of Haiku most of the time, although it really is only 17 sounds or syllables according to definition. I just have a thing about combining abstract into structure.

Karunesh Kumar Agrawal: Do you have any advice for other writers?

Shirley Bolstok: 

Let writing be your greatest outlet and don’t be afraid to bare your soul. Humanity needs you. Trust your instincts and write what is being embodied in you. Experiment and uphold tradition at the same time. Be conservative and be outrageous. Use writing as a way of getting to know yourself and connect. Respect other’s writings as well and never compare yourself. Let it flow. It does not hurt to take a class in language and its use of proper nouns and verbs. Learn a new word every day and its meanings.

Karunesh Kumar Agrawal: What is your motivation for writing more?

Shirley Bolstok: 

Writing and creativity is the food of the soul, it lives within me and I am grateful for having the freedom to share with all of you! You all inspire me, that is my motivation.

Karunesh Kumar Agrawal: Thank you very much.

Shirley Bolstok: 

Thank you, Karunesh, and thank you for the wonderful support and opportunity you have given me as you have changed my life! Blessings to you!

Shirley Bolstok was born and raised in Denver, Colorado. “My parents are Holocaust Survivors. Writing has always been an integral part of my life. I like writing about the shifting of our existence, whether it is ethereal, emotional or physical. I have had many publications of my work in newspapers, anthologies and online magazines and now have the opportunity to consolidate it in a volume of poetry. Growing up as a child of Survivors of the Holocaust has given me a very different perspective of humanity from an early age. I have many contrasting views of the windows of life. Each has its own dimension and density. I have a diverse background and education and have appreciated the variety of insights that it has brought me. We are powerful beings with the ability to create straight from the heart of God.”