FRANCISCO
SERRANO

Name, pronoun,and where you are right now?

Ok, Erin Perez, my pronouns are she her, and I’m in Panama City, Panama

When did you write your first poem?

Actually, it was 2 years ago I think...like September two years ago. I actually pulled it up while going through the questions the other day and it’s like a really bad poem. It’s called “Metáforas Para Relacciones Infantiles” No importa que tan corto te cortes el cabello jamas podras cortar los sentimientos de sus dedos acariciando tu cabello haciéndote sentir menos como una mujer y más como un perro.

Do you write a lot in Spanish?

No, I think that’s one of the only things I’ve written in Spanish. But I think it’s because, English is my first language, and I find it easier to feel comfortable manipulating words in English than I do in Spanish, like I can never get the words in Spanish to sound exactly the way I want them to sound and it’s very frustrating to me

Aside from a poet, what else are you?

...A Leo.

What do you tend to write about?

I think a lot of my poetry is very much along the lines of, um, like a diary. I feel like it’s very personal, very self narrative. I like taking words from a conversation that I have with somebody and use that in a poem. I mean, you know, being a stereotypical poet, a lot of the shit I write about is love and heartbreak.

Can you only write in a specific location? What is your process to write a poem?

This is going to sound really weird, but I know I'm on the verge of writing something because i can feel it on the back of my mouth, I can feel it stuck [in my throat] I can feel that it’s coming but if I try to write about it in that moment it won't be expressed right. It happened a few days ago and it felt like I was holding in pee and I did not have a bathroom to go to..i know it’s a weird analogy. And then I laid down to take a nap and as soon as I closed my eyes a phrase popped into my head and I was like “Oh ok.”  

Do you think we can make poetry go as mainstream as visual mediums?

Yes.The cool thing about writing in general, not just poetry, is that it's the most primal form of human interaction other than a conversation.  I think a way to make poetry more mainstream is adapting it and modernizing language which a lot of contemporary poets in this era have been doing, like using text speech.This makes it easier to consume, because you don’t have to think of what each word means, you can appreciate from the way that it sounds, you don't have to meditate on the meaning so much but it’s still so introspective.

Do you have any favorite poets?

Anne Sexton, always going to be in my heart and in my soul. Once I got into poetry I read all of her poetry, I illegally downloaded a pdf of her complete works, i have that shit in my computer still, and even if i don't read her work as obsessively now i will always say she’s a big inspiration of mine

What are your boundaries as a poet? How do you separate what’s for you and what’s for the public?

I think that anything that is personal or pertaining to me is fair game. If I’m talking about a situation that happened to me I try to make it about the experience that I had with that situation and not so much about anybody else that was involved. I feel that’s the only thing I can speak on, I wouldn’t want anybody else to read it and know exactly who I’m talking about and have a warped perspective on that person based on how I felt. I’m really only trying to talk about my experience as a way to process and release. Also I try not to talk about my family that much...family is a boundary that I very much respect.

Where do you want poetry to go?

I think that circles back to a previous question, I want poetry to modernize itself, which I think it is already, to the digital era. I also want poetry to become more accessible, for people to understand art is for everybody not just for artists.

Lastly, where can your poetry be accessed?

@erin on instagram, sometimes on twitter.