Q: How do you make sure your metaphors have real depth?
A: The reason why I emphasize the malleability of simile's impact is that, although syntax and diction can aid a metaphor towards its more luminous embodiment, the ultimate key to its success is you, the observer.
YOU have to look deeply and find lasting relationships between things in a disparate world.
In this sense, the practice of metaphor is also, I believe, the practice of compassion. How do I study a thing so that I might add to its life by introducing it to something else?
At its best, the metaphor is what we, as a species, have always done, at OUR best: which is to point at something or someone so different from us, so far from our origins and say, "yes, there IS a bond between us. And if I work long enough, hard enough, I can prove it to you—with this thing called language, this thing that weighs nothing but means everything to me.
Q: How do you avoid loneliness in a small town/ ecosystem?
A: I grew up in small towns in New England so this feels closest to home to me. I prefer small places because they demand/ are conducive to depth in how you negotiate their spaces. Seeing the same things over and over again trains the mind to discern for slightest changes, growths, transformations. Same goes with people. I never get bored with people, even seeing the same faces again and again.
Ocean Vuong