In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Steve Castro
You have two poems in Volume 28 of Water~Stone, “Postcard from the Central American Town I grew up in before I learned to speak English,” and “Most likely an imperative from a Confederate soldier’s descendant.” How did these poems come about?
Long titles, huh?
“Most likely …” is a documentary poem that came about because I wanted to document what happened to me and my mother when we entered a gas station speaking Spanish to each other.
“Postcard …” came about as a workshop assignment by Richard Garcia. I emailed him in December, 2024 asking if he would be willing to do some poetry workshops with me one on one. He’s one of my favorite living poets. He agreed. We’ve done three workshops (1 hour each) via Zoom so far. The first assignment he gave me was to write “The Postcard Poem.” He sent me examples of postcard poems written by himself, Agha Shahid Ali, Ted Kooser, etc.
There’s a juxtaposition of a postcard as a piece of travel mail describing fun events, versus the poem of “Postcard” describing the reality of living in a place where it might be more difficult to live. What prompted the idea to format “Postcard” as a postcard? When did the use of “w/” come into play?
I’ll start with how “w/” came into play. I sometimes write poems on pen and pad; “w/” is shorthand. It’s faster to write w/ than with, so I use it when writing poems by hand, but it’s also aesthetically pleasing to the eye and it minimizes space. I don’t know the time frame of when I started doing it.
In my poem “Postcard …” I use w/ twice, i.e., “cut grass w/ machetes.” and “lived w/ your mom’s parents while she made bank in the United States.”
Do you notice how the word with is cut to w/ in my poem just like grass is cut with machetes? Also, with is also cut to w/ in my poem like I’m physically cut off from my mom who was making bank in the U.S.
For the postcard poem, I decided to focus on thirteen separate snapshots/vignettes that capture moments that although mundane to some, would seem strange to others, e.g., to many living in urban areas, e.g., kicking flattened toads in the middle of dirt roads would be strange. I also used that image because it enabled to me to play with sound, e.g., the internal rhyme in toads/roads
In “Most likely an imperative from a Confederate soldier’s descendant,” you describe the assailant as “a man possessed.” What made you land on this accurate phrase?
I meant possession in the biblical sense, demon possessed. When people do evil things; others, sometimes even the perpetrator themselves, claim to have been possessed by demons.
The old man was obviously possessed with hatred when he cursed & yelled at my mother & I while he was walking out of the gas station.
So there is that double meaning of being possessed by the spiritual (demons) and the physical: (flesh/heart/mind) w/ hate/xenophobia/racism.
In both these pieces, the end doesn’t feel like the end, in a good way. It feels as if it opens the door to more questions, in a what happens next way, and then there’s this pause as the reader catches up to the fact that that’s all they’re getting. How did you decide on the poems’ endings? What impression do you want each ending to relay to the readers?
In “Postcard …” I was actually thinking of a specific felony I witnessed when I was a child involving a handgun I don’t want to speak on. Plus, stories about people who lived in our neighborhood you hear about even as a child to stay away from because they’ve killed people and/or are part of a mafia. But that was the point, to leave the reader wondering/curious what type of felonies were taking place.
In “Most likely …” I ended it that way, because it felt most powerful. There was no need to focus on the speaker’s response to what happened.
I had the pleasure of hearing you read these pieces at the WSR Annual Reading. What do you do to prepare to read? During the reading, you also expounded a little on some of the other things the poem “Postcard” was based on; how did you decide what to include?
The reading was amazing, grateful to you Jenn, Meghan, the entire Water~Stone Review staff, my fellow readers/contributors, and last but certainly not least, Guest Poetry Editor, Jose Hernandez Diaz, for the invite, publication, and the Pushcart nomination for “Most likely an imperative from a Confederate Soldier’s descendant.”
If I have time I’ll read my poems out loud before a reading. Sometimes I forget or don’t make time. But I’ve read enough that I don’t really worry about it. I’m comfortable in front of a crowd.
I enjoy writing & mailing postcards when I travel. For me, things that are memorable that truly happened are what I want to include in a postcard. Growing up in Santa Ana, Costa Rica, the images I included in my poem “Postcard …” are things that I saw/was a part of that were memorable and are still fresh in my memory, e.g., old men cutting grass w/ machetes.
Do you find your work circling around certain themes? Which ones?
I write mostly ekphrastic poetry, documentary poetry and speculative poetry, e.g., surrealism, absurdism, dystopian & apocalyptic poetry, dark humor. A number of those are written as prose poems.
What poets and writers do you admire? Do you have any favorite works?
When it comes to favorite books, I’ll say The Dwarf by Pär Lagerkvist (1891-1974). Poems (1945-1971) by my favorite poet I’ve ever read, Miltos Sachtouris (1919-1995). Night by Eli Wiesel (1928-2016). Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960); James Tate’s (1943-2015) A Worshipful Company of Fletchers; Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin (1924-1987) are a few that I found mindblowing. I could go on and on, i.e., So far from God by Ana Castillo; The Enormous Room by E.E. Cummings (1894-1962). Not to mention the likes of Gene Wolfe (1931-2019); Toni Morrison (1931-2019). There’s too many great writers, and countless great ones I haven’t read and many more I won’t have the chance to read before I die.
When it comes to my favorite living poets, I go by books I love, e.g., Crush by Richard Siken. King Me by Roger Reeves. i by Toi Derricotte; Richard Garcia’s The Chair. When my Brother was an Aztec by Natalie Diaz. To me, the aforementioned five poets are among the best living poets writing in the English language.
I’m currently reading the webnovel Lord of Mysteries by Cuttlefish that Loves Diving. I’ve spent so many hours reading this webnovel, will it ever end? lol.
I’m also hugely influenced by manga/anime/manhwa/web novels. Dorohedoro by Q Hayashida, Jujutsu kaisen by Gege Akutami. Berserk by Kentaro Miura (1966-2021); Solo Leveling by Chugong. RIP to Jang Sung-Rak (1985-2022) Solo Leveling illustrator. Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto. There’s too many to name.
I need to start rereading the webnovel Shadow Slave by Guiltythree. I got deep into it and stopped.
The last poetry book I read was 82nd Division by D.M. Aderibigbe. I’m currently reading Michael Bazzett’s You Must Remember This and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin by Kevin Eastman. Once I finish Bazzett’s poetry book, I’ll begin reading Sun Yung Shin’s Skirt Full of Black.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on editing my second poetry collection, Conejo y Gallo. There are three poems in Conejo y Gallo that were published in Water~Stone Review, i.e., “Mother” in Vol. 22 Guest Edited by Sun Yung Shin and the two aforementioned in this interview for Vol. 28, Guest Edited by Jose Hernandez Diaz.
Conejo y Gallo is a current finalist for the Black Lawrence Immigrant Writing Series (June 2025 Reading Period). It was also a finalist for the National Poetry Series (2024) and a finalist for the Poetic Justice Institute Editors Prize for a BIPOC Writer (2024-2025). It was 1 of 16 collections selected as a semifinalist for the Lexi Rudnitsky Editor’s Choice Award (2024).
Steve Castro‘s “Conejo y Gallo” was a finalist for the National Poetry Series Competition (2024). “Conejo y Gallo” is currently a finalist for the Poetic Justice Institute Editors Prize for a BIPOC writer (2024–25). He’s a Costa Rican surrealist whose poetry has appeared in 32 Poems, The Spectacle, Image, and etc and is forthcoming in Tampa Review, The Laurel Review, Cream City Review, The Boiler, and The National Poetry Review. A chapbook, co-written with Christopher Citro and Dustin Pearson, The Box We Put the World in to Keep a Corner from Shattering, was published in 2025 by Aureole Press (University of Toledo).
