Name of the piece published by BCC:
When/where was it originally published:
“Crudely Crafted Characters” was originally published by
Sparrow’s Trombone in October of 2021. It is also part of my Alien Buddha Press Collection, “Daydreams, Obsessions, Realities” which was published in November of 2021.
What is the background of the piece? What led you to write it? What’s your process?
The poem came to me when I was drawing with chalk on the deck with one of my daughters. I’m not much of an artist, but
she didn’t seem to care too much, but out of those drawings came the title and inspiration for “Crudely
Crafted Characters” the poem. From there my mind just did what it does and the poem came out in a
short period of time and it looked pretty close to what it does now or did when it was published in my
book or in Sparrow’s Trombone originally.
How did you feel when it was first published and how have your thoughts or feelings on the piece
changed from then to now?
I was happy, as I always am when pieces drop. I think this one has a bit of a surreal edge to it, which are
always fun to create. I would be more interested in hearing from people that have read it independent
of other pieces online and then in my collection as well and see if the piece speaks to them differently in
those two contexts. To answer the question though, I’m still very happy with the piece and don’t see
much change in that mindset.
Is there a specific message you'd like readers to take away from reading this piece?
I never really try and tell the readers what to think, but I hope it is a piece that they enjoy reading and I hope some people
went back to it a second time or third!
Where can readers find more of your work? (Website/social media, etc)
Twitter: @McguirkMatthew
Instagram: @mcguirk_matthew
Website: https://linktr.ee/McGuirkMatthew
If they want to see some work collected up, picking up either of my two collections is greatly
appreciated and would give them a pretty good scope of what I do!