Interview with Bosch Jones

What is the name of the piece that you have in Grabbed?

Body Politic                
 
What was the inspiration for your piece? What compelled you to write it?

Our problems with the POTUS unfold into personal recall of aggressive sexual behaviors I experienced from women, mostly well-meaning (I think); personal struggle with gayness, confusion, disgust with the demands of the body & the politic one bears in being possessed of body, depressed by desire’s imperatives. . .womens’ problems with other women & the crosses of cultural inheritance, perversion of collective conscience. . . .
 
Can you speak to the evolution of writing your piece? How long did it take you to write this piece, including revision? 

Writing is revisioning, & this piece evolved over the course of several years.
 
As a writer, do you feel obliged to share difficult experiences? Why?

There’s a healing that may come of it. . .regardless, the imperative seems to be steeped in struggle, augmented by obsession & the art-making compulsion that is mostly joyous as well as redemptive & often arduous.
 
What do you feel the impact of the #MeToo movement has been on your work, if any? 

The stories aren’t to be contained in shame. . . let us please evolve & learn to live & love & care for ourselves & others.
 
What would you say to another writer who has been uncomfortable or silent about their experience? How can they begin to share their experiences? 

At a certain point, seems to me the writer recognizes the importance of uncomfortable, of the power available to her in heeding the call of what stirs in us. . .what wants to speak will be the wounds, propelled by wonder, born in yearning, for starters. . . .
 
How can a publication such as Grabbed help to empower or heal readers?

Shared experience, transmuted through art, is a kind of apotheosis.
 
Bosch Jones is a poet, artist, & performer residing in South Florida. Poems have appeared in the Paris Review, La Presa, Cathexis Northwest Press, South Florida Poetry Journal, IMPACT magazine, Blood and Tears: a collection of poems for Mathew Shepard

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