Featured Poet: Sammi Yamashiro
Congratulations on your upcoming book! What inspired you to write it?
Thank you so much! I was inspired to write it after experiencing certain traumatic events. I was writing poetry as a 'secret' hobby (I say secret since my earliest poems were about those events and certain people) and probably six months into it, I decided I wanted to one day publish them. Also, the poet Erin Hanson jumpstarted my love for poetry, as I previously had a major distaste for it, actually. She self-published her collections and her work saved me from ending my life at 13. Her impact helped me in realizing that perhaps releasing my own collection could have that same effect on whoever reads it. In essence, the goal of publishing a book gave me a newfound purpose and helped me remember that I have a positive influence.
What is your collection about?
“The Peach Pit Mask” is my debut collection. It covers four years of my life, from ages 15 to 19. Each year, an event (or a person) would impact my mindset and self-esteem in a different way. The years have their own “theme” based off of who or what influenced me during that time. I went through my fair share of trauma and abuse, and I touch on that throughout the collection. I interweave my spirituality journey in some of my poems, as I learned about Christianity more deeply in 2018 and was an atheist/agnostic before that and then after, I struggled to keep my faith. As both an Asian-American and an African-American, I think it’s imperative that people from my communities speak up about mental health so that we can disperse the stigma surrounding it. Throughout the world, it’s taboo to talk about still, but especially in my communities. Above all, I want my book to encourage those to be brave in their struggles and I’m hoping my collection will connect with those who feel the most lonely, the most hurt.
Can you describe your creative process?
Hm, I'm not sure I have anything too specific or extraordinary I do to get my creative juices flowing. Sometimes exercise or a walk outside can inspire something, or, the opposite: being trapped in my room. One important thing, though, is I tell myself that I am still a poet even if I'm not writing all the time. I go months without writing since, sometimes, a better way to process experiences and emotions is through metaphysical or mental means. Now that I post my poems online, I feel an unnatural pressure to write more poems that I'm accustomed to writing in a given period. That's not always bad: in fact, that can be very productive and I can write many enriching pieces if I'm lucky. Usually, though, this pressure leads to more distress than liberation.
Nowadays, every other poem I write is sent to a publication or literary journal. I'm trying to get my name out there in the poetry world because in the long term, I don't want to be known as a mere Instapoet. In saying that, the loving community on Instagram is one of my biggest blessings in my life, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I post my 'non-publication' pieces to Instagram, but I ensure they are good quality. I write from personal experience usually, but certain visuals or even scientific concepts or historical events inspire me, too!
All in all, I write when I want to write, which relieves the pressure off of me and thus, I'm likely to produce immaculate pieces. The goal of having my pieces in reputable journals is motivating me to write these days, so I'm not experiencing a major writing drought. Having some type of goal with your writing tends to rev up the writing engine, in my experience.
What does your workspace look like?
Ah... my workspace. I'm not the most organized person (love being an INFP...) so just imagine... random things scattered all over my desk. I sometimes write on my bed, or outside in the sun, if the bugs aren't too annoying.
How did you become a poet?
Writing poetry became my primary pastime when drawing did not fulfill me anymore. I felt like I needed a more direct method to address the darkness of my subconscious. I needed words and affirmations. I write with more imagery nowadays since I've outgrown the 'direct' poetry style, but I think even a imagery-heavy piece still suffices in exploring whatever is buried within me. I write to extract it, to reel it out of me and release it.
One cool thing about my first collection, “The Peach Pit Mask”, is that my very first poems are included in it. The reader gets to see my state of mind from that time.What does literary success look like to you?
To just have people say that they've enjoyed your work, or that they can relate to it in some way. I'm not fussed about how many sales my book generates, but if it can help someone, or touch them, then I'll take that.
Has the coronavirus pandemic changed how you approach your craft?
Coronavirus quarantine happened during a very inconvenient time in my life. I had just moved to a new area in a new country, and although I was blessed to still have my job, I felt outcasted there. Since everything closed down, I struggled to form new relationships outside of my toxic workplace. I started posting on Instagram to promote my collection (which wasn't actually finished at the time) and was looking for an audience to purchase my work. Then, lo and behold, I found a fellow poet's page, and it snowballed from there. I'm thankful to God for giving me a community when I felt like I had nobody and nobody wanted me. Through the Instagram poetry community, I met people from all walks of life and many cultures. My world expanded, even though I was primarily caged in my room and my workplace for about a year.
To answer the question, since I post on Instagram now, in the beginning I felt the need to churn out as many poems as frequently as possible. But as I’ve said, I write whenever I can and when I want to.
What does literary success look like to you?
Oh my. The concept of 'success'. I try not to place so much value on the literal and typical version of it. I would love to win some type of award for my work one day, and if I write fiction, I want it to become a bestseller. It's not bad to dream, but it's not guaranteed I will attain those two. Instead, I focus most of my energy on what I can control, such as writing one poem each week, or self-publishing my collection by a certain year, etc. From there, I aim for smaller goals for which the outcomes aren't determined by me, like getting my poems picked up by a literary journal. Then I continue to build it up. I am a spontaneously adventurous person, so I sometimes shoot for the stars, then get sad when I don't get what I want. Something I always tell myself is that I only fail if I never try. Even if my attempt ends in perceived failure, it actually isn't one: it's a lesson, and those are invaluable.
What are you looking forward to?
I'm looking forward to making my second collection better than the first, although my first collection will always mean the world to me. It's the voice of my younger self, the girl who documented her true thoughts on the paper, despite being led to believe they were insignificant. I don't want to reveal too much of my future plans since some of them have not been started yet, but I'm hoping to get my name out there in the literary world!
Where can readers read more of your work?
You can read my work on Instagram (@sammiyamashiro) and my first collection, titled "The Peach Pit Mask" is on Amazon. Some of my poems are in Train River’s anthologies (Fall & Winter 2020 and soon, Summer 2021). You can visit my website (sammiyamashiro.com) to see other places where my work is featured.