Creative Spotlight: Andrew Pak

What got you into creative writing?
I was always interested in stories and poems, but I never had the confidence to seriously write my own. However, in the early spring of last year, I was mentally exhausted from the absurdity of school days with the never-ending sick cycles of weekdays, weekends, and repeat, so I decided to write a poem about it. I asked some of my peers in school for editing suggestions, but they seemed to really enjoy what I’ve written and encouraged me to keep writing. So I did. A lot of my poems and short stories at the time reflect certain ideas that have been marinating in my mind that I needed to get down on paper to organize or were based on pure emotion or feelings that I couldn’t describe easily and had to write down to better convey. I suppose I just never stopped writing, and that’s how I got here today. Of course, I still consider myself a novice writer who has a lot to learn, but I really enjoy the cathartic experience of dumping your pent-up thoughts onto a blank page, and sometimes when crafted well enough, it comes out really eloquently.
 

Who/what are your inspirations?
Savannah Brown is probably my biggest inspiration. When I first found her YouTube channel with spoken word poetry, it opened my eyes to more modern and personalized poetry that I thought I could write for myself––I don’t mean I can write like her [laughs]. Of course, I had read some incredible poetry in English classes over my high school years, but I felt that I could never write at that level or in that style with the technicalities of meter and allusions to classical mythology and fine literature. Brown gave me the idea that I could write poetry in my own style, personalized to my own experience in life and accessible to others, as a starting point. Of course, in the future, I do want to eventually be able to write with more complexity (with her more expansive vocabulary) and better my craft (to eventually be able to use more techniques like poets that we studied in English class). Another thing was that at the time, I wasn’t exactly exposed to much poetry, so her emotive power came as a shock to me--even among the more eloquently and subtle lines she uses, there is still that sense of mutual understanding of a certain feeling. I want to be able to replicate that in my own writing.
 

What is your favorite part of the creative writing process?
I don’t know if I have a favorite part, but I just love seeing my creations grow up. Usually, they start with a single phrase or an interesting idea I thought of at 2 A.M, and from there I just build on it. Much of my creative process is experimentation since I never had any formal training in poetry. I’ve been trying to figure out over the past year how much rhyme works for my style without sounding like Dr. Seuss, what the larger form should look like for certain poems, how to evoke more emotion from certain phrases, what sounds cliché, and how to avoid it, how to be subtle enough to be more powerful than a direct statement yet not to the point where readers miss it entirely. There’s a lot to keep in mind and so many directions I can go. Readers only see the end result, but every phrase I put into the final version is mulled over and compared with a handful of other possibilities. A lot of times, I wonder if it could’ve been better another way, but I like to keep them the way I chose. Going back to the question, I suppose a fun part of the process is when I unintentionally end up creating a nice twist or big-brained connection by just experimenting. Of course, I’m trying to learn how to control that so I can eventually create those intentionally, but for now, it’s fun seeing when it happens.
 

Why should people join the AU Scriptorium?
As a poet or author, especially if you’re a novice like me, the Scriptorium is a great community of fellow creative writers to be in. With the added aspect of practicing sharing your work in front of others, there’s the sense that you’re not alone in taking the leap and being vulnerable since everyone else is daring to share as well. I also think it’s healthy to receive critiques on your work because that’s how you grow as a writer; another thing is that I can draw inspiration from what my peers have written and incorporate some aspects of their style into my own writing.
 

Could you describe the piece you are featuring and the story behind it?
The piece I’d like to share is titled “Carpe that Diem!” It’s certainly one of my more experimental ones since I played with less expected language to describe a familiar phrase. It’s built on the idea that time waits for no one, and our days are running away constantly. I think it’s especially relevant during this time in the pandemic, as many of us have felt our lives were put on pause, when in fact, time is going on, we’re getting older, and only we get to choose if we’re seizing the days or letting them slip by. I feel that I should be chasing after my dreams passionately, almost violently (hence the aggressive language used in the poem), because as I mention in the second stanza, I have been waiting for much of my life for things to get better, when in fact, I’m the one who has to make them better myself. So instead of sitting around bemoaning the pandemic or other unfortunate circumstances of life, I encourage you all to seize every day and make them count.

“Carpe that Diem!”
Carpe that diem!
grip him by his neck—
hug him tightly to your chest like a football till
you touch down and descend to
the end zone of slumber—
pin him down to the ground, because he’s
slippery, like a sneaky snake who slithers—
he wriggles and wiggles, he giggles
when you lose your hold over him—
he shrieks with joy like a little boy
and gallops away, away, away!
Chase after him, with haste and worry--
throw a lasso upon his jeering horse head
and crush him under your will!

and maybe you can rest for a while…
like you did for years with maggots and
gnats gnawing at your gnarly rotting soul in
the dumps of life called sitting death—
beware the sedentary Sasquatches that sorrow over
the human race, they squander their time for sighs
and on their armchairs criticize--

Hurry! Now he’s getting away!
Carrying your hopes and dreams with him,
nicely tucked in a brown burlap sack,
fast as a gremlin, constant as a clock,
once he makes it past the horizon, the night will
mark the end of the chase and
his inevitable, predestined death—
but don’t complain, don’t cry, don’t crumple and die for
the one who escaped your grasp, because
the moment you awake, a new one arrives
to start the cycle once more—
catch him again! again! and again!
every day at every morning,
catch him before he flees!
because how many diems are left for you?