Meet the Poets: Troy Cabida

Troy talks to us about his poem "Third", his writing practice, and the poems he loves

You can read Troy’s poem “Third”, and listen to Troy read it himself, in Issue One of the Seaford Review.

What can you tell us about this poem?

I’d like to think that Third explores the possibilities of care that can take place between queer people in seemingly unexpected settings and temporalities. In the case of this poem, it’s about a connection two strangers can share after a purely physical sexual experience, and how real this connection can still be, even if it takes place in the middle of the night, walking out of a flat building where they just had an impromptu threesome, savouring a spark that lives and dies from one end of the road to another.

What poets and poems are you in dialogue with?

I think my poems exist thanks to the path paved by the likes of Kim Addonizio, Joseph Legaspi, Wanda Coleman, Savannah Brown, Terrance Hayes, Morgan Parker, Cecilia Knapp, Pascale Petit, and Essex Hemphill. I always go back to Marilyn Monroe’s poems for when I need to connect with a potent part of myself. I’m so lucky to have been taught by Rachel Long once as a Barbican Young Poet, and again as my mentor for my forthcoming collection. This is outside of the fact that I’m also just a massive fan of her poems.

Currently, I’m being held/challenged/moved by Saskia Hamilton, Paul Stephenson, Danez Smith, Frederick Seidel, Eliza Gonzalez, and Dzifa Benson.

What is your writing practice? Where and when do you write? By hand, laptop, phone notes…?

My early drafts tend to come into fruition when I’m on the tube to and from work via my Notes app, or running to my laptop while washing the dishes or hoovering the carpet. Something about inconvenience brings out inspiration, I suppose.

I wish I could say I have a more scheduled and regulated time frame in which I start my poems, but I find that rarely happens with work and other life responsibilities always in the way. I do find the evening time the best time to edit, once everything has simmered down to a close and I can focus a bit better.

Having kind and patient people around me is also super helpful and grounding, fellow poets I can spend time editing, developing drafts with, and just speaking out thoughts about poetry in general.

What poem do you wish you’d written?

I always go back to “Little Black Dress” by Tamar Yoseloff. I love how easy the internal rhymes flow into one another, how concise and well-cut it is, like how a classic and dependable piece of clothing would be. This poem also gave me permission to write about clothing and jewellery as valid poetic objects.

What’s on your bedside table?

I currently have a copy of my new pamphlet, Symmetric of Bone, nearby as I’ve just finished the launch event for it. I have a box of small perfume bottles that my best friend Ayaan Abdullahi got me for my birthday. There’s a selenite sphere inside a bowl. I also have a copy of All Souls by Saskia Hamilton, a poetry collection I’m really enjoying at the moment. I feel like I will enjoy it for a long time.

What song helps us get to know you better?

Busy Woman by Sabrina Carpenter.