A Poetic Outlook

Jonie McIntire looks back on 25 years in Toledo

Jonie McIntire,  the author of chapbooks Semidomesticated (Red Flag Poetry, 2021), Beyond the Sidewalk (Nightballet Press, 2017) and Not All Who Are Lost Wander (Finishing Line Press, 2016), is also the poetry editor at Of Rust and Glass Magazine. McIntire hosts a monthly reading series,  Uncloistered Poetry (currently online) and co-hosts weekly open mic, “Just Be You” with Audamatik, at The Trunk. For more on McIntire, visit joniemcintire.net.

Years lived in Toledo: 25, since 1995.

Describe yourself in five words: Odd, adaptable, enthusiastic, practical, resourceful.

If you had to describe your perfect day:

Cup of Almost Human coffee with breakfast and a newspaper, playing cards with the kids, long nap with my dogs, meeting (friends) Ramona Olvera and Brent Archer at The Attic, jazz and open mic at The Trunk or Uncloistered Poetry online.

The thing I truly need to let go of:

Feeling responsible for everyone and everything.

What’s your biggest guilty pleasure TV show/movie/song?

Cheesy Christmas romance movies. During 2020, I powered through them all!

Describe poetry in one sentence:

Poetry is the divine complexity of life expressed in simple words.

When did you first realize you were a poet?

I was always a writer. But as I dabbled with writing plays and I read poetry by recent poets, I started to see how much action and description could be condensed into a few words. In a creative writing class at New College of California, when I lived in San Francisco in 1993, we created our own forms. That sold me…in poetry, anything is possible.

Considering your achievements thus far, what’s next?

A full-length book and making hand-crafted publications (small press chapbooks and broadsides and such). My long-term goal is to establish a writing residency program in Toledo.

Is there “one that got away,” an opportunity you might have missed out on or wish you approached differently?

I had the opportunity to teach poetry in a local high school program after school. I was nervous and not well-prepared. One student in particular was very talented and intelligent but clearly distrusted adults. I wish I’d done a better job supporting his talent. And that I’d been better prepared.

What’s your proudest moment as a poet?

At an intensive poetry workshop led by Marge Piercy (a poet/activist), whose writing I admire, she said one of my poems was perfect, “Don’t change a thing,” and that I had a fantastic voice for readings.

What’s your most embarrassing moment as a poet?

Well, I say crazy things all the time so…

Do you have any advice for young people who want to pursue a career in writing?

Read everything, explore all ideas with your art, and establish connections with other writers and artists. That community is going to be the soil from which opportunity and confidence grows.

If you could sit down with one poet, living or dead, who would it be and why?

Adrian Lime. He’s my very favorite person.

What is your favorite thing about the City of Toledo?

Anything is possible here. Not easy, but possible. And talent here is everywhere.

If you could change one thing about Toledo:

Access to public transportation and access to micro-loans for buying/repairing homes (ones traditional banks won’t grant). We are missing so many opportunities because we haven’t dealt with these issues.

When your sweet tooth strikes, where are you headed? Boyd’s, of course. West Toledo provides.

Where is your favorite places for a night out? The Attic on Adams, Toledo Spirits and Calvino’s.

Are you going to the library or the bookstore?

The downtown library is amazing. The whole library system is. But if I was headed to a bookstore, People Called Women is now an amazing bookmobile and Gathering Volumes can get you any book you need while supporting area writers and artists.

What is one stereotype about the area you wish would go away?

That Toledoans either rabidly love or rabidly hate their city. We do both, at the same time.