mini-interview: oliver de la paz

...the "Requiem" poems were originally part of a long poem, "Requiem for the Orchard," which was first published by Guernica. I originally thought of composing a crown of sonnets to serve as a bridge for what I perceived to be a manuscript mess in the collection's earlier form. So I went into the writing of that long poem with a heck of a lot of intent--I wanted the poem to service what I thought were the needs of the manuscript in its current state. I felt the manuscript needed a cohesive voice and a narrative map.