Namir, Hasan https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2019/08/21/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-hasan-namir/

Naomi, Katrina https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/09/24/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-katrina-naomi/

Nash, Steve https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2019/09/12/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-steve-nash/

Nava, Eva Wong https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/09/23/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-bart-solarczyk/

Neal, Mary Ford https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2022/07/23/wombwell-rainbow-book-interviews-mary-ford-neal/

Neill, Leanne https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/10/11/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-leanne-neill/

Nikola-Wren, Morgan https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/10/23/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-morgan-nikola-wren/

Norman, Chad https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/12/14/the-wombwell-rainbow-chad-norman/

Norman, Graham https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/12/24/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-graham-norman/

Nuttall, Becky https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/10/24/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-becky-nuttall/

-Mary Ford Neal

author of two poetry collections: ‘Dawning’ (Indigo Dreams, 2021), and ‘Relativism’ (Taproot Press, 2022). Mary’s poems have been published in Bad Lilies, One Hand Clapping, Atrium, Ink Sweat & Tears, Long Poem Magazine, Dreich, and various other magazines. She was Pushcart nominated in 2021. Mary is assistant editor of Nine Pens Press and 192 magazine.

“Dawning” can be purchased here: https://www.indigodreams.co.uk/mary-ford-neal/4595319360

Relativism can be purchased here::

Home

The Interview

How did you decide on the order of the poems in your book?

The first collection roughly traces the arc of a relationship, so that was a major factor informing the order of the poems. But other, smaller decisions also factored in to the process – for example, I regarded certain poems as companions to one another, and it was important to me to keep those ones together, while not interfering with the storytelling. There were also some purely stylistic decisions, like not wanting to have the poems that used form or rhyme too close to one another. The second collection is longer, and I made the decision to structure it in sections. Again, there’s a narrative arc there, with each section corresponding roughly to a stage of life (e.g. childhood, or the end of life), or a state of knowledge (e.g. doubt or enlightenment). So narrative coherence has been a factor when structuring both books, but that doesn’t mean to say it necessarily will be in future.

2. How important is form in your poetry?

Most of what I write is free verse, and I think that will always be the case. My favourite poems of mine are free verse poems. But I occasionally like to use form – there are two villanelles, a triolet, and a sestina in my first book, as well as some other poems that use end rhyme, and a few prose poems. There’s even less formal poetry in my second collection – several prose poems, a sestina and a pantoum. I think form can work really well to restrain and contain content that might otherwise become emotionally overblown or extravagant. But it has to be handled with (a lot of!) care to avoid feeling unoriginal or naïve. I’ll carry on using it sparingly, I expect!

3. What is the role of nature in your poetry?

I tend not to think of what I do as ‘nature poetry’ in any sense. But the sea, and water, is everywhere in my poetry, perhaps most prominently in my first collection, but in the second book too. There are also a few references to space, in both books, and to trees in the second book. I think it’s impossible for any poet not to draw extensively on the world around them, including the natural world. But the primary focus of my poetry is undoubtedly human experience – human relationships, human suffering, and human destiny – and themes from nature are deployed in order to illuminate the human, rather than as a focus in themselves.

4. When and why did you start writing poetry?

I’ve been aware of poetry and vaguely interested in it all my life, mainly due to the influence of my dad, an English teacher who taught me poetry in school and at home. We had poetry books everywhere. But I must have written fewer than ten poems in total over the course of my life until late 2019, when it suddenly took off while I was recovering from a serious illness. I think the reason it happened then was that in practical terms, I had the time (I was on a months-long absence from work) and the things that had been blocking my creativity (the stress and relentlessness of my ‘real’ work) were temporarily removed. But I also had something to write about, a difficult relationship which became the focus of my first book. So those factors combined to make it happen when it did.

5. What poets do you remember your dad introducing you too?

Because he was my English teacher at school, he introduced me to all of the ‘curriculum’ poets (Chaucer, TS Eliot, Shakespeare, Donne, Tennyson, and so on). But at home, he was an admirer of Thomas Hardy and Robert Burns, and I remember him introducing me to their work and poems by Glasgow poets like Tom Leonard, Edwin Morgan, Liz Lochhead, and others.

6. How aware are and were you of the dominating presence of older poets traditional and contemporary?

At school, most of the poets we studied were long-dead men, and the few living ones we studied were older men, but I never questioned that. The reverence attached to their work and the fact it was most people’s introduction to ‘Poetry’ made those voices influential in one sort of way. But nowadays, I’m very aware of another sort of dominance – the power to publish or not publish, and to hand out patronages (prizes, mentorships, speaking invitations). I don’t notice those decisions being made particularly by people who are older, or male. I think domination in poetry nowadays seems more about cliquishness than age.

7. What is your daily writing  routine?

I don’t write every day, or even every other day. Between the demands of parenthood and my academic work, I wouldn’t have time for that, but in any case I don’t think I’d want to turn creative writing into anything that felt like a chore. The way I write wouldn’t really lend itself to sitting down intentionally, anyway – most of my poems tend to arrive pretty well-formed, and I then tweak things over the next weeks or months. It’s not time-consuming. What I do set aside time for is reading and thinking as much as I can. That’s the groundwork.

8. What motivates you to write?

Usually, it’s about trying to capture something, or make sense of something. Sometimes it’s about trying to imagine things that haven’t happened. And sometimes I’m not conscious of the motivation until later – I’m thinking of a particular recent poem that’s not in either of the books, which initially felt a bit surrealist and apropos of nothing, but which I read again later and its meaning was really staring me in the face.

9. How do the writers you read when you were young influence your work today?

The kind of writing that impressed me when I was very young, and that I’ve been drawn to ever since, has a quietness, or stillness. It’s rich with craft and wisdom and values. It sits within and honours the long traditions of writing even as it carries that tradition forward and adds something new to it. I’m strongly attracted to quietness and humility in writing, and turned off by disruption for its own sake, or anything that feels self-serving or egotistical.

9.1. Who wrote this kind of writing?

I take it you mean the kind I’m praising?? It’s a matter of opinion, but for me, lots of poets! The list could really be endless but some examples might be Hardy, Hopkins, Eliot, Millay, Morgan, Frost, Carson, Oliver, and plenty of living poets too.

10. Who of today’s writers do you admire the most and why?

So many! Ada Limon, for all the same reasons everyone else admires her. Amazing Scottish poets like Rob Mackenzie (for the precision of his language, his sharp humour, and his skill with form), Jay Whittaker (for the emotional impact her work has on me), Louise Peterkin (for the musicality and magical quality of her writing) and others. Maya Popa, for finding new & exquisite ways of saying universal and familiar things. GB Clarkson for being able to combine such vivid abundance (I always think of Gauguin) with a perfect restraint. The late Jay Hopler for his mastery of the short poem. Robert Selby, for his craft & the way it all comes together. John McCullough, because he always picks out something new but important to say, & says it with real skill & beauty. But I could go on and never stop. There’s an embarrassment of talent in contemporary poetry.

11. Why do you write, as opposed to doing anything else?

I’m just better at writing than I am at other creative things. I’m musical, & play a few instruments, but I don’t find I want to do it for hours on end. I’m okay at drawing but not good enough to want to do it concertedly. Words have just always been my natural medium, and literature and literacy was highly prized at home when I was growing up.

12.What would you say to someone who asked you “How do you become a writer?”

People who become good writers have several things in common, I think. First, they have a longstanding habit of reading good writing. Second, they have a reflective attitude to their own life experiences, and an ability to relate their experiences to things outside themselves. Third, they have the patience to start by being a bad or mediocre or naïve writer, and go through a process of improvement. Fourth, they have a reading & writing ‘community’ of some sort (which they may have had to construct for themselves). This list is by no means exhaustive. Of course, you may never become a writer, and that is fine too – you may be something else entirely.

13. Tell me about the writing projects you have on at the moment.

I’m thinking thematically about my next collection, and gathering together the poems for that – I have roughly half of them at the moment. I’m also working on a long poem, but that’s taking shape more slowly. My other current writing projects are all academic pieces about Law!

14. How important is White space in your writing?

It’s becoming increasingly important as I become more drawn to writing shorter poems (with the exception of the very long poem I mentioned above!). The white space is always significant – perhaps like rests in music – but even more so with short poems and micropoems. Jay Hopler’s work has really influenced me in wanting to write shorter pieces.

15. Why does “Dawning” begin and end with a question?

I suppose it’s a question I was turning around in my head at the time when I wrote ‘Dawning’. As to why it’s there at the beginning and the end, I think I loved the idea of circularity – that we end back where we began. It mirrors the relationship in the book – you feel you’re moving toward closure as the poems progress, but then right at the end there’s this hint that nothing has been concluded.

16. Once having read your books what do you hope the reader will leave with?

I’d like readers to find echoes of their own experience in my books – to feel that I’ve found a way of saying something that they might also want to say. Art is – for me – ultimately about plugging into the collective human experience, so if no-one else recognised anything of themselves in my work, I might question whether I’d done anything valuable, as opposed to purely solipsistic.

Peppered Moth

Consider Malus Domestica and Biston Betularia,
attracting and attached,
a true contrast, a tree, a moth
in the orchard at Llanerchaeron,
a haven for the peppered moth.

Each twig-like caterpillar turns itself
into another still insect,
its wings invisible on bark,
surviving by disguise and night’s darkness,
as it survived the soot of the Industrial Revolution.

What came next made things better
for a plot of land with trees and moths.
As things got out of hand the moth evolved,
altered its course
as the apple trees grew.

-Peter J. Donnelly

Links And Bio

-Peter J. Donnelly

lives in York where he works as a hospital secretary. He has a degree in English Literature and a MA in Creative Writing from the University of Wales Lampeter. He has been published in various magazines including Dreich where these poems previously appeared. He won second prize in the Ripon Poetry Festival competition. 

My Fourth Visit

We didn’t stay long in Exmouth.
The waves made national news that day,
the only time I’ve been to Devon in winter.
It didn’t resemble the place
where I’d had my interview at Rolle College
the last time I stayed with you,
or where I had lunch at a Chinese restaurant
with the family after we’d looked round A La Ronde.
I must have gone twice that holiday,
my paperbacks by Margot Asquith
definitely came from there, and perhaps
David Cecil’s Early Victorian Novelists
with a chunk of pages on Mrs Gaskell missing.
The birthplace of my mother,
now it’s somewhere I go with her and Dad
after funerals – first your mother’s,
then your husband’s. I hope next time
won’t be after yours.

-Peter Donnelly

Herringbone

Late summer; the gull lands to twist the neck from the body
And picks at gaping gills,
While mother-of-pearl scales
Cling to its stark yellow beak.
Slick, sleek silver, slapped hard against black rock
Back broken, bones splayed out
Picked clean
And left to bleach.
Recharged, the gull lurches forward and leaves
For another steal at the fishing boat.

Late autumn; the land is herringboned to the sea
Nipped, tucked and structured,
Laid to rest
Ready for sowing in spring.
Rainwater runs in the ruckles
Shimmering the earth under thick-set skies
Shaved curls overlap
Like the crest of a lapwing’s crown
They will return with their dance
When the warmer winds blow.

Late winter; wool blanket, herringbone weave
Wrapped up against the wind
That rattles the old worn window-frames
And sends a familiar whistle through the hole in the oak tree,
Down by the gate.
The house martin’s nest a smear against the wall
Erased by water running in invisible trails
From roof to path to land to burn to stream to river to sea
It rarely snows, here,
On the blurred boundary line between soil and salt.

Late spring; the hares have spent time enough
Berating one another for a chance at love
Chasing down the runs of the fields
Before stopping to listen, alert and wild-eyed.
The swallows return
And cut the air into ribbons
In their quest for insects
While the lapwings flip, wing over tail,
In their own bizarre ritual
Under this evening’s herringbone sky.

*Published in Northwords Now 34, October 2017

-Larissa Reid

Bios And Links

-Peter Donnelly

lives in York where he works as a hospital secretary. He has a degree in English Literature and a MA in Creative Writing from the University of Wales Lampeter. He has been published in various magazines including Dreich where these poems previously appeared. He won second prize in the Ripon Poetry Festival competition. 

-Larissa Reid

A freelance science writer by trade, Larissa has written poetry and prose regularly since 2016. Notable publications include Northwords Now, Silk & Smoke, Green Ink Poetry, Fenacular, Black Bough Poetry Anthologies, and the Beyond the Swelkie Anthology. She had a poem shortlisted for the Janet Coats Memorial Prize 2020. Larissa is intrigued by visible and invisible boundary lines in landscapes – geological faultlines, myth and reality, edge-lines of land and sea. Based on Scotland’s east coast, she balances her writing life with bringing up her daughters. Larissa is a founder member of the Edinburgh-based writing group, Twisted::Colon.

MacKay, Maggie https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/10/13/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-maggie-mackay/

Mackenzie, Bob https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2019/02/04/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-bob-mackenzie/

Mackey, Mary https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2019/05/28/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-mary-mackey/

Magdalena, Munro https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2019/01/05/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-magdalena-munro/

Mair, Antony https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/12/12/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-antony-mair/

Malone, Martin https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/11/25/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-martin-malone/

Mann, Rachel https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2019/11/08/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-rachel-mann/

Marriage, Alwyn https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2019/02/28/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-alwyn-marriage/

Marshall, Roy https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/09/03/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-roy-marshall/

Matvejeva, Elisa https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2019/02/27/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-elisa-matvejeva/

Mazey, Alex https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/12/18/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-alex-mazey/

Mazzenga, Maria https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/10/13/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-maria-mazzenga/

McManus, Maria https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2019/10/02/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-maria-McManus/

McCabe, Rowan https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/12/05/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-rowan-mccabe/

McCarthy, Mary https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/09/13/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-mary-mccarthy/

McDonnell, Maura https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2022/07/20/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-maura-mcdonnell/

McGordon, Emma https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/12/30/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-emma-mcgordon/

McColl, Thomas, https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2019/06/19/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-thomas-mccoll/

McDaris, Catfish https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/10/28/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-catfish-mcdaris/

McDonagh, Terry https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/10/26/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-terry-mcdonagh/

McKee, Ellie Rose https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2019/10/31/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-ellie-rose-mckee/

McKee, Laura https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2019/07/09/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-laura-mckee/

mclennan, rob https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2019/07/10/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-rob-mclennan/

McMillan, Andrew  https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/09/26/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-andrew-mcmillan/

McMillan, Ian https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/09/21/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-ian-mcmillan/

McNamara, Robin https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2022/05/21/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-robin-mcnamara/

McQueen, Spangle, https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/12/18/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-spangle-McQueen/

Meekings, Sam https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/10/22/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-sam-meekings/

Merrin, Lesley https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/09/07/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-lesley-merrin/

Merz, Samantha https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2019/08/17/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-samantha-merz/

Mesher, Sonja Benskin https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/10/16/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-sonja-benskin-mesher/

Milwee, Mysti S. https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/11/21/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-mysti-s-milwee/

Miner, Jay https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/09/27/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-yaj-renim/

Mitchell, Jenny https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2019/08/21/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-jenny-mitchell/

Mitchell, Matt https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2019/06/24/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-matt-mitchell/

Molen, Juliette Van Der https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2019/05/16/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-juliette-van-der-molen/

Montag, Tom https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/10/14/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-tom-montag/

Montague, Jude Cowan https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/12/26/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-jude-cowan-montague/

Mookherjee, Jess https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/09/18/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-jess-mookherjee/

Moore, Daniel Edward https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2019/04/22/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-daniel-edward-moore/

morbid, p.a. https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/11/28/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-p-a-morbid/

Mort, Graham https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/11/25/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-graham-mort/

Mort, Helen https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/09/14/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-helen-mort/

Moses, Brian https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2019/10/16/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-brian-moses/

Mullen, Paul Robert https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2019/05/04/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-paul-robert-mullen/

Munro, Maxine Rose https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2019/07/22/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-maxine-rose-munro/

Murphy, Sheila https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2019/01/22/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-sheila-murphy/

Musselwhite, Fay https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2019/01/29/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-fay-Musselwhite/

Mustapha, Rihan https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2019/01/07/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-rihan-mustapha

-Barbara Leonhard’s

work appears in Spillwords, Anti-Heroin Chic, Free Verse Revolution, October Hill Magazine, Vita Brevis, Silver Birch Press, Amethyst Review, anthologies Well-Versed, Prometheus Amok and Wounds I Healed: The Poetry of Strong Women. Her poetry collection, Three-Penny Memories: A Poetic Memoir, will be published in October 2022 by IEF (Experiments in Fiction). Barbara enjoys bringing writers together and has been sponsoring open mics and readings on Zoom during the pandemic. You can follow her on https://www.extraordinarysunshineweaver.blog.

The Interview

1. When and why did you start writing poetry?

I was 8 years old and living in Great Falls, Montana. For some reason, I felt compelled to write little stories with no endings and some poetry, which my parents would have me read to friends. I wanted to share my personal thoughts, especially after surviving measles encephalitis at age 6 going on 7. The encephalitis caused brain damage, making it difficult to recall things and communicate. I believe creative writing helped create new neuron connections over time.

2. Who introduced you to poetry?

I think my parents probably read poetry to me, or I read poems in school at that young age. I wrote poems on and off for years. In college, I had wonderful professors in the English Department. A British poet, Peter Thomas, edited the department’s literary magazine, The Woodsrunner (long ago out of print), where I was first published. Also, I was able to meet the poet Alastair Reid, who was visiting the college, Lake Superior State College (now University) in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. He read my poetry and was encouraging.

3. How aware are and were you of the dominating presence of older poets traditional and contemporary?

I would say in my undergraduate and graduate studies, I was more aware of the traditional and modern poets than contemporary poets. I really enjoyed studying the Romantics and 18th Century poets. Also, I had to translate Beowulf in my Old English class. I enjoyed the poets in the Middle English period as well. Most courses were surveys of poets, but I delved into contemporary poets, like Plath, Merril, Bly, Wright, Sexton, Oliver, Simic, Pinsky, Olds, Harjo, and so many others. 

4. What is your daily writing routine?

I write or revise daily. Sometimes poems begin on note pads, in a very disorganized journal, or on my Notes app on my iPad. I think the revision stage is the most important one, which is why I don’t consider myself prolific. I always spend too much time conversing with a poem. What is my point? How do I employ imagery? Is the poem unified, impactful, well formatted, and so on. When I think a poem is finished (if that’s possible), I consider places to submit it. I also get feedback on some of my poems in my writing groups. Another writing activity is research depending on the topic and of course reading poetry.

5. What subjects motivate you to write?

People’s stories, nature, my inner world. My poems arise out of an inspired moment that has an emotional trigger. Sometimes, the trigger is a political topic. In an anthology Well Versed (2021), one of my poems on the insurrection at the US Capitol, “Picasso Dreams Broken Glass” won third place. And in the same anthology, “From Your Son”, which was a letter from George Floyd to his mother, won honorary mention. Other emotional triggers are more personal. Recently I earned recognition with two poems in Spillwords. My poem “Cooking a Life with a Wire Spine” was nominated for Publication of the Month of August 2021, and “Marie Kondo Cleans My Purse at Starbucks” won Publication of the Month for January and February 2022. These poems, which are in my new collection coming out in October, are about my mother and me. The first one uses a cookbook to contain our mother-daughter dynamic. Mom was the wire spine, and her life lessons are described in terms of food preparation. In the second poem, Marie Kondo helps me let go of the past after Mom dies. My grief and loss are laid out on tables for the public to see. I feel that the more truthful a poem is, the more powerful it is.

6. What is your work ethic?

I’ve always been a workaholic. I gave a great deal to both school and my career. Now that I’m retired, I’ve put that creative energy into my writing. I believe my work should be authentic, genuine, and honest. This requires having a balanced and strong center. Writing is lonely work at times because decisions about the work are personal. Whenever I get feedback, I apply what resonates with the poem. But when feedback isn’t available, I may struggle with direction. Also, if I’m in a dry spell, I feel my strong center, the wire spine I inherited from my mother, which has helped me maintain a balanced mind. When poetry is “rejected”, I say it’s “returned”. I wish for my creative drive to arise from emotion and spirit, but not anxiety and despair. To relieve writing blocks, I do Qigong, Tai Chi, and neurographica, which is art therapy that restructures the neurons.

7. How do the writers you read when you were young influence your work today?

As a child, I enjoyed poetry with meter, rhyme and rhythm. I use these features today more internally in my free verse poems, but sometimes, a poem wants to have end rhymes and adherence to iambic pentameter. In a course in graduate school, I had a month to read all the works of George Herbert and compile an annotated bibliography. I now see influences of his poetry in my own reflective poems. Another influence is Emily Dickinson. I mostly dabble and have eclectic taste. I’ve read works by the Confessional Poets, especially Sylvia Plath. My personal poetry reflects elements of their works. I also enjoy the poetry of Robert Frost, Rumi, Rilke, Mary Oliver, John O’Donahue, David Whyte, and other modern and contemporary poets who write in free verse, and I love reflective poetry. Lately because I’m writing a poetic memoir. I’ve been reading poetic memoirs. Ghost of (Diana Khoi Nguyen), My Other Mother’s Red Mercedes (Walter Bargen), How to Disappear (Claudia M. Reder), The Low Passions (Anders Carlson-Wee), Landscape with Plywood Silhouettes (Kerrin McCadden)! Brown Girl Dreaming (Jacqueline Woodson), Post Colonial Poems (Natalie Diaz), Late Wife (Claudia Emerson), Poet Warrior (Joy Harjo, prose and poetry), Rift Zone (Tess Taylor). 

8. Whom of today’s writers do you admire the most and why?

I appreciate Ocean Vuong’s raw and authentic words in his memoir poems as he lays bare his soul and sexuality so profoundly. Naomi Shihab Nye’s poetry, especially her poem on kindness, is moving, and I appreciate that she is the Poet Laureate for Children. I’ve mentioned Mary Oliver. I’ve read her books on the art of poetry writing as well as volumes of poems, such as Devotions. I’ve enjoyed Sharon Old’s odes, which are memoir, and I’ve mentioned other poetic memoirists. Joy Harjo is compiling an anthology of Native American Poets, which is a monumental contribution to poetic history. Robert Bly’s work with the Minnesota Men’s Conferences was significant. He helped compile the anthology, Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart with Michael Meade and James Hillman, which was intended to help men resolve anger, but the poetry can appeal to women as well, as can Blys’ A Little Book on the Human Shadow. I also enjoy the poetry of contemporary US Midwest poets, such as Walter Bargen, Ted Kooser, and others.

9. Why do you write, as opposed to doing anything else?

My college English professors all kept to the theme of the journey within. This exploration is mystical, magical, and metaphorical. For years because I channeled my creative energy into my job, I failed to undertake the journey within, except to buy the tickets, which may be one reason why I suffered depression a few years ago. Now that I’m retired, I can finally do that exploration. Writing poetry and some fantasy pieces, I am able to travel inward and excavate my soul, mainly for healing myself but also others. Whatever is going on in my subconscious is projected out to the world, as Carl Jung writes. Writing is a healing process not just for the poet but for the world. Reveal to heal. 

10. What would you say to someone who asked you “How do you become a writer?”

First, you accept the invitation to write. It comes from inside you. Then you practice by both reading to feed your mind with inspiring ideas and vocabulary and writing down ideas which may or may not take shape into poems, stories, articles, and the like. You can imitate others to study style and form. However, you want to nurture your own voice. Above all, avoid self-judgment and despair. If you are not inspired to write for a period of time, it may mean a work is incubating. Keep reading and jotting down ideas. Writing can be a lonely occupation, so connect with other writers for support. Realize, too, that there is a reader for every written work.

11. Tell me about the writing projects you have on at the moment.

I am happy to announce that my poetry collection about me and my mother has found a home with Ingrid Wilson at EIF (Experiments in Fiction). She recently published the #! best-selling anthology Wounds I Healed: The Poetry of Strong Women, in which I have two poems. My poetry collection, Three-Penny Memories: A Poetic Memoir will be out in October (2022). I

-Lawrence Moore

has been writing poems – some silly, some serious – since childhood. He lives in Portsmouth, England with his husband Matt and nine mostly well behaved cats. He has poetry published at, among others, Sarasvati, Pink Plastic House, Fevers of the Mind and The Madrigal. His first collection, Aerial Sweetshop, was published by Alien Buddha Press in January. @LawrenceMooreUK

I also have a Linktree account on which I keep links to my published poetry.

@LawrenceMoorePoetry | Linktree

The Interview

1. When and why did you start writing poetry?

I started as a child with a little gentle prodding. Some people resent having poetry ‘foisted’ on them in school, but I think it’s important to give all forms of art to children, so they can discover their affinities and sparks.

I remember being asked to write a poem about a spring at age seven or eight and writing

Moving swiftly from the ground,

water swiftly round and round.

2. Who introduced you to poetry?

As well as school, my Mum gave me access to her own poetry and the poetry of John Donne, which struck a chord with me.

3. How aware are and were you of the dominating presence of older poets traditional and contemporary?

It’s not something I think about on a day-to-day basis, but as a user of forms such as sonnets and villanelles, I’m heavily indebted to previous poets’ ingenuity. Also, the influence of established poets is all around, even if I often experience it through the poetry of my peers.

4. What is your daily writing routine?

I aim to write up to six days a week (usually missing Sunday) depending on time, energy and, occasionally, inclination. On a good day, I will write from nine-thirty in the evening till one-thirty in the morning, pausing to get supper along the way.

5. What subjects motivate you to write?

A main objective of my poetry is to express my emotions and desires with varying levels of transparency. In Aerial Sweetshop (and also in my next collection), I have a loose general theme which I can attack from different angles at my whim with the hope of stitching together a cohesive patchwork by the end. That said, I return frequently to love and fantasy.

6. What is your work ethic?

I work with mixed levels of discipline and sometimes feel bad when I sense I’ve squandered a good writing opportunity. Through reading Steven King’s ‘on writing’, I was persuaded of the importance of committing to my work, so I write upstairs at a desk with noise cancelling headphones on (and with a considerate husband who keeps the volume low on the TV).

7. How do the writers you read when you were young influence your work today?

I wasn’t much of a reader until my early thirties, although I was influenced by songwriters (and Donne) before that. Since getting the fiction bug, I’m a sucker for transportive, atmospheric writing and have tried to make this a facet of my poetry.

8. Whom of today’s writers do you admire the most and why?

I had the recent honour of reading and reviewing Tiger Lily, poet Susan Richardson’s new collaboration with artist Jane Cornwell, and was blown away by the unflinching honesty and power with which Richardson attacks the most personal and confessional of subjects.

I also hugely admire Kristin Garth’s ability over fourteen lines to teleport the reader into her world and make them experience her fears and fancies.

9. Why do you write, as opposed to doing anything else?

I’ve always relished doing creative things and I’m very lucky to have the time I need to really dive in to poetry, which I believe suits me to a tee.

 

10. What would you say to someone who asked you “How do you become a writer?” 

Some people would be very thorough about it and the limited reading I’ve done on craft has been very instructive, but you can be a writer just by sitting down, writing, and learning from your triumphs and mistakes as you go.

 

11. Tell me about the writing projects you have on at the moment.

I have a few poems due out soon, including Chiddingfold 1995, my contribution to Indigo Dreams Publishing’s animal welfare anthology Voices for the Silent and I’m slowly putting together a second book of poetry which, so far, is taking more inspiration from the natural world.

 

12. What did/do you find so engaging about Donne?

I loved the fluidity and musicality of the language he used. I had a particular soft spot for Song: Sweetest Love, I Do Not Go with all its sweeping romantic sentiment.

13. How did you decide the order of the poems in your book?

Some of my best poems (Pretty Dream, Radagast) appear early on, but a lot of my favourites (My Ardent Friend, Ghost #2, In Deepest Night) appear later, so I’m building towards a personal emotional crescendo.

While I hope to make every poem connect or contrast pleasingly with it’s predecessor, there are five romantic poems towards the middle (starting with Emma) that obviously belong together, like a mini collection within a collection.

Looking back, a lot of the later poems have a feeling of summation about them, as though I’m wrapping up my thoughts.

12. What did/do you find so engaging about Donne?

I loved the fluidity and musicality of the language he used. I had a particular soft spot for Song: Sweetest Love, I Do Not Go with all its sweeping romantic sentiment.

13. How did you decide the order of the poems in your book?

Some of my best poems (Pretty Dream, Radagast) appear early on, but a lot of my favourites (My Ardent Friend, Ghost #2, In Deepest Night) appear later, so I’m building towards a personal emotional crescendo.

While I hope to make every poem connect or contrast pleasingly with it’s predecessor, there are five romantic poems towards the middle (starting with Emma) that obviously belong together, like a mini collection within a collection.

Looking back, a lot of the later poems have a feeling of summation about them, as though I’m wrapping up my thoughts.

14. How important is form in your poetry?

Creatives’ personal tastes don’t always match their art; sometimes, when I hear a favourite music act of mine list their influences and I think ‘really?’. In my case, heavy use of form is largely a reflection of what I really enjoy reading.

Another thing – I reckon I got this idea from Stephen Fry’s An Ode Less Travelled – placing restrictions on what you can do is in many ways a liberating exercise. Sometimes when I know exactly what I want to say, it flows it quickly in free verse, which is very nice, but trying to express myself via gymnastic contortions can lead to me saying what I didn’t know I wanted to say.

15. In your poems you are giving advice on how the reader should lead their lives. How intentional is this?

I’ve come to notice that I often recite my poems back to myself. I may be making mantras to supplement my own mental wellbeing.

16. I know your father was interested in flight, and flight mental or physical or emotional is a thread running through the collection. What does “flight” mean to you?

The whole flight theme is a big nod to my dad, who died in 2018. I have so many fond memories of him connected with flying including the one detailed in Over the Trees, when he lost his model plane, but kept his chipperness.

To me, flight means Michael and in this collection, it works as my multi-use metaphor for love, travel, hopes and dreams.

17. What importance is narrative, story of a journey in your work?

I enjoy telling a story in poems; it indulges my love of fiction. Flight, for instance, was inspired by Patricia A. Mckillip’s Ombria in Shadow, which is full of dark gothic corridors, pursuit and peril.

The journey theme resonates with me personally and is one I’m revisiting a lot more post Aerial Sweetshop.

18. The fantastic, such as “Lord of the Rings” and the act of following where others lead is also a thread I see, often involving night journeys. What do these hold for you?

I just love fantasy!

Now you point it out, there is more leading going on than I was aware of.

With regards to Emma (‘In bedrooms and in storage cupboards, you tried to help me find it’) and Completion (‘I want you to make the first move, catch my awkward side by surprise’), there’s passivity caused by emotional uncertainty.

My Ardent Friend is a poem of romantic devotion, of being willing to be led like a puppet on a string.

19. What significance are sleep and dream in your work?

I write a great number of poems about hope and perseverance, many of which picture future utopias. Dreamworlds are a useful way to place the reader in those pictures and allow me lots of scope to write figuratively about those futures.

 

20. On having read your book, what do you hope the reader will leave with?

I’d rather Aerial Sweetshop stirred up sentiments and emotions than provoked thoughts. I hope to entertain and endear.

If someone can take something positive from it personally – if it fortified them, for instance – then that would be lovely too.