Photo credit: Eddie Lee | Interview by Zoë Brigley
“A lot of my images and phrases are the result of letting my subconscious lead the way and just go with it”
The Grim Reaper and the Empress
The morning crow rattles me again, I’m plucked from the branch of the cherry tree I used to climb, lanky-boned and wild, under the heron-eye of gnarled grandpapa. It was felled long after you left. Blue ivy wound its mist around the barks, bending the stubborn crown, the flowerbeds fouling in November rain. Inside your fear I heard at the brain-basement note of that shivering howl a harmonica, yellowed by wiser lips, and the count of foreign numbers: one, two, tree. Ghosts from a wasted sharpness of mind, reaping seeds from the soil. Yesterday, in the cinnamon-scent of your kitchen, Kafka echoed in our mugs: On the moonlight square a man walks still ahead in the snow. We lit the boding candle, it rounded his moon-face in the greyscale photograph your daughter framed in gold. Dust kept falling on the scrubbed pane like a thin fog on mountain range. I couldn’t see him. There was no life, just light, thrown on the still bridging our world and the old. He only visits me, I told you, in my sleep. Until dusk we sat together, caught in the rising flame, looks into the evening water, hands on old stones— a fierce love pinched me in the gut, and secateurs severing the rotten tendrils. There, under wilted leaves, a fresh shoot crawling out to spring, and your dewy eyes.
I enjoy reading all kinds of poetry, but this poem struck me and reminded me of a style of writing that I have also been really intrigued by in my own poetic practice which is based on using language in unusual combinations: e.g. ‘heron-eye’, ‘stubborn crown’, ‘brain-basement note’. How do you go about creating surprising images and phrases?
I often ask myself the same question, to be honest. A lot of my images and phrases are the result of letting my subconscious lead the way and just go with it. After that, in a second step, I thoroughly edit with a focus on sound patterns and overall flow. Then again, sometimes it’s the other way round: some of my first drafts contain rather plain language because I want to get an idea on the page before it escapes me, and after that I look for replacements of ordinary, cliché phrases. In this poem, if I remember correctly, the ‘heron-eye’ was a simple ‘watchful eye’ at first. Then I sat with that draft for a while and let my mind wander until I came up with the image of a heron attentively watching the river, just waiting to catch a fish. I think the process of writing poetry is fascinating because it involves so many intangible elements.
Altogether, this poem takes on a dream like quality. Are you inspired by dreams or dream language?
Yes, very much. Only a few days ago I was asked to provide a writing tip for this year’s National Poetry Competition, and I said to keep a dream diary. My poems are frequently inspired by dreams. I’ve crafted some of my more mystical pieces using fragments of bizarre and/or beautiful dreams. Our subconscious is infinitely creative, and tapping into it provides us with an overflowing well of images, associations and the wildest plots. Oftentimes, our dreams tell us something about the bigger picture, such as collective consciousness and deeply engrained societal norms, tales and stories. In that sense, the works of Freud and particularly Jung have deeply influenced me.
It is a very rich poem which refuses to tell us everything. There is a lot we are left wondering about, and that can be a productive and nourishing thing for a poem, right?
Absolutely. This poem is very personal to me in some way, but I am not merely telling my story to be taken in by the reader. By leaving a sense of mystery and ambiguity, the poem provides room for the reader’s associations and experiences. I brought an earlier draft of this piece to a workshop, and it was so interesting to hear how others interpreted the poem. In my opinion, a poet shouldn’t be too descriptive in what they’re saying. I want to open up spaces for meaning and significance beyond the poet’s own story and biography.
