Annick MacAskill : part five

How important is music to your poetry?

To me, poetry is its own kind of music. The idea of poetry as both representation and music (mimesis and logos, and melos) is an old one, but by music, I mean something quite broad – not only melody, rhythm, and rhyme, but also, more generally, a way of meaning that transcends human language – only via human language, in the case of poetry. In the same way that music can communicate without written or spoken language, there is an element of poetry that creates meaning beyond what is literally represented by its words.

In terms of the influence of other forms of music – these days, I don’t know how I would write without the inspiration of birdsongs, particularly the sounds of Halifax’s many, many starlings.

 

Annick MacAskill : part four

What other poetry books have you been reading lately?

I recently read Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill’s The Water Horse (translated from the Irish into English by Medbh McGuckian and Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin), Marilyn Dumont’s A Really Good Brown Girl, and Helen Humphreys’ Anthem. I have a thing for strong female voices; to me, all of these women are pioneers in terms of the subjects they treat and the way they write. I’m also busy looking at new drafts from writer friends, which I love.

Annick MacAskill : part three

What do you find most difficult about writing poetry?

These days I’ve realized I have a hard time trusting myself when editing my own work. I like to edit with some distance from my own writing, as I see writing and editing as two distinct modes or phases. But I’m learning that it’s possible to take too much distance from writing, to remove too much of the initial heat in the editing phase. I suspect that part of this is due to a lack of confidence, though there might be something else in there. I know I’m getting nervous about my work when I start re-doing all the line breaks – often to the poem’s detriment. Having good, trusted readers helps with this; at some point, it makes more sense to send a draft to a friend than to keep re-working it.

Annick MacAskill : part two

How does your work first enter the world? Do you have a social group or writers group that you work ideas and poems with?

For the past year or so, I’ve had a first reader who sees everything I write before anyone else does. I have other writer friends who look at my drafts later in the process. Unfortunately, because I’ve moved so much, I don’t have a cohesive writers’ group, but on the upside, I keep meeting new writers. Drafts and ideas are worked out in person, via email, and on the phone.

Annick MacAskill : part one

Annick MacAskill’s debut collection is No Meeting Without Body (Gaspereau Press, 2018). Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in journals such as Grain, Literary Review of Canada, Versal, Room, Arc, and The Fiddlehead. Originally from Ontario, she currently lives and writes in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Photo credit: Heather Kirk

How did you first engage with poetry?

As a child, with little awareness of what I was doing. I think my mother called my writing “poems” before I thought of it that way, but the word felt right immediately.