Michael Blouin : part five

How does a poem begin?

The beginnings of poems often occur external to the author; a branch falls, a lover does something ordinary in a particular way that signals the end of a relationship, a parent dies… these are the beginnings of poems and they are occurring all the time and everywhere. We are surrounded by the beginnings of poems, the poet notices these things in a way that allows them to be expressed as words. There is language based poetry that has less to do with these external events and more to do with words in the abstract sense and I would suppose that these poems begin with the word itself, or a letter even. In the beginning was the word. Does everything begin and end in poetry? Perhaps.

Michael Blouin : part four

What do you find most difficult about writing poetry?

There is nothing difficult about writing poetry. Being an emergency room nurse is difficult… a Walmart cashier, an astronaut, a roofer, a teacher, a server, a frontline mental health worker… these are difficult things to do for a variety of reasons. As a poet my role is to experience my life and once in a while write down some thoughts that may occur to me regarding it and then to try and assemble them into something cohesive. I often do this while seated in a comfortable chair with a cup of coffee. A paramedic – that is a difficult job. Even within the wider discipline of writing I don’t find poetry difficult, not to the same degree that I find weaving a four hundred page novel together difficult for example, but perhaps this is a part of why I don’t tend to consider myself to truly be a poet. There is that quote that a writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for others though, and I think that is true. None of this is to say that the crafting of poetry is not terribly important work mind you, it is very definitely that.

Michael Blouin : part three

What do you feel poetry can accomplish that other forms can’t?

Poetry is as close to an answer that we can find in this world. It is not an answer of course, because there is no such thing, but a good poem (whatever that may be) can make us feel as if this may not be the case, and that’s a useful thing in a world continually pointing us in the opposite direction (a society I should say, as the world is just fine on its own and neither seeks nor needs any answers, certainly none that we can provide, it answered its own question a long time ago by simply being and it certainly does not require us). Writing in general is the only art form that can rather fully place us inside of another’s experience of the world and of life and that is a very precious thing, out of all forms of writing poetry is perhaps best at this.

Michael Blouin : part two

How do you know when a poem is finished?

When I write the last line. That sounds facetious but what I mean is that the whole process of writing a poem is for me a high wire act which could go tragically wrong at any given moment causing the audience to gasp and look away in horror, but when I do finish what I consider to be a successful attempt I have a visceral sense of completion and for me that always rests in the last line or two. I also know that without that ending the rest of the poem is a failure and that there’s no way at all for me to save it. Sometimes the last line is the first thing that I write and then it’s just a matter of finding my way to it. Those are usually the quickest poems to form, at other times it will take a week or more to find that last line and sometimes it never does arrive – sadly those poems become orphaned.

Michael Blouin : part one

Michael Blouin has been a finalist for the Amazon First Novel Award, the bpNichol Award, the CBC Literary Award and his first novel won the 2009 ReLit Award. He has been the recipient of the Lilian I. Found Award, the Diana Brebner Award and the Lampman Award. His 2019 novel Skin House won the 2020 ReLit Award for Best Novel and has been included on the NASA/Astrobotics Peregrine Mission to the Moon as well as the upcoming SpaceX lunar landing. His most recent novel is the 2022 revisionist history I am Billy the Kid which will also go to the moon with NASA in 2024. He is represented internationally by Hilary McMahon, Westwood Creative Artists.

Photo credit: Paulina Hrebacka

What are you working on?

As opposed to thinking of myself as a poet I tend to think of myself as a novelist who writes poetry. In spite of the fact that I have published books of poetry which have won awards, I am aware through my work as an adjudicator for the Canada Council just what the scope and breadth of current poetic practice encompasses and so when I publish poetry in magazines or books I just try to not get in anyone’s way. So, what I’m working on at the moment is a novel encompassing Elvis Presley, the bombing of Dresden, carnival life in Florida, John Glenn’s orbital flight, and other events. It spans about fifty years and several continents. It’s a natural progression from my other novels, several of which involve the imagined lives of historic figures. I do have a long book of poetry being published in the next year or so entitled “Southbound”, and even though it is made up of hundreds of individual poems I think of it as one continuous narrative, I suppose because that’s what it is.