How do you know when a poem is finished?
In my eyes, a poem is never finished. I even tinker after a poem has done well in a competition. I suppose a poem is complete when there is no other way to put the point across on the page. In other words, when I give up.
What do you find most difficult about writing poetry?
The hard part for me is getting the courage to share my poems with the world. The memoir ones are difficult to let go of. It gets easier the more I read them. I have to take a few deep breaths before I unleash some poems in front of an audience. I have learned to channel that emotion into the performance. I get such a feeling of accomplishment when someone tells me how much my words resonated with them.
How does a poem begin?
Poems begin in my daydreams, watching the play of light on the leaf of a plant or my daughter collecting shells on the beach. The image sticks and sparks a word or phrase that rattles about in my head. A pure annoyance until I write it down. When I start to write, the rest of the poem pours out, heads off in all directions like a spilt basket of blackcurrants. I let it spill on the page, then leave it a few weeks to tackle later and see where it wanted to go in the first place. Often, what looks like one poem is actually three.
What do you feel poetry can accomplish that other forms can’t?
Poetry can punch you in the gut faster than any other genre. It can bring tears of laughter (or sadness) in a few short lines. A picture of life can be painted with words in a stanza. There is a rhythm and economy to poetry that I love, no padding with wasted words. Everything in the poem is of importance, especially the white space.
How did you first engage with poetry?
I did not engage with poetry at school. As a teen, I wrote poems under duress and never identified with the poetry of the Irish Intermediate and Leaving Certificate syllabuses. I completely switched off, although I did submit something to our school magazine. The Chaplin, Fr Charlie, singled it out to read at assembly and said it was brilliant. I was 16 or 17, sunk down in my seat as I was absolutely mortified! When I was approaching forty, I joined a Creative Writing class ran by Ruth Carr at the Crescent Arts Centre in Belfast. Ruth was the first person to show me a world of written poetry far removed from what was enforced at school.
Photo Credit: Sheerin Photography
Why is poetry important?
Poetry is art. Art is of great importance because it helps us express ourselves in a way that others can enjoy. Like many forms of art, poetry brings comfort and pleasure. We identify with the emotions of the story that the poet expresses. In my own case, poetry changed my life. I began to write to help heal mentally after a missed miscarriage. I still write to get tortures out of my head.
