Charlene Kwiatkowski : part five

How did you first engage with poetry?

I wish I had a clear memory of this. I’ve always loved rhyme and would write short, pithy poems for family members’ birthdays on brightly coloured pieces of paper or in handmade cards. I’m noticing as I answer this that from a young age, I saw poetry as something to share. I frequently gave poems to others, whether they wanted them or not! I even asked for a rhyming dictionary for one of my birthdays in grade school (not the last dictionary I would ask for as a birthday gift). What is a child’s first engagement with poetry? Again I go back to music and song, of my mom and dad singing lullabies to me in the crib and then tucking me into bed as I grew older, welcoming the night with song and prayer. Surely these rituals—this early encounter with imaginative language—left their mark on me.

Charlene Kwiatkowski : part four

What do you find most difficult about writing poetry?

Oof, many things. Aside from the ever-present threat of cliché, an ongoing one is holding the tension between accessibility and mystery. Too much emphasis on the former can lead to poetry that reads more like statement or fact; too much emphasis on the latter can lead to obscurity for the sake of obscurity. I want to land somewhere in the middle: to say enough so readers aren’t lost but not too much that they don’t have to put any effort in. Poems are, after all, a conversation, a living thing. I gravitate towards narrative poems where I proceed linearly but I’ve been challenged to take more imaginative leaps. Emily Dickinson’s exhortation to “tell all the truth but tell it slant” is a good refrain to keep in my head. 

Charlene Kwiatkowski : part three

Why is poetry important?

Like all art, poetry is a response to the world, and as a wise person once told me, “Response matters.” It seems that there are just as many ways to respond to the world as there are ways of being human, and that’s a mind-boggling thing. Art responds creatively, generatively, which is an important distinction from the ways we can respond destructively. Poetry connects us to place, to people (including ourselves), to worlds past, present, and future. Poetry is not fast reading or listening. It requires slowing down, sitting with, reflecting, returning. In our high-speed, consumer-driven culture, poetry is nothing short of subversive.

Charlene Kwiatkowski : part two

How important is music to your poetry?

This has been on my mind lately. I’ve been listening to singer-songwriter Madi Diaz’s new album A History of a Feeling and was wondering if someone were handed the lyrics, say for the title track, could they tell it was song lyrics or would it read as a poem? Does it matter? The line between the two can be blurry. I’ve been considering how a songwriting course might enhance my poetry (I dabble in piano here and there). There is strong musicality in both poetry and song—rhythm, rhyme, tone, pauses, pacing, repetition. Even though I rarely read my poems in front of audiences, I always try out lines aloud as part of my writing process. I turn them over my tongue as I’m driving or going for a walk. A poem has to work for the ear. 

Charlene Kwiatkowski : part one

Charlene Kwiatkowski’s debut poetry chapbook Let Us Go Then is forthcoming this December with the Alfred Gustav Press. Her work has been published in Arc, PRISM international, Maisonneuve, Red Alder Review, June 2020: A Pandemic Anthology (845 Press), and elsewhere. In 2020, she won Pulp Literature’s Magpie Award for Poetry. Charlene lives in Vancouver, BC and works at an art gallery. You can find her occasionally blogging at textingthecity.wordpress.com

Photo credit: Yohan Kim

How does a poem begin?

Most of the time there’s a phrase or image I can’t get out of my mind. It niggles at me until I do something with it. Other times I know I want to write a poem about x but need to wait for that phrase or image to strike like flint, otherwise I have no entry point. That spark can come from slogging through, but it definitely helps to have at least a hint of inspiration, some direction to follow from the outset (even if the poem ends up changing course, as it often does). All that to say, I’m not a prolific writer.