Elizabeth Ross : coda

What other poetry books have you been reading lately?

Right now I’m reading Otolith by Emily Nilsen and Voyager by Srikanth Reddy.

Elizabeth Ross : part five

How important is music to your poetry?

Pretty important. I played classical violin until I was sixteen. I was learning the Mendelssohn violin concerto when I quit (which is a very long story) — one day I plan to tackle a project where I re-learn the violin and write a corresponding poetry collection.

Elizabeth Ross : part four

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

Empathy, music, alchemy, cartography, argument, revolution. Poetry seems to be where I’m centered; even though I write in other forms, poetry usually steals my stories and essays.

Elizabeth Ross : part three

How do you know when a poem is finished?

Mostly when enough time has passed that I can get into it objectively. I think finished-ness ideally happens after it’s been written, revised, left alone for awhile, and then read by someone else, ideally an editor or another writer, and I’ve had a chance to think about their comments and revise some more. And publication is a pretty good sign a poem is done, but not necessarily a guarantee.

There are other ways for a poem to be finished: sometimes a poem ends up being more of a process than a poem, or more of a thought exercise, and it kind of finishes itself — it was its own point. So, finished — and left on my hard drive (hopefully!).

Elizabeth Ross : part two

How did you first engage with poetry?

I was peripherally engaged with poetry as a kid, at church, following services in the Book of Common Prayer. I also got pretty into Anne of Green Gables, so that led to “The Lady of Shalott,” which I dorkily recited, Anne style. And my dad, who was an English teacher, recited poetry all the time. But I didn’t think about poetry being something I, or anyone who was alive, really, could possibly write; then I won a winter reading contest in grade seven and the prize was Lorna Crozier’s Inventing the Hawk. I promptly starting writing really terrible but earnest stuff.

Elizabeth Ross : part one

Elizabeth Ross is the author of Kingdom (Palimpsest, 2015) and After Birth, a second poetry collection forthcoming in the spring of 2019. Her work has been published in literary magazines across Canada, longlisted for the CBC poetry prize, selected for inclusion in The Best of the Best Canadian Poetry in English, and was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She grew up in Victoria and now lives in Hamilton, where she’s working on a collection of essays.

Photo by Sara Heinonen.

How does a poem begin?

Most of my poems start with a line that surfaces in my head, from whatever — a newscast, overheard conversation, or maybe I’ll have a question — and if I can get that line to a piece of paper, I can see if it turns into something that might be a poem. Or I can bank it in a file and see if there’s something to go back to, later. Less often a poem begins with a strong feeling; this can be kind of inconvenient in that the Cheeseball Poet in me feels like I have to take it Seriously.