Marianne Micros November 12th, 2019 7 pm at the Mykonos.
Poetry: hobby or passion? [Career?] Poetry is an integral part of my identity and my life. I don’t know if I would call it a “passion.” It is not a hobby, nor would I use the word “career” – that sounds too businesslike. It is a way of expressing one’s life force. Even when I was teaching and writing academic articles, I found time to write a poem or story. It is a part of the self. Here are some definitions of poetry given by poets:
“Poetry is the pause where we turn toward stone, the breathless room where, by stratagems of language and mind, the quick and the infinite meet” (Don McKay, from “Quick”).
“Whatever else poetry is freedom” (Irving Layton)
“Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat” (Robert Frost)
“Poetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar” (Percy Bysshe Shelley)
I would also say that poetry is a way of seeing and expressing, sometimes even transforming.
Does love help? (If so, what kind?) Tina Turner sings, “What’s love got to do with it?” Well, I don’t know. Any strong emotion can bring on poetry, as can an observation or a thought or a problem. I would say that a love of language, of life, of people, may give poetry strength and power. But one also needs technical expertise and a certain way of looking at the world. If you have fallen in love with a person, your poetry could be overly sentimental and schmalzy. It takes control to write a good poem, although some of that might come with the editing. I can’t say that a love of poetry is necessary in order to be a poet. One can love some poetry but hate other poetry. Some poets love writing and some hate it but have to do it.
Is the creative act political to you? Inherently subversive? Inherently a social service? No, no, and no. But maybe I am being subversive here. Every poet’s writing comes from a different place, or different places at different times. A poem may turn out to be political and/or subversive for sure. But if someone sets out to criticize government or write something purely political, it could be a lousy poem, even if it is a good sentiment. Social service? No. I don’t think the right people would read it, anyway.
How does inspiration work for you regarding individual poems? I think that the term “poetic inspiration” is outdated. What is inspiration? Where does it come from? I think poetry comes from something seen and noticed – something concrete to depict something felt or thought. Sometimes it is seen and noticed just in the mind. Inspiration sounds corny to me and clichéd. I don’t think poems just suddenly erupt out of nowhere. Where do my poems come from? Various places and thoughts. Something seen or heard or read or experienced (a telephone wire entangled with a tree branch, a child swimming in the sea, a female trapeze artist, a grandchild’s words). I get ideas from dreams, memories, newspaper articles, events, and many other places. I do sometimes get a “feeling” – something triggers a reaction and I know that would make a good poem.
Who or what triggered you to begin writing? My first poem was created when I was a small child sitting in my high chair. I said, “Pitter patter goes the rain / On the Rinkers’ window pane.” (The Rinkers were our neighbours.) Yes, I did tend to speak in rhyme. I wrote a poem about a clown when I could barely print. I never stopped! And a wonderful teacher took a poem I wrote in class when I was bored (grade 4 or 5 maybe?), put it on the board, and created a lesson around it. What validation! I also was encouraged by my neighbour, Mildred Sisson Conklin, who kept a file of my early poems and taught me about Shakespeare.
Creatively, whom do you look up to, if anyone? My grandparents. My family. My grandchildren. Ghosts – ancestors, dead family members. Any talented writers of the past or present. My friends – John Tyndall, Gloria Alvernaz Mulcahy, Patricia Black, Penn Kemp, etc. That teacher who put my poem on the board. The shepherds on the Greek mountains who gave me directions and had the answers to all the questions. Anyone who creates – artists, musicians, writers, dancers. My bellydance teacher.
Walk us through your typical creative day. We always hear about writers who get up early and start writing at 6:00 AM, stop for lunch, write some more, have coffee with other writers in a café, eat dinner, write some more. Not me! Now that I am retired, I sleep until about 10:30 am. Then I eat breakfast and read the newspaper, sunbathe on the deck in the summer, take a shower, eat lunch while reading a mystery novel – and possibly only then go to my computer to do a little writing. At around 3:00 pm on some days, I pick up my grandchildren from school and bring them to my house. I cook dinner, then maybe write afterwards. Evening is my best time to write. But I stop for good TV shows. And some of this is broken up by appointments with doctors, chiropractors, physiotherapists, my hairdresser, etc. But if I become involved in a longer project, I will stick to it longer, spend more hours. But not in the morning! So how do I get any writing done? It is surprising! I might write a story or poem one day, or over a few days. Then I revise it multiple times on different days. Then after awhile I organize my writings into book form.
This from a young poet: Any tips for staying motivated when discouragement hits? Don’t be isolated. Do something else. Get out of yourself. Go for a walk. Look, listen, notice. Notice everything around you. Exercise. Take a workshop. Meet a friend. Let your brain rest. Sometimes reading or watching TV is the best thing you could do. The resting mind will make discoveries, inventions, and connections. Try some writing exercises. Don’t let any rejections get you down. Keep trying! Be a child. Be playful. And listen to children. They are so creative!
Marianne Micros’s most recent publication, the story collection Eye (Guernica, 2018), in which she demonstrates her fascination with mythology, folklore, and her Greek background, was one of five finalists for the 2019 Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, a prestigious award that annually celebrates the best in Canadian literature. Eye was also shortlisted for the Danuta Gleed Award in 2019, an award from the Writers Union of Canada for the best first collection of short stories published in Canada in 2018. Her previous publications include: a book of poetry about her Greek family (Upstairs Over the Ice Cream, Ergo, 1979); a poetry collection that focuses primarily on her search for ancestors and family members in Greece (Seventeen Trees, Guernica, 2007); and poems and short fiction in anthologies and journals. She has also published scholarly articles, review articles, and a bibliographical monograph on Al Purdy. In addition, she has completed a book of poems entitled The Key of Dee about the Renaissance magus John Dee. Marianne’s suite of poems Demeter’s Daughters was shortlisted for the Gwendolyn MacEwen poetry competition in 2015 and published in Exile: The Literary Quarterly. She has a Ph.D. from The University of Western Ontario and has retired from her career as an English Professor at the University of Guelph, where she taught Renaissance literature, Scottish literature, folktales, and creative writing. Marianne has completed a new collection of poetry entitled The Aphrodite Suite and is working on a second collection of stories.