Author of The Path of Loneliness talks to Sabyasachi Nag
1. Your latest title The Path of Loneliness deals with love, desire, grief, and loss. You are looking back in this collection and looking forward. Why now? What triggered this collection?
Many times I look back on my young days and think of all the things I could have, should have done differently. But, had I done things differently it would have changed the path I travelled and I would be somebody different than I am today….. We all enter this world alone and leave it the same way, so when life is taken in that context, we all are somewhat alone on the in between also. And somehow, I feel I have always been searching for the rest of me therefore the loneliness on the path for the part of me that I am travelling this life without.
2. You have written 17 poetry collections. What has really changed in the manner you craft a poem, revise and finish it; and then trace connections with other poems while putting a collection together, since the first time you did it in A Split in the Water, to the most recent? Can you describe the process and how it evolved over time?
I have never had any formal training in writing, so I’ve basically always just gone with the flow as to what I write and when I write. A Split in the Water was my first delving into poetry and I just wrote the strange little fascinations that came into my head and tried to make them interesting. One of the poems was “Hairline Fracture” which came about as I was looking at a white blanket on the floor that looked like it had a crack in it, but upon closer inspection, it was just a strand of my dark brown hair. I thought perhaps that would be what a broken heart might look like if it was white and blood was dark brown so I picked up my pen and wrote about a possible broken heart and called it Hairline Fracture. I actually didn’t put the collection together. Fred Cogswell came out to see me and gather my first manuscript. He chose the poems and sorted them into the order for the book.
3. Short Shots is different from your other collections in a lot of ways, but particularly in that it is described as a “coffee table poetry book”. The almost 100 pieces in the title are short, accessible, offers multiple points of entry. Do you think it is important, or even necessary, to find an audience for poetry? Or do you think those who need poetry find it?
Short Shots came into being because I wanted to write a short, easy to pick up and put down and pick up again book of poetry. I was looking through “A Split in the Water” when I cam across a couple of short poems and then I thought….. I should write a poetry book of super short poems that anyone, even non poetry lovers can pick up and read and say “Hey, poetry’s not really that bad.” And then perhaps they may decide to try some other poetry books, which I thought would definitely be a GOOD thing for poetry and poets in general. I actually took 2 or 3 poems from “A Split in the Water” and included them in “Short Shots”. Regarding – finding an audience for poetry or those who need it finding it – is sort a Catch 22… Those who need it will search it out and find it. BUT, I do think poetry is under appreciated in today’s world and poets should try to find an audience for it as poetry truly is one of the best things in life… creative, freeing, and most of all spiritual in the way it touches the soul.
4. Water is a recurring thematic, an almost leitmotif, that runs through your body of work (Water Poems, Waves Washing, A Split in the Water, Shorelines, Bridges and Clouds). How would you describe your connection to water?
Water…. Ah yes…. When I was born I spent my first couple of years in a waterfront house at Crescent Beach and then after I was 4 years old I spent the summers every year in that same house, sleeping in the upstairs bedroom facing the ocean and hearing the waves roll in and lap the shore as I fell asleep. And, I would awake in the mornings to the putt, putt, putt of the crab boats heading out to catch crabs. I was almost born on the water and spent the majority of my formative years near and on the water boating, water-skiing, swimming and just relaxing to the sound of the waves rolling in. I love the ocean at the shore. Actually, I never really even noticed the majority of the titles have the word “water” in them until you mentioned it. And now that I think on it, the majority of my poems have water in them, be it a word or a theme.
5. How did you come to write your first book?
This is an interesting story. My daughter was 3 years old and in daycare. The daycare said she was not manageable and wouldn’t listen so she needed to go to Early Childhood Education as they couldn’t continue to keep her during my work hours. So. long story short. I was divorced and living at Crescent Beach and the Early Childhood Education was 15 miles away and I had to quit work and take her there everyday for 4 hours. Because it was a 25 min drive each way, I just waited in the car for the 4 hours she was in the class. I had nothing to do, so I started writing poems while I waited in the car. These poems became my first book… Totally unplanned but seemingly destined.
6. What specific incident incited/inspired your last piece of work (of any form or length)?
The aging process. I am recently writing about death, dying, the transition, the feelings of knowing and not knowing what is or isn’t in store. I reflect on the past and those gone before and the fragility of life. I also am writing poems on what I think it would feel like to be going into dementia / Alzheimer’s from the person experiencing it. A recent poem I wrote is called “Turned Inside Out” and I wrote if from the viewpoint of being in a state of dementia. I also wrote one called “The Forgetting” about forgetting things and how the forgetting is important to prepare us and ready us to face the unfamiliar as it may come to us.
7. Poets, writers or artists in other forms or media sometimes influence the way one writes. Can you recall or reflect on a similar influence in your case that might have been proven to be formative over the years?
I am also a musician, singer, and songwriter playing and performing professionally, for many years. I think that has played a major role in the rhythmic tone to my poetry. I still have to wear two separate hats when writing poetry or writing songs as they are two different breeds of cat to me. They both have rhythm, but songs should have not only rhythm, but syncopation also, hence the two different modes of thinking while creating. Although the creative process underlying both remains the same the energy exerted has different decibel quantifications in the mind that vary immensely. I am also a visual artist so when I write/recite my poetry, I always have a visual film rolling in my mind.
8. Can you reflect on a specific performance, song, painting, film, or other non-written artwork that generated or strongly influenced any of your recent work?
There are songs and films that touch me deeply but there is one particular song that stands out from all the rest and touches me deeply and I have no explanation whatsoever for its hold on me. It is the old Vera Lynn song from the early 1940s: “We’ll Meet Again”. When I hear it, it always brings me to tears… why I do not know. All I know is it touches some deep emotion in my psyche that I have no words for … only tears and a feeling of desperation that I hope will eventually sometime and somewhere be followed by resolution and happiness. It’s so very difficult to explain, and I’m afraid I haven’t done a very good job of it.
9. Do you train your subconscious in certain ways to deal with success or rejection?
I was fortunate to have a very supportive mother as I was growing up and she always told me. I believe she shaped and trained my subconscious. She used to say to me from a very young age…Candice, always remember this. When you do anything, always do it to the best of your ability. If you’ve done your best, nobody could ask any more of you… AND if you don’t at first succeed, try, try again.” So, anything I do, I try my very best whether it is for myself or for others. Because I know I always do my best, then rejection never bothers me because I realize it’s good, and every “no” I get, just means I am that much closer again to a “yes”. I don’t believe there is such a thing as rejection, I just think the stumbling blocks we encounter along the way are just delays on the road to success.
10. Does your writing practice impact your emotional state in any way? Does it put you in a certain mood or an emotional state? Or helps you get away from a certain mood or an emotional state? Can you reflect on that?
When I write my poems I leave the world. It’s almost like I enter the white world of the paper and create the colours, sounds and feelings of the poem. It’s almost like I am the poem…. A living breathing poem in a world of my own creation, and it is wonderful, oh so wonderful. I think when my time comes to leave this world I will be flown on the words of my favourite poems to that place which I came from … that place I have been missing all my life… that place I know as home. When I write my poems, it’s almost like being there.
11. What stories do you have (perhaps generative, perhaps constraining) about yourself as a poet? (i.e., What you’re good at or bad at, where you are in your writing journey, etc.)? How have these stories changed or remained the same over time/across different experiences?
When Fred Cogswell of Fiddlehead Poetry Books phoned me in 1979 to tell me he had read my 25 poem submission and would like to publish a chapbook, he asked me how many poems I had. I said a little over 300 poems (which was a lie). I only had about 100 poems give or take a couple. He said “Great, I’ll be in BC in 3 weeks and will take a look at them. I got off the phone and panicked and then I started writing, writing, writing because I didn’t want Fred to think I was a liar. Anyhow, by the time he arrived, I had 305 poems. Fred chose `116 poems and published a perfect bound book. That “under the gun” experience stood me in good stead going forward on my writing journey to be able to write on demand and really churn it out if and when required, or if and when I wanted to.
Author Bio
Candice James, visual artists, professional musician and singer-songwriter was appointed Poet Laureate Emerita of New Westminster BC by order if City Council November 2016 after serving 2 three-year terms as Poet Laureate. She’s founder of Royal City Literary Arts Society, and Fred Cogswell Award For Excellence in Poetry and past president of the Federation of BC Writers. She’s a member of the League of Canadian Poets and the author of 18 books of poetry through 6 Publishing Houses. Her first book A SPLIT IN THE WATER was published in 1979 by Fiddlehead Poetry Books, University of New Brunswick.