an interview by Anna Yin
I first read Clara Blackwood’s poem: the leprechaun which was in an essay book titled “Implicate Me” by Elana Wolff two years ago and I was quite impressed by her vivid and strange images and bold ideas.
I also met her a few times at some poetry readings. She was a young and confident poet, so I decided to interview her. Here are her biography, one of her poems and the interview. I am very glad that she is willing to let me interview her.
Clara Blackwood is a poet, visual artist and tarot reader. Her first poetry collection, Subway Medusa (2007), was the inaugural book in Guernica Editions’ First Poets Series, which features first books by poets thirty-five and under. Her work has appeared in journals in Canada, the UK, and Israel. Her second book of poetry Forecast, is forthcoming from Guernica Editions in Spring 2014.
II. The High Priestess
Think her oblique –
like Temple pillars
subtly slanted upwards,
or the north door concealed
in an old church.
She is the guardian of transparency –
keeper of worlds
we can’t talk about.
Over her a fine mesh
falls. From certain angles
the diadem shines silver-bright.
She has eaten from the pomegranate,
danced with the Daughters of Night.
And she is the one
who appears when your feet
stomp out the bonfire.
“The High Priestess” was previously published in Clara’s chapbook Arcana, 2012 (Aeolus House).
1. When did you start writing and why did you start?
I started writing poetry in my teen years ‒ melodramatic stuff ‒ I imagine like many people. It was an outlet, a form of expression I enjoyed just for its own sake.
2. When did you get your first poem published? When did you first know that you would become a writer?
I had my first poem published at 23. I remember being very happy about that because four poems were accepted into a magazine I admired. I think that was the moment my identity as a writer became more real. I had read on open mics and done a few feature readings up to that point, but seeing one’s work in print for the first time was uniquely gratifying.
3. Who are some of the poets you admire? What is great poetry in your view?
Sylvia Plath, Gwendolyn MacEwen and Charles Baudelaire are some of my all-time favourites. Their poetry is so rich in personal mythology ‒ they create a world I can get lost in and return to again and again. Such rich inner landscapes. To me this is great poetry ‒ looking at a body of work of an author and seeing their world of symbols conveyed through the charged language of poetry.
4. Does your being a professional Tarot reader help your writing poetry? In what ways are these activities similar and in what ways are they different?
My experience of Tarot and writing poetry were two separate spheres until I decided to bridge them in the Arcana poems ‒ a chapbook of poems inspired by the Major Arcana in the Tarot. For one year I worked at home for a psychic hotline and started writing the Arcana poems between phone calls. These activities complemented each other well, since in both poetry writing and tarot reading I need to be in a different “zone” to do them, beyond the rational. In both cases it’s like downloading information from the universe and you don’t know what’s coming next. Writing a poem and doing a tarot reading are similar in their unpredictability. The biggest difference between them would be that you can’t undo or edit a tarot reading! It happens within those 30 minutes or an hour and it’s done. Hopefully I have given a helpful reading.
5. What inspired the collections of poems that you have put together in books?
I’ve been inspired by urban life, experiences that push one to the edge, mythology, Tarot, travel, virtual reality and nature. Basically, anything is fodder for poetry.
6. Some people say that all writing is autobiographical. What is your view of writing? Is it autobiographical?
I can agree that all writing is autobiographical in so much as it’s always through our own filter, which makes everything subjective, but I get annoyed when “I” is used and people think it is automatically autobiographical. Poetry 101: the speaker of the poem is not necessarily the author talking about his life/ herself. This is pretty fundamental, but something I’ve come across. That said, my poetry is often triggered by something in life, but is altered imaginatively. I like to fictionalize truth.
7. What’s next for you?
My next book, Forecast, is forthcoming from Guernica Editions in Spring 2014. I’m very excited about this, since my last book came out in 2007!
