Links Mentioned in This Episode:

• The Book of Interruptions — Kess Mohammadi
  
• The Character Actor Convention — Guy Elston
  
• What Is Broken Binds Us — Lorne Daniel
  
• A Bow Forged from Ash — Melissa Powless Day

The Resilient Writers Radio Show: Poetry Panel Interview– Full Episode Transcript

Intro:

Well, hey there, Writer. Welcome to The Resilient Writers Radio Show. I'm your host, Rhonda Douglas. And this is the podcast for writers who want to create and sustain a writing life they love. 

Because let's face it, the writing life has its ups and downs, and we want to not just write, but also to be able to enjoy the process so that we'll spend more time with our butt-in-chair getting those words on the page. 

This podcast is for writers who love books and everything that goes into the making of them. For writers who want to learn and grow in their craft and improve their writing skills. Writers who want to finish their books and get them out into the world so their ideal readers can enjoy them. Writers who want to spend more time in that flow state. 

Writers who want to connect with other writers to celebrate and be in community, in this crazy roller coaster ride, we call the writing life. We are resilient writers. We're writing for the rest of our lives and we're having a good time doing it. So welcome, Writer. I'm so glad you're here. Let's jump right into today's show.

Rhonda:
Well, hey there, Writer. Welcome back to another episode of The Resilient Writers Radio Show. So this is something new—we are doing a poetry panel today, and I have four accomplished poets with me. I’ll introduce everyone, and I’m going to ask them to each read a poem to kick off. Then we’ll have a conversation about putting together a poetry manuscript.

Let me start with Kess Mohammadi. Kess is a queer, Iranian-born, Toronto-based poet, writer, and translator. They were shortlisted for the 2021 Austin Clarke Poetry Prize, 2022’s Arc Poem of the Year Award, and many other awards. They also won the 2021 Vallum Poetry Prize. They released two full-length collections of poetry with Gordon Hill Press.They have a collaborative poetry manuscript out with Palimpsest Press, and an experimental dream-poem book out with Baminar Press. They have a forthcoming translation in 2025, and their fifth poetry manuscript, Book of Interruptions, is out this fall with Wolsak & Wynn.

And we also have with us Guy Elston. Guy is originally from the UK but now lives in Toronto, and his debut full-length collection is The Character Actor Convention, out from The Porcupine’s Quill in 2025. His poetry has been published in literary magazines all over the place.

Lorne Daniel is with us. Lorne is a Canadian; he has poetry and nonfiction widely published in Canada, the US, and the UK, and he’s been deeply engaged in the literary community since leading the emergence of a prairie poetry scene in the seventies. He’s written four books of poetry, edited anthologies and literary journals, and published freelance journalism over the years. Lately, he’s been beginning again as a novice through writing programs across the US and Canada.

We also have Melissa Powless Day with us. Melissa is Anishinaabe and Kanien’kehá:ka from Walpole Island First Nation. Her poetry has appeared in literary magazines across the land we call Canada, and her first chapbook, Secondhand Moccasins, was published in 2023 by Anstruther Press. It was shortlisted for the bpNichol Chapbook Award. She’s also a scholar and educator pursuing a PhD in Indigenous education at Western University, and she is here today to talk about her collection, A Bow Forged from Ash.

Okay, we’re going to hear a poem from everyone. Does anyone want to go first? Does anyone really feel the pull—“I should go first”? No? Okay, then let’s just go left to right on my screen here. So, Lorne, can we start with you? We’re asking everyone just to read one poem from their current collection.

Lorne:

Sure, I’d be happy to. So the collection is What Is Broken Binds Us (University of Calgary Press), and it just released—last week, actually; officially came out. This is “Crushed.”

The bad news this week, relentless. Rolling past my glazed face. Addictions, elections, deaths of the wrong people, hypnotic grief. Dazed at the roadside today, I inhale hot exhaust. Blurred tires, hiss, rut and groove. The grey nothing, just a step away. Over and over.

On the shoulder, waiting for a break, me and this sleek crow, its cape tucked in trim. Light disappears or plays iridescent, depending on the moment, the angles between us. A semi blows by and I am struck by that unruffled coat, the shining absence of concern. Unblinking. Legs spring-loaded, ready to jump to some small grain, fresh-crushed and nourishing.

Rhonda:

Thanks for that. Wow! Guy, do you want to go next with a poem from your collection?

Guy:

Sure thing. Yeah, it’s a little gray and wet where I am today, so I thought I’d do my autumn poem. This one’s called “Statement from the Board of Directors.”

From all of us here at Autumn, we’re sorry if we make you sad. It was never our intention to upset you or remind you of your ex. Fact is, we’re busy managing an entirely natural wholesale operation that almost fulfills the nation’s crisp and wistful quotas in two short months.

So it’s inevitable that some wilting types feel stepped on. Our work is vital, yet we remain independent and humble, unlike the narcissists at Summer Inc. And we will vigorously defend our business practices. Fungal gluts. Granny-fur mould. The living inside of the dying. Won’t you leave it to the specialists? It’s our guarantee that things will get better. Just first, they’re going to get worse.

Rhonda:
That’s great. Thank you so much. Kess?

Kess:
Hello. Um, my poems don’t have names, so this just goes…

The lizard crawled into the in-between and grandpa will never come back, feet tied, chicken in hand. Raining fish from the dark skies the night got confessions from us. The dinner table, three empty plates: one for the camera, one for the child, and one for the gun, and I was so ecstatically alone.

Rhonda:
Thank you. Wow! These are all so good. Melissa, can you give us a poem from your collection?

Melissa:
Absolutely. So this one is “Tree Museum,” and it’s from my new collection, A Bow Forged from Ash, which came out just last week as well—so Lorne and I kind of have a similar timeline with our books. “Tree Museum”:

There is no grieving process for the tall ones lost to the imposition of strangers remaking their strange lands. Silent invasions planted seeds from across the sea. 

A cookie cut-out displayed four feet wide. My friend puts his hand upon smoothed rings.

I knew this tree. Ornamentation, stifling first beings, while cities raise whole communities. Scots pine was not the remedy, wild parsnip a poison. We need good guests, my uncle reminds me, lilacs an allegory for coexisting. We need gifts again, not subdivisions—seed nurseries to reconcile, artifacts of giants we put on walls.

Rhonda:
Thank you. Wow. That’s a great way to start a podcast. I really enjoyed all of those—thank you so much.

Okay, I want to just start off with where this collection came from. Particularly, I’m interested in: were you writing individual poems and then eventually thought, “Oh, this is coalescing”? Or at what point did the curation process start for you—making a collection from the poems? I don’t know who wants to start. You can just wave at me if you like.

Kess:

I can start.

Rhonda:
Okay, go ahead.

Lorne:
Mine started from—there’s a set of poems in my book about family challenges: addictions, mental health issues, estrangement, colonial impacts. A good chunk of that—sort of at the core of the book—started with really a process of wanting to just record what was going on in life, because things seemed to be slipping away.

So, sort of wanting to get things down, and that was probably well before I was thinking even about publishing this material—and I had to think a lot about whether I wanted to publish some of it because, as some reviewers have already said, some of it is very, very raw material.

But that’s where it started, and then, in my case, yeah, a lot of the material was subject-matter related, so it was pretty obviously leaning—once I decided to publish—towards a collection. Then it was more a case of what would round out some of those themes and put that together as a collection. But it didn’t start as a conceptual thing like, “I’m going to write a book.” It started really from the core of personal experience.

Rhonda:
Thanks for that. Guy, how about you?

Guy:
For me, this book really started happening two or three years ago when I took a step away from writing so many confessional poems—people call them poems about my own life and myself. I really got into writing persona poems—inhabiting different POVs and different characters, writing poems in dialogue with imaginary characters, too. And this was just a real shot in the arm for me and my poetry.

And yeah, I think—similar to Lorne—I didn’t set out to write a book in that way. It’s forty poems that were written individually, but I was happy to find there was some kind of theme or idea that could unite them, which was that I was trying to get out of my own head into as many different characters as possible.

I think the funny thing is, then I realized—having written more of it—it’s all me, very much so. It’s still all me. The one character is me, just in many different guises. But yeah, that’s how it happened for me. In the future, I’d definitely like to try to write something that has more of a unified theme or concept for the whole book as well.

Rhonda:
Thanks for that. Kess, how about you? What’s your origin story for this Book of Interruptions?

Kess:
I usually just let poems accumulate, but this time I had an idea—and it’s a whole thing—but I basically sought a couple of mentorships. I was funded by the Chalmers mentorship through the Ontario Arts Council, and I set that up as two separate, self-guided mentorships. Through that, I wrote this book. So again, it was very guided as opposed to a lot of other things I do.

Rhonda:
Oh, that’s really interesting. Okay, I want to come back to some of the things you’ve all said, but let me hear from Melissa. Melissa, what’s the origin story of your book, A Bow Forged from Ash? I have it right this time, yes?

Melissa:
So it was interesting for me because the first collection I did—which was a chapbook—was very much a situation of coming to a realization: hey, I have this whole collection of poems; maybe I should do something with it. So it wasn’t planned out or conceptualized in that way. But this collection was a bit more intentional, I would say.

That said, I don’t want to say it was planned or written around a particular theme or concept. The beauty of poetry is that it comes from us and is so responsive to what we’re experiencing. So there was poetry coming from experience, and, because of what was going on in my life, a lot of similar themes emerged.

Those themes became the core—the braid throughout the collection. As I had this growing mass of poems, I went back through my notes and thought, “Oh, maybe I want to develop this particular part of the theme a little more—maybe I should write something to this.” That was my process for building out the collection as it grew.

Rhonda:
Great. I’d love to hear—Guy and Melissa, this is a full-length debut collection for both of you. What’s it like to be in the world with a full-length debut collection? Are you like, “Okay, now I’m legit”? Or, “I was always legit; now you know”? How are you feeling about it, and is it affecting your current process at all?

Guy:
I mean, yeah, it’s pretty exciting, obviously. I’m really pleased to see it out in the world. I think, by nature—not just writers but everyone—we always want more. This was the big dream for me for years, and now I’ve got it—you know, I just want the next one, the next thing.

You don’t necessarily take time to celebrate it, but it is really exciting to have it out and feel like, yeah, I’ve got a very tangible product—well, product’s a nasty word—book object, whatever—something to put in people’s hands. And I do feel proud of it. That is the most important thing, obviously.

Rhonda:
Yeah, totally. Melissa, what about you? How’s it feeling?

Melissa:
Yeah, it feels great. It was super exciting—my pub day—and I got to announce that on social media and celebrate with my friends and family. On the other side of it, it was my first time going through a whole collection with the whole publishing process—the business side of it.

So in a way, it’s like, oh man, this collection has been done for a while, but we have to go through all the other bits and pieces before we can give it out into the world. That was a really interesting experience for me, to learn all of that.

And I think, as a poet, as a writer—I always joke that if you’re a visual artist or a musician or basically any other kind of artist, people can ask, “What do you do?” and within twenty seconds you can show a picture, a video, a song—and people get it.

As writers, it’s like, “Well, here’s a poem—can you read that?” or “Here’s a novel—can you read that to get a sense of who I am?” So it’s nice to have a physical thing manifested where I can say, “This is me—now you understand.”
But really, I’m just living on the high still, I think, of it coming out and being really excited about that.

Rhonda:
Love the high. Congratulations to you both—that’s amazing. So, Kess and Lorne, you’ve both had full-length collections out before. Is there anything different about having second, third, fourth, fifth books out in the world?

Lorne:
Mine is probably a very unusual situation in that I had a number of collections out literally decades ago when I was a young man—and I’m not a young man anymore. There was a big gap where I was doing a lot of other things with life and other kinds of writing, and then I did a small collection about ten years ago.

So this is new—the industry has changed so much; the process has changed a lot. I find—as Melissa referenced—that all the production that goes into a book now versus what it was a few decades ago…

And then, of course, the publicity, marketing, social media, and so on—it’s huge. It’s been a busy summer for me, following up on marketing opportunities and doing a lot.

This fall I’ve got a number of readings set up, so I’m gearing up for all of that. It’s different; it has a different feel than it did in the early days of CanLit, back when I was starting this.

Rhonda:
Thanks for that perspective. Kess, what about you? Is it any different for you, this book?

Kess:
I’m not going to say so much about me, but what I really notice is that the readership changes a lot. The more I move forward, it’s interesting to see the dedicated readers—just to be clear, saying “dedicated” versus whatever the opposite is; I’m not making one better than the other.

There have been people who have read all of my books and really stick with them and engage with them. It’s interesting to see who it sticks with and who it doesn’t—the development over the years of who really enjoys being in that space.

And it’s always great to see that. There’s also the other side, which is hard. I think the hardest thing is book two. Book one—there’s a lot of excitement. Everyone is very excited. And then book two becomes very normal.

Rhonda:
“Oh, it’s you again. Hi.”

Kess:
Yes, exactly. A lot of people who were excited for you are no longer excited—and it’s normal. Anyway, that’s pretty much it.

Rhonda:
That’s really interesting—to think about the readership and how that evolves over the course of a poet’s body of work.

I’d like to pick up on something Kess said earlier about mentorship. How do you think about mentorship in your own poetic life? Are you intentional—if you want to name mentors, go ahead—but are you intentional in setting that up as part of your writing practice? Lorne, can we start with you again?

Lorne:
Yeah, it’s been quite important for me—both ways, I guess. In my early life, I was very fortunate to work with people like Al Purdy, who brought my work forward and shared it with people. In those days it was literally writing hard-copy letters back and forth across the country.

That was significant for feeling like you’re a real writer. He was already famous in those days, so that meant a lot. I’ve continued to seek out people to give feedback on my work through the years—people in my own geographic community, or people I felt a connection with elsewhere in the world.

And then I try to do the other side as well: keep an eye out for writers who want feedback and connection, and to play a mentor role if other writers—particularly younger writers—are looking for that.

I’ve been quite involved with writers’ organizations over the years, and I think they’re important—not that you have to belong to a club—but you connect with people doing the same thing and find people you feel well connected with. I think that’s important so you’re not feeling isolated.

Rhonda:
Yeah, absolutely. Guy, what about you?

Guy:
Yeah, it’s obviously been important to have feedback from trusted people—you can get that in many ways: workshops, who you know, whatever it might be. I have to say, mentorship is not something I’ve engaged with yet as much as I would want to.

Either way, I don’t feel I’ve been mentored significantly, or that I’ve mentored anyone else. It’s something for me to continue exploring as I get older—not to say anything against mentorship; it sounds wonderful.

But there’s always been a part of me driving in my own direction with this, feeling like I have to push it as far as I can on my own. We all know you have to write a lot of bad poems along the way. That’s always been my philosophy: write ten bad ones to get to the good one.

Rhonda:
Okay, thanks. Kess, love to hear a little more from you on mentorship.

Kess:
I really get Guy very strongly—seeking mentorship doesn’t mean I think it’s always needed. It depends on the character of the writer; it’s a very specific thing. People can benefit from it, but it’s not always necessary.

The reason I sought mentorship was slightly different: my book is centered around Perso-Islamic history and philosophy, so I sought a Muslim elder. We had a lot of talks that were more philosophical, and about the politics of presenting certain identities, rather than about how to specifically write a poem—the meter, lyric, and so on.

It was a different approach. And I understand if someone doesn’t want it. A lot of writers, like Guy, trust their own judgment with editing their own poems, so you don’t necessarily need a second voice sometimes.

Rhonda:
Thanks. Melissa, what about you? Is mentorship something you’re intentional about seeking out?

Melissa:
I’m not sure I’ve ever been intentional about it, but I think it tends to happen naturally. Anishinaabe culture is very rooted in community and relationships, so wherever I’ve gone, I’ve tried to build community around writing or become part of the community that already exists.

Through that, mentorship naturally happens—either I’m mentored or I’m guiding or helping somebody else. I will say for sure—just want to give a shout-out, credit where it’s due—I love, admire, and respect, and have learned so much from (I call her my literary auntie) Shani Ray Rogers.

I was fortunate to connect with her through the Writer-in-Residence program at Western. There are formal opportunities that come up and they’re very beneficial. But at the same time, as colleagues and community members within the writing community wherever you are, mentorship happens organically.

For me, it’s always been beneficial. As Kess and Guy were saying, as a writer you have to have your North Star—you have to know what you’re about and what your message is going to be. All feedback isn’t necessarily the thing that changes your work, but it’s always good, from my perspective, to hear it and see from other points of view.

Rhonda:
Thanks so much. I think we’ll leave it there, but thanks so much to the panelists for joining me today. This is the first time we’ve done this, and I think it’s been absolutely amazing.

So, with us today, we have Melissa Powless Day—her collection is A Bow Forged from Ash; Lorne Daniel—his collection is What Is Broken Binds Us; Guy Elston—his collection is The Character Actor Convention; and Kess Mohammadi—their collection is Book of Interruptions.

I was fortunate enough to be sent all of these, and they’re absolutely beautiful collections, so I encourage you to grab them wherever you get your books. Thanks so much for being with me, guys. This was great—really appreciate it.

Melissa:
Miigwech.

Lorne, Guy, and Kess:
Thanks, Rhonda. Thanks, Rhonda. Take care, everybody. Thank you very much.

Outro:

Thanks so much for hanging out with me today and for listening all the way to the end. I hope you enjoyed today's episode of The Resilient Writers Radio Show. While you're here, I would really appreciate it if you'd consider leaving a rating and review of the show. You can do that in whatever app you're using to listen to the show right now, and it just takes a few minutes. 

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