When it comes to writing, what is your preferred genre?
Definitely poetry! I love the play between condensed and yet multiple possibilities of meaning that poetry can offer. I often aim at ‘crossover’ poems i.e. ones that may appeal to a wide age-range and/or push through genre borders.
How easy is it to fit your writing around your work?
Surprisingly difficult: because teaching Creative Writing requires a spectrum of constructive critical perceptions, it can be difficult to get over these when starting my own pieces. Sadly, my first reaction to something just written is often, ‘Hm, I have read something like this before.’
Is there a special time or place you like to write and what motivates you?
In bed, early morning for getting first ideas down, then re-drafting can be any-place, anytime (and endless). Motivation comes from literally anywhere: general life events, partially heard conversation on the train, TV, radio, music, reading (of course), the Internet and so on.
Who is your favourite poet and why?
Wow! That is a difficult one. But if you are going to restrict me, I would have to say Stevie Smith, because she was so unique. Rules (both structural and semantic) were meant to be broken for her and she could convey so much in a few words. ‘Not Waving But Drowning’ is a most incredible poem.
As a writer it is also important to be a reader. What are you reading right now? What are some of your favourite books?
For poetry, see above: plus (in no particular order), S T Coleridge, Steve Sneyd, Emily Dickinson, Edward Lear and Miroslav Holub. For prose: favourites are Solaris – Stanislaw Lem, short stories by J L Borges, Cat’s Eye – Margaret Atwood, Frankenstein – Mary Shelley, the Alice books – Lewis Carroll. (These lists do tend to change frequently.)
I am currently reading Music at Midnight a biography of the 17th century poet George Herbert by John Drury: ‘Enjoy your Symptom’ – cultural criticism by Slavoj Zizek: and the poetry of Edwin Morgan. I have just finished Extreme Metaphors – by J G Ballard.
Which three words best describes you?
Philosophical. Creative. Dog-lover.
What are you working on at the moment?
I am revising some visual and non-visual poems for a crossover collection coming out later this year, plus about five poems which are at various stages of completion.
Can you tell our readers about Semiotics and Visual Poetry?
Visual poetry draws upon both visual and verbal semiotic modes i.e. they are an example of what is termed multi-modality. Here’s some provisional definitions:
- semiotics = the theory of codes or signs
- semiotic channel = sight, sound, the sense of movement e. kinaesthetics, touch, taste, smell.
- semiotic mode = conventionalised codes for communication
- multi-modality = more than one semiotic mode used simultaneously.
- visual art = any direction, non-discrete, iconic
- Verbal art = specific direction, discrete, symbolic .
What I’m doing at the moment is using the semiotic channel of sight i.e. the written word (specifically the semiotic mode known as the English language). To process this semiotic mode, you are drawing upon your knowledge of the conventions of English, as your brain is busily accepting or rejecting possibilities of meaning. Hopefully, what you receive from my writing is not too distant from what I am trying to convey! Let’s look at a visual poem:
SUNSET
O
h o r i z n
h o r i z O n
h o r i z O n
h o r i z n
When you process this visual poem, you are simultaneously invoking two semiotic modes: the title ‘Sunset’ is verbal, with a relatively limited meaning. However, the variations in the word ‘horizon’ and the letter ‘O’, which feature in a different position in each line, act out meaning i.e. they are potentially verbally, visually and kinaesthetically meaningful, as they simulate the sun’s movement caused by the Earth’s rotation. I particularly like the fact that a blank space conveys potential meaning, too!
When analysed, the processes of realizing multimodal artefacts turn out to be a surprisingly sophisticated series of mental activities.
Re:Bus, below, again utilises the left to write and top to bottom of the page conventions of English, but despite seeming to be more complicated is probably less sophisticated than ‘Sunset’. (The title is a pun, another technical term for the inclusion of visual elements in a written text is a ‘rebus’ and one reference in this poem is a bus.) I won’t cover all elements, because they should be fairly obvious.
The clock face suggests Time.
The N suggests I.
l8 (= late), d8 (= date) and 4 got 10 (= for-got-ten), common-places of texting, include numeric shapes, which are converted to sounds, then to meaning in a different context.
The image of the Earth is used both literally and metaphorically (and hyperbolically).
The twisted arrow suggests ‘turn’ and ‘up’.
2 – a shape becomes a sound, then meaning in a different context.
The cross is used in a similar way to the numbers – a shape becomes a sound, then meaning in a different context..
The tick is used in the same way – a shape becomes a sound, then meaning in a different context..
The strange image ( * * ) hopefully suggests a bear. (A koala bear in fact – this is my favourite bit of the poem).
The two bent lines are meant to be a ‘knee’, from which you remove the k, then add a d.
Finally, the last line features a quarter being indicated past a three, plus the image of a bus.
RE:BUS
was getting l8,
had N 4 got 10 the right d8?
Where on ü were they;
would they È 2day?
Bgan 2 get nervous, and franP,
couldn’t ( * * ) 2B thought T H I C K:
no ╗←─k+d 2 fuss,
they missed the 3→¼ v!
Time was getting late,
had I forgotten the right date?
Where on earth were they;
would they turn up today?
Began to get nervous, cross and frantic,
couldn’t bear to be thought thick:
no need to fuss,
they missed the quarter past three bus!
Rather like explaining a joke, this explication of multi-modality ends up squeezing some fun out of the almost instant set of realizations actually achieved, but I hope it has been useful – and that you enjoyed the poems! Here’s two more that use alternative visual effects to work on yourselves:
THE ICEBERG THAT SANK THE TITANIC
Well,
it wasn’t
my fault, I thought
I had the ocean to myself:
drifted off the ice-shelf, was
hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
enjoying the sensation of a casual, carefree
melt. Who would have thought, in the wide
North Atlantic? Out of the mist came the
Titanic! Yes, changed my life – as I
said to the wife – my big chance
to become a celebrity.
Next time you see
a movie with
some ice in
that’ll
be me.
AUTUMNFALL
leaf
leaf leaf
leaf
leaf leaf
leaf
leaf leaf
leaf
leaf
leaf leaf
leaf
leaf
leaf leaf leaf
leafleafleafleafleafleafleafleafleafleaf
leafleafleafleafleafleafleafleafleafleafleafleafleafleaf
leafleafleafleafleafleafleafleafleafleafleafleafleafleafleafleafleaf
leafleafleafleafleafleafleafHEDGEHOGleafleafleafleafleafleafleafleafleaf
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