Canadian Writers’ Blog Tour




1. What am I working on?



3. Why do I write what I do?

Years ago I talked with a friend about writing, and although I don’t remember much of the conversation it probably involved my bemoaning the fact that I wasn’t producing very much. He said—if I remember right—that he thought being a poet was not so much an occupation as a state of being. At the time I didn’t know what he was talking about, but I think it may have something to do with viewing the world through a certain kind of lens.

I write about whatever captures my attention and refuses to let go: persistent questions, important experiences. If something sticks in my mind—a dream, a conversation, a bird-song, a snippet from a sermon—my default response is to make something with it by putting it into a poem. At times it’s because I want to interpret and make sense of an experience (and the more profound the experience, the longer this takes). Often what I want is to put into words whatever it is that has captivated me, and try to convey its captivating qualities to a reader. I don’t tend to write with the intention of following a particular theme, but as I accumulate work, themes emerge on their own and my preoccupations gradually reveal themselves.

4. How does my writing process work?
Very slowly. I start with lines or fragments of lines that gradually become a first draft in my notebook. Sometimes these lines start out even smaller, written on the bus, on the back of a grocery receipt with the stubby pencil I keep in my pocket. I keep those scraps of paper until the bits of writing on them find a place in a poem. I begin working on the computer once a piece has begun to come together—or sometimes, when I’ve done so much inserting and crossing-out that it’s become unreadable and I have to separate out the lines I want to keep. At some point the poem always gets vetted by my writers’ “group,” which at the moment consists of Angeline Schellenberg, before undergoing further revision. This is a lengthy part of the process. I often decide a poem’s finished, send it out, then get it back and think “nope” and go back to revising.

I joined a writers’ group for the first time over twenty years ago, and although that first group was not overly helpful, since then I’ve always preferred to have someone to whom I can show new work. Writers’ groups have been helpful in a couple of ways (besides the obvious incentive of a monthly deadline): first of all to test the general effect of a poem, to get a feel for whether it’s working. The responses and questioning from others have also made me become more conscious of what I’m doing and why I’m doing it.

Part of my writing process is doing things that nourish my writing, like reading good books, whether poetry or essay or fiction; listening to writers read (and I include writers of sermons here), looking at art, making music, and walking.

Now I’ll tag Susan Olding, whom I met at the Sage Hill Writing Experience several years ago, and whose essays I very much enjoy.

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One Response to “Canadian Writers’ Blog Tour”

  1. Dora Dueck Says:

    I’m glad Angeline S. tagged you, Joanne; I enjoyed reading your answers to the questions. Looking forward to your book launch in April!

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