Interviewed in April 2014
Susan Rich is the author of four collections of poetry
and her most recent titled
Cloud Pharmacy, published by
White Pine Press came
out last month. Susan’s work is not new to me as I've read two of her previous
works,
Alchemist’s Kitchen and
Cures Include Travel. She has won the
PEN USA Award for
The Cartographer’s
Tongue (2000).
The Alchemist’s
Kitchen (2010) won the Washington State Book Award and was a finalist for
The ForeWord Book of the Year Prize in Poetry.
MAW: Susan
it’s kind of you to talk with me about your newly released
Cloud Pharmacy. As I read
this book I felt you were pushing and expanding your poetic horizon for
readers. I’m interested in role that
Hannah Maynard played in this book. Can you tell us a little about how this
came about and what it meant to this collection of poetry?
SR: I met Hannah Maynard, or rather her work, in the
William James Bookshop in Port Townsend. It was Thanksgiving weekend and I was
enjoying a day of wandering Water Street – the main artery of the town. The
photography section is small but well curated and there are often things that
catch my attention. That day it was Magic Box: The Eccentric Genius of Hannah
Maynard (1834-1918). On the cover a replica of a sepia toned self-portrait held
me rapt. There were three different Hannah’s in this piece: one leaning out of
a picture frame, and pouring tea on another Hannah’s head. The third Hannah
looked right out at me.
It took more than two years before I found a way into
these proto-surreal pieces, work so startling can leave little room to
improvise. I was stymied. It wasn't until I wrote a grant to work on a sequence
of Hannah Maynard poems that the project began to cohere. I told myself if I
won the grant, I would find a way to inside these self-portraits; otherwise, I
would quit. Fortunately, I was awarded the grant. This meant I had to really
push my abilities to create something I felt was worthy of Maynard’s genius. I
needed new approaches to writing poetry; the old ways were no longer enough.
What I found was a latent love of the surreal. Not in the vein of the 1920’s
Parisian surrealists, but this new found private invention that married surreal
images with intense emotional content. During the six years Maynard created
these self portraits, two of her daughters died. It doesn't seem too farfetched
to see these portraits as an express response to grief.
MAW: I could not help but notice the words
alchemically speaking in the title poem
Cloud Pharmacy. Given your repetitious
use of alchemist between two of your poetry collections I have to wonder if you
don’t feel as a poet you have to practice a bit of such chemistry to arrive
at your destination as a writer. Can you
tell us about the connection between your writing and alchemy?
SR: When I was a Senior in high school I read, no I
devoured, 100 Years of Solitude by
Gabrielle Garcia Marquez. I was in love with his imagination. This novel was
like nothing I had encountered before. The part of the book I remember best was
the story of the alchemists. This sense that men mixed potions not only to find
the recipe for gold but also to further their knowledge of themselves appealed
to me – a sense of inner and outer discoveries paired together.
Only with Garcia Marquez’s recent death did I make this
connection back to my first encounter with alchemists. So I don’t claim that
poetry is the only alchemy --- I believe it is the work of many writers --- as
well as visual artists and musicians.
MAW: One of my
favorite poems is the one titled,
Invention of Everything Else. You have used
color a good deal in this book and blue seems to pop up frequently. I’m
interested in the usage of the blue at the end of this poem. Can you expand on this?
Actually blue is a touchstone word for me. Before I sent Cloud Pharmacy to Dennis at White Pine
Press I needed to remove many of the blues from different poems. Sometimes it
turned into yellow or green, other times I took the adjective out altogether. Color
is an effective way to help a reader visualize a “yellowed cup” or “blue
grass.”
I think my interest in ekphrastic poetry may have
triggered my use of color in some of these poems. I teach several Film Studies
courses and the idea of a colorful image is perhaps connected to the cinematic
approach. It’s hard for me to say.
MAW: I know
that you are a part of the Seattle area (tribe) poets, an area that seems to
have no dearth of poetry talent, and yet this book as well as others by you
seem to have a very expansive universe. I almost think of you as poet without
borders. Do you feel that way? How has life experience informed this view?
Thank you, Michael, I will take that as a compliment. Of
course it also means that my roots are not especially deep – although I've now
called Seattle, WA home for 15 years. In
many ways I do feel a real part of the poetry community here. I've created
organizations such as BookLift which
allows women authors to help “lift” up each others books. I've been an editor
at
Floating Bridge Press and I’m the co-founder with Kelli Russell Agodon of
Poets on the Coast: A Writing Retreat for Women.
MAW: Susan,
I’m re-reading Cloud Pharmacy for the third time. Things seem to unveil
themselves (if I can use personification here) with each reading. I would
recommend this book to anyone but especially those with any interest in the
Arts. Since all three of the books of
yours that I have read have been extraordinary can I ask what we might look for
next? Any there projects in the works?
Thanks for asking! I've been spending most of my time
doing readings and celebrating National Poetry Month at Highline College where
I teach. It’s the curse of the poet with a new book to feel she will never
again be back at the desk, writing. Having said that, I do have a few new poems
out in the world. My interest in the surreal and in photography continues.
Really, it’s a bit early to know but I will be grateful for a new project when
it appears.
