Cultural Storytellers: Cilla McQueen
Renee Liang interviews Cilla McQueen about her work as New Zealand Poet Laureate and how the teaching of poetry in schools has changed.
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This Friday is National Poetry Day, with events to celebrate the art of the poet happening countrywide. I’ve never quite understood why poetry gets such bad rap in New Zealand, when in many countries poets are revered as channellers of the national psyche. Okay, so maybe I exaggerate slightly. But NZ still has a long way to go before poetry, and poets, are part of the normal way we communicate with each other.
And that’s why having a national poetry day is so important. As well as celebrating the great poets among us (and call me biased, but NZ produces many amazing poets), National Poetry day also celebrates the fact that anyone can be a poet – it’s simply an intuitive, concise way of recording our thoughts and feelings in words. Far from being rarefied bits of text that only brainy people can understand, poetry can be ordinary.
Our current Poet Laureate Cilla McQueen is someone who celebrates the ordinary in her poetry. Her apparently simple words build the everyday into something worth thinking about, connecting past and present in a highly personal way. Surprisingly perhaps, she finds much of her inspiration in scientific concepts and objects, merging scientific principles with observations of our environmental and human landscape. I enjoy her work because it’s accessible, but not simplistic, and able to be read on many levels.
Cilla has just ended her two-year tenure as the National Library New Zealand Poet Laureate. Her work has been showcased at this website, as well as in her latest book, The Radio Room (Otago University Press 2010). Like Poets Laureate before her, she’s also been constantly involved in workshops, readings and talks – anything to get poetry into the rather resistant public psyche.
In celebration of her fruitful endeavours, I interviewed Cilla for the Cultural Storytellers series.
Why do you write?
I love writing.
Has being Poet Laureate changed the way you see poetry?
Not really, but after many years of being a full-time poet it has been wonderful to have the financial anxieties removed for a while. I have also been grateful for the gentle support and encouragement of the National Library. The Laureateship has given me increased contact with other poets and perhaps increased confidence too.
Does having a National Poetry Day matter?
It reminds people that poetry is an important part of life. Poetry Day does encourage people to express themselves in language - a lot of people write but many keep it secret. That's ok too.
Is there a feeling of responsibility with the title of Laureate? Does it change how you write or what you choose to write?
Our laureateship doesn't require the poet to write 'state poems' on occasions of national significance. I feel that sometimes a respectful silence is the best thing one can offer. Being Laureate hasn't changed my writing but it has given me the opportunity and encouragement to extend my work. I just go on writing every day as i have always done.
What projects as Laureate have you been particularly proud of?
The Radio Room, Serial, Words At The Edge Of The Mirror.
In a 1990 interview with Michael Harlow, you talked about how poetry is (mis)taught in schools: “Creative thought, expressed in living poetry, is anathema to people who use the education system to perpetuate a social or political system….Because poetry can’t be confined to rules, it’s stamped on very hard when it steps out of line.” Do you think this has changed in the last 21 years?
Oh dear, I was probably exaggerating the plight of creative thinkers, there. Of course things have changed - there's a lot more poetry going on, in schools and in the community. Maybe 'Poetry' was once presented for study as something 'other', distanced intellectually and historically, whereas now students are often invited to write poetry themselves, to play and experiment with language. That experience creates a better mindset when they do encounter the world's great poetry. Also there are many living, working poets around these days whereas when I was growing up they were rare birds.
Quite a lot of your poetry explores scientific topics. Do you think that science is poetry, and vice versa?
Thinking of the mysterious behaviour of elementary particles I wrote in Quark Dance that 'science is pure poetry.' Both can be fascinating, sometimes bewildering and ultimately inexplicable. The language in which scientists describe phenomena often uses poetic imagery in attempting to name the unnameable. We approach the sacred by means of language.
What’s the relation of music and visual art to your poetics?
Close. Recently some early experiments with visual and musical collage have found a means of development and expression via the internet. The Poet Laureate blog allowed me to explore that fortunate medium in which word and image are easily juxtaposed. The illustrated novella Serial and the collaboration with Peter Ireland, Lovely Gloves couldn't have been made without access to the National Library's amazing picture collections, available on line. I feel that there are correspondences between the senses. The lyric roots of poetry are strong when you put it to music; the powers of verbal and visual language combine in many forms of art.
What haven’t you tried in poetry, that you would like to try?
I don't know yet.
What projects have you got planned once you step down as Laureate? Will it be relief or sadness?
I'll take a bit of writing pressure off myself and give my hands a chance to heal - in that way it'll be a relief. A nasty accident to my right hand just before I took up the laureateship meant that I was indeed somewhat handicapped throughout, as writing was painful. I'm left with a bit of arthritis - that's manageable - and some sadness at coming to the end of a wonderful ride, but mainly the feeling that I've done my best and will continue to do so.
Further links:
Otoliths
Otago University Press
NZ Electronic Poetry Centre
