What lead to you entering the Seamus Heaney Awards poetry competition?
It was through the Ballymoney Writer’s Group of which I have been a member for over 20 years. A number of us entered the first Seamus Heaney Awards competition and I was also the runner-up in the second year.
I have entered off and on since then. There have been some inspiring facilitators sent out by Community Arts Partnership for the Poetry in Motion project. The facilitator this year was Anne McMaster, who is also the facilitator for our writer’s group, and I felt I owed it to her to show that I was able to produce something.
Do you enter many competitions?
I think I enter this competition because it’s local and it is free to enter. I have had poems placed in other competitions over the years but I only enter them sporadically.
Did you have the poem already written or did you work on during the facilitation periods?
This poem was a mixture. I had some of it written but I do work quite slowly and I do edit a lot. I think when we talked about the theme, “Manifest”, and we discussed things becoming what they really are, these birds that were just birds in my head, transformed into actual birds with names that I could tell the difference between. It was a germ of an idea which grew throughout the facilitation process.
You say you do a lot of editing. How many drafts of this particular poem were needed?
I couldn’t really tell you but I think it would have had somewhere around 15 drafts.
You sound like you whittle the words into shape?
Yes that would be accurate. That would describe my process.
What are the key themes you were exploring in the poem?
Well, the poem is based on an actual memory, of a day spent bird watching, but it touches on the themes of ageing, change and memory. I wanted to include a mention of the ravages of bird flu too and I wanted to also have an element of a relationship contained within it.
Would it be reasonable to say that there is a lot of layering in the poem?
Possibly.
By trade I was an English teacher and sometimes I think about handing a poem like this to a group of 16 year old students and I wonder what they would make of it. I like to think they could learn something from it about life, our shared human experiences or at least the craft of writing poetry.
So I suppose I do try to write poems that merit more than one reading; that an English teacher would find worth teaching.
How did you feel about achieving the runner-up position in the competition?
I was very pleased. I think everyone is pleasantly surprised to be placed anywhere in a competition. So I was very pleased. I liked the winning poem; the style is very different from the way I write and I admired writer’s control, the powerful images and expression of emotion.
I think just to be recognised at all was quite a wonderful feeling, and at the event I thought there was a wide range of poetry so to be included in the top places was a real boost to my confidence. I know everyone says that but I really did feel that sense of my work being respected.
Where to now?
I am working towards a collection, I think I have enough poems and I have a theme in mind – I just need to find the courage to get more of work out there. Certainly being part of the Seamus Heaney Awards has been a boost for me so we will see how everything progresses.