Would it be reasonable to say that there are specific themes which you have maintained an interest in during your career; family relationships, mother daughter relationships, the question of ageing, the question of women and particularly the mistreatment of women?
Yes those are all themes that run through my work. Like any writer, I write about things that particularly interest me. Also, where I feel I can offer something to the discussion around those themes.
In saying that, I often just follow what I pick up on and I do try and keep an interested mind, open to the things that are occurring in the world or around me. Sometimes that leads me to do some research around a particular topic and that informs the poems. Other times I am writing from a more personal perspective.
How do you feel about your career?
One of the things I am most pleased about, in terms of writing poetry, is that I have just kept going. It can be very hard to keep writing, and for women particularly there can be various demands on your time depending on what stage of your life you are experiencing. But I have just kept plodding along through everything, and I am quite proud of that. And, hopefully, I am nowhere near finished yet.
In terms of my career, I think I have looked at various stages in a woman’s life, and I have looked at the various themes and ideas which emerge from that, both personally and in society more broadly. If I look back at, “Miracle Fruit” for example, I used historical research to speak about the contemporary situation for women generally as well as the situation for the poor and for outsiders. It worries me that it often seems that things are as bad now as they ever were, that people are being used by the rich and powerful just as much as they always have been.
I was reading recently about a CEO of a major company talking about, “lower human capital”, and that really enraged me, because there have always been people who think that certain sections of society just don’t matter, that they can be used and disposed of without consequence.
Generally, in terms of evaluating my work, my approach is to work with what the universe of my imagination gives me, work with that material the best way I can. As well as that, I think you have to keep growing and developing. I am enthused about the fact that I feel I am still growing creatively, my imagination is still working well and I am still enthused about writing poetry.
Where to now?
If I agree that this book has been quite a change in direction for me, then I am not sure now where my creative voice is going to take me. I just don’t know what I’m going to explore next. It was suggested to me that some of my work is quite “Gothic” and I do have quite a dark side to my imagination. I do recognise that I have a tendency towards the “Gothic”.
We will just have to see what occurs. I can’t plan it. I’ll have to see what direction my creative voice moves in and go with that.
So follow up the work of Moyra Donaldson go to the following links
www.doirepress.com/writers/moyra-donaldson
humag.co/features/moyra-donaldson-interviewed-by-damian-smyth
