Billy Marshall Stoneking: Doug, tell me, how did you come to poetry? Is it something you’ve always done or is it a recent development?
Doug Poole: Well... my family is full of storytellers, so I guess it was natural for me to want to tell stories of my own. I have always enjoyed writing stories, songs and poems since my early school days. I started writing seriously at age 14 when inspired by my English teacher, Malcolm Hayward, to try harder and challenge myself more; it was his influence in my 2nd year at high school that made a difference to what I was doing with my writing. I wrote 4 journals of short stories, songs and poems over the next 3 years at high school. I guess one of the reasons poetry attracted me was because I have always been interested in music, and the evocativeness of rhythm; and because, like songwriting, poetry offers a way of conveying images and emotions rhythmically.
BMS: Some poets, I am one of them, seem to write about the same things over and over again. Are you aware of your own poetry having any specific preoccupations and if so what are they?
DP: Yes, most definitely. The preoccupations I write about most are my wife and children, my family, my Samoan ancestry, and friends. I find myself writing more and more about the people important to my life. I think it is natural for writers to be preoccupied by someone or something, inspiration is a very precious thing. It is also important to be conscious of the preoccupations as you don't want to bore the hell out of your readers or yourself for that matter.
BMS: What about influences. Have their been any writers who have had a real impact on your own writing?
DP: You know I have always wanted to be asked this question. My biggest influence in writing was Lennon and Mc Cartney. My Dad bought me Hey Jude (Capital Records’ release) when I was eight years-old, and I loved it. My favorite song was Can't buy me Love. My preoccupation with the Beatles led me towards reading song lyrics and trying to write my own songs, and poems eventually.
As with many poets, I have a stable of influences: Roger McGough, Dylan Thomas, Allen Ginsberg, and New Zealand writers/ poets like David Eggleton, Witi Ihimaera, Sam Hunt, Keri Hulme, Katherine Mansfield, Janet Frame, James K Baxter, Christina Conrad, Bruce Stewart, Michele Leggot, Patricia Grace, Maurice Shadbolt, Allen Curnow and Dennis Glover.
I would have to say I am influenced most by New Zealanders.
BMS: Why?
DP: Because I love the atmosphere and genre that surrounds our literary landscape. We have, I believe, very high standards and an almost unwritten law for originality and diversity.
BMS: What role, if any, do you see poetry playing in the world as we know it?
DP: Just type "Poetry" into any search engine and you’ll see there are thousands of sites and poets on-line. Poetry has always had the role of entertaining, but it is also inspiring, a kind of rejoicing in the human experience. Poetry now has many forms and has challenged and broken down the old rules to a certain extent. Meter, Rhyme and Rhythm are still the basic fundamentals but the form and structure of poetry is now so dynamic. Whether it is multi-media, rap, performance, free verse, interactive... I believe poetry has moved with contemporary culture and will continue to do so.
BMS: What about the more traditional forms of poetry?
DP: I think the classical, academic, forms of poetry will continue and remain "alive". The basic fundamentals must be regarded when a person decides, "I'm going to be a poet". Poetry doesn't come out of nowhere. No art ever does. It is attached to a tradition, and we can grow through our awareness and understanding of the various poetic traditions, including the classical.
I don't think the role of poetry has changed very much since the first poem, prose, fable, myth, story, or song was told, sung, recited or written. We as humans have always made up songs and stories about where we are from, what we believe; they express diverse stories from every culture, sub-culture and country. Poetry has the role of entertaining, but it is also of great cultural significance. In Maori culture, for example, the orators are fluent speakers of past present and future. They weave a fabric which encompasses time and space, family, tribes, sub-tribes, history, and current events. This is also what poetry does, or should do.
BMS: Why do you write? To what extent is your own poetry a form of therapy?
DP: To silence the creative voices in my mind and subconcious.
BMS: A form of therapy?
DP: Well... a form of therapy, perhaps. But I often find that writing that is written to resolve personal or emotional issues is not the sort I want to share. I write mainly to express myself, to tell my story and to entertain the reader.
BMS: How important is voice in the writing of your poetry?
DP: Extremely important. All of the work that has touched me the most has voice. All works must have a voice to convey the very basic messages you are trying to convey to your reader. Language can be challenging, basic or bi-lingual. But Voice must carry and convey the writer’s individuality, personality and commitment to his or her art form. I believe all great writers have a voice that is at times far more appealing than content or even story. Voice is something I am still trying to perfect.
BMS: Do you ever perform your work live? If so, where? Do you enjoy public performance?
DP: To be honest, I don't really enjoy reading aloud as I have always hated the sound of my own voice. I think successful performance poets need to have a presence to their voice as a writer does in a written voice. The readings in which I have "performed" are really more like gatherings of close friends and family. I like to read my poems with my brother, Vincent, performing his songs. So performing my work live has been kept for special occasions and family gatherings; they are the readings I enjoy the most. I am really a shy person in a talkative person's body (laughs).
BMS: Tell us about any memorable poetry performances you have experienced.
DP: Sam Hunt, "live" at Lopdell House in Titirangi, Auckland. I was mesmerized and thoroughly captivated by his performance. Sam has a very honest and cool style. I think his poetry comes across with honesty and humility. He is one of my hero's for sure. Otis Mace and David Eggleton are two others that come to mind. Again at Lopdell House, Titirangi. What a knockout show. Otis (Guitarist and songwriter) and David (Performance Poet and Poet extraordinaire) really put to the front of my mind what a "multi-media" performance can do to bring poetry into the "now" as a performance medium. David came to my high school in the mid 90's. The performance was hip, contemporary and exciting. David had a huge influence on me. I was writing songs and poetry and he inspired me to reach out beyond the muse I was writing to at the time.
BMS: Tell me about how you work on a poem.
DP: I have changed so much over the last 16 years of writing. From forcing it out of myself, or programming myself to sit down and write at certain times, to an almost mediumistic situation where the poem just seems to come from outside my own self, because it will come out in one fluent attempt. So I suppose I employ all three methods to write.
I also believe it’s important to let yourself be free of the burden of writing when life demands attention to family, work or other art forms. I don’t stress out about not writing a poem for 2 weeks or even a month, because the stories of my life are happening all the time; the subconscious mind is writing all the time; I can't stop it. It also helps not being a "professional writer", of course. There are no financial implications to my art. As Guy Clarke wrote: "There ain't no money in poetry, that's what sets the poet free..." (Cold Dog Soup).
BMS: Where do the ideas come from? How do you develop them into a poem?
DP: Ideas come to me as a matter of course whether I am committing time to sit and write. Or if the poem just comes on, for this I have a contigency of a pad and pen on my person at all times and in the bedside drawer. For those little writing emergencies.
The development of Ideas is a different matter all together. I am rather disciplined in forming the poem into something that attempts to have a beginning, middle, and end. I like to develop the thought patterns naturally where I can by letting the Idea come out, however badly it looks on the page, and then once I have the raw material I will develop the ideas further. I may leave the ideas in my mind to develop on their own, a process which can take weeks, months, or as I have discussed with other writers, years. For example, with the poem, "Reclining figures", I left the idea for the poem to develop subconsciously for 6 months all I had was the first lines of the first stanza:
Doug Poole: Well... my family is full of storytellers, so I guess it was natural for me to want to tell stories of my own. I have always enjoyed writing stories, songs and poems since my early school days. I started writing seriously at age 14 when inspired by my English teacher, Malcolm Hayward, to try harder and challenge myself more; it was his influence in my 2nd year at high school that made a difference to what I was doing with my writing. I wrote 4 journals of short stories, songs and poems over the next 3 years at high school. I guess one of the reasons poetry attracted me was because I have always been interested in music, and the evocativeness of rhythm; and because, like songwriting, poetry offers a way of conveying images and emotions rhythmically.
BMS: Some poets, I am one of them, seem to write about the same things over and over again. Are you aware of your own poetry having any specific preoccupations and if so what are they?
DP: Yes, most definitely. The preoccupations I write about most are my wife and children, my family, my Samoan ancestry, and friends. I find myself writing more and more about the people important to my life. I think it is natural for writers to be preoccupied by someone or something, inspiration is a very precious thing. It is also important to be conscious of the preoccupations as you don't want to bore the hell out of your readers or yourself for that matter.
BMS: What about influences. Have their been any writers who have had a real impact on your own writing?
DP: You know I have always wanted to be asked this question. My biggest influence in writing was Lennon and Mc Cartney. My Dad bought me Hey Jude (Capital Records’ release) when I was eight years-old, and I loved it. My favorite song was Can't buy me Love. My preoccupation with the Beatles led me towards reading song lyrics and trying to write my own songs, and poems eventually.
As with many poets, I have a stable of influences: Roger McGough, Dylan Thomas, Allen Ginsberg, and New Zealand writers/ poets like David Eggleton, Witi Ihimaera, Sam Hunt, Keri Hulme, Katherine Mansfield, Janet Frame, James K Baxter, Christina Conrad, Bruce Stewart, Michele Leggot, Patricia Grace, Maurice Shadbolt, Allen Curnow and Dennis Glover.
I would have to say I am influenced most by New Zealanders.
BMS: Why?
DP: Because I love the atmosphere and genre that surrounds our literary landscape. We have, I believe, very high standards and an almost unwritten law for originality and diversity.
BMS: What role, if any, do you see poetry playing in the world as we know it?
DP: Just type "Poetry" into any search engine and you’ll see there are thousands of sites and poets on-line. Poetry has always had the role of entertaining, but it is also inspiring, a kind of rejoicing in the human experience. Poetry now has many forms and has challenged and broken down the old rules to a certain extent. Meter, Rhyme and Rhythm are still the basic fundamentals but the form and structure of poetry is now so dynamic. Whether it is multi-media, rap, performance, free verse, interactive... I believe poetry has moved with contemporary culture and will continue to do so.
BMS: What about the more traditional forms of poetry?
DP: I think the classical, academic, forms of poetry will continue and remain "alive". The basic fundamentals must be regarded when a person decides, "I'm going to be a poet". Poetry doesn't come out of nowhere. No art ever does. It is attached to a tradition, and we can grow through our awareness and understanding of the various poetic traditions, including the classical.
I don't think the role of poetry has changed very much since the first poem, prose, fable, myth, story, or song was told, sung, recited or written. We as humans have always made up songs and stories about where we are from, what we believe; they express diverse stories from every culture, sub-culture and country. Poetry has the role of entertaining, but it is also of great cultural significance. In Maori culture, for example, the orators are fluent speakers of past present and future. They weave a fabric which encompasses time and space, family, tribes, sub-tribes, history, and current events. This is also what poetry does, or should do.
BMS: Why do you write? To what extent is your own poetry a form of therapy?
DP: To silence the creative voices in my mind and subconcious.
BMS: A form of therapy?
DP: Well... a form of therapy, perhaps. But I often find that writing that is written to resolve personal or emotional issues is not the sort I want to share. I write mainly to express myself, to tell my story and to entertain the reader.
BMS: How important is voice in the writing of your poetry?
DP: Extremely important. All of the work that has touched me the most has voice. All works must have a voice to convey the very basic messages you are trying to convey to your reader. Language can be challenging, basic or bi-lingual. But Voice must carry and convey the writer’s individuality, personality and commitment to his or her art form. I believe all great writers have a voice that is at times far more appealing than content or even story. Voice is something I am still trying to perfect.
BMS: Do you ever perform your work live? If so, where? Do you enjoy public performance?
DP: To be honest, I don't really enjoy reading aloud as I have always hated the sound of my own voice. I think successful performance poets need to have a presence to their voice as a writer does in a written voice. The readings in which I have "performed" are really more like gatherings of close friends and family. I like to read my poems with my brother, Vincent, performing his songs. So performing my work live has been kept for special occasions and family gatherings; they are the readings I enjoy the most. I am really a shy person in a talkative person's body (laughs).
BMS: Tell us about any memorable poetry performances you have experienced.
DP: Sam Hunt, "live" at Lopdell House in Titirangi, Auckland. I was mesmerized and thoroughly captivated by his performance. Sam has a very honest and cool style. I think his poetry comes across with honesty and humility. He is one of my hero's for sure. Otis Mace and David Eggleton are two others that come to mind. Again at Lopdell House, Titirangi. What a knockout show. Otis (Guitarist and songwriter) and David (Performance Poet and Poet extraordinaire) really put to the front of my mind what a "multi-media" performance can do to bring poetry into the "now" as a performance medium. David came to my high school in the mid 90's. The performance was hip, contemporary and exciting. David had a huge influence on me. I was writing songs and poetry and he inspired me to reach out beyond the muse I was writing to at the time.
BMS: Tell me about how you work on a poem.
DP: I have changed so much over the last 16 years of writing. From forcing it out of myself, or programming myself to sit down and write at certain times, to an almost mediumistic situation where the poem just seems to come from outside my own self, because it will come out in one fluent attempt. So I suppose I employ all three methods to write.
I also believe it’s important to let yourself be free of the burden of writing when life demands attention to family, work or other art forms. I don’t stress out about not writing a poem for 2 weeks or even a month, because the stories of my life are happening all the time; the subconscious mind is writing all the time; I can't stop it. It also helps not being a "professional writer", of course. There are no financial implications to my art. As Guy Clarke wrote: "There ain't no money in poetry, that's what sets the poet free..." (Cold Dog Soup).
BMS: Where do the ideas come from? How do you develop them into a poem?
DP: Ideas come to me as a matter of course whether I am committing time to sit and write. Or if the poem just comes on, for this I have a contigency of a pad and pen on my person at all times and in the bedside drawer. For those little writing emergencies.
The development of Ideas is a different matter all together. I am rather disciplined in forming the poem into something that attempts to have a beginning, middle, and end. I like to develop the thought patterns naturally where I can by letting the Idea come out, however badly it looks on the page, and then once I have the raw material I will develop the ideas further. I may leave the ideas in my mind to develop on their own, a process which can take weeks, months, or as I have discussed with other writers, years. For example, with the poem, "Reclining figures", I left the idea for the poem to develop subconsciously for 6 months all I had was the first lines of the first stanza:
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