Dagne Forrest’s poetry and creative nonfiction have appeared in journals in Canada, the US, Australia, and the UK. In 2021 she was one of 15 poets featured in Canada’s Poem in Your Pocket campaign. In 2023 she won first prize in the Nick Blatchford Occasional Verse Contest run by The New Quarterly. Her first chapbook will be published by Baseline Press in 2025. She belongs to Painted Bride Quarterly’s senior editorial and podcast teams. Learn more at dagneforrest.com.
You can read her poem Hypaethral in the April 2024 issue.
How or where or with what does a poem begin?
An image, idea, or phrase that won’t go away. The world is full of poetry, and I don’t believe in writing every day, not for me. I believe in writing when something in my head is demanding that I pay attention to it. It’s a bit of a fine line, as ignoring quieter signals can mean missing out on a percolating idea, but I feel pretty comfortable with the balance I’m achieving.
How do you revise your work?
Sleeping on it! Coming back to a poem with fresh eyes often helps to highlight missteps or areas for refinement. Later in the process of finishing a poem, I always go through the piece with an ear for sound. Sometimes I’m looking to layer sound in quite a particular way.
Are there other art forms that inspire or inform your poetry?
I’ve always loved visual art, public art, and art galleries, and I’ve now written quite a few ekphrastic poems. Ekphrasis has a way of unlocking things that’s quite different to my usual process, and I love the journey of discovery.
How do you make space for poetry in your daily routine?
Day to day, I read poetry, constantly. I belong to quite a few mailing lists, listen to poetry podcasts, have favourite digital and print-based journals that I read, and I also read as an editor for a literary magazine. I don’t have a daily writing routine, but I make note of ideas or lines whenever and wherever they come to me.
What are you reading or watching or listening to lately that intrigues or inspires you?
In 2023, I became obsessed with Twenty Self Portraits by the UK painter Frank Auerbach (who has been painting some of the most vivid, striking self portraiture in his nineties), and I’m still following the threads inspired by those paintings and drawings. I’ve also been writing quite a few centos for the last year, and love poetic forms that put me directly in conversation with the work of other poets.
Do you belong to a writer’s group? If not, where do you find poetry community and feedback?
The group I currently belong to is on a bit of a hiatus. I’m lucky that the my volunteer work for a literary journal enables me to discuss poetry regularly with a great group of people (poets and writers themselves) who I trust and love spending time with.
How did you begin writing poetry? Was there a specific inspiration or reason?
In my early twenties I wrote a lot and saw a writing life for myself, but I shelved all of it when I started a family and gave myself over to other aspects of living. I returned to writing once my children were nearly grown. Not knowing what I wanted, I took a music class, which turned me on to the idea of poetry, and I’ve never looked back.