Frances Boyle’s latest book, Openwork and Limestone, was published by Frontenac House in 2022. In addition to two earlier poetry collections, she is also the author of Seeking Shade, an award-winning short story collection, and Tower, a novella. Her first novel, Skin Hunger, is forthcoming in 2024 with The Porcupine’s Quill. Frances’s writing has been selected for the Best Canadian Poetry series and Poem in Your Pocket Day among other honours. Recent publications include work in TAB Journal, Paddler Press, Acropolis and The Windsor Review.
You can read Self-Portrait as Helium Balloon in the October 2023 issue.
Would you like to tell us a little bit more about your poem? For instance, how or why you wrote it, or perhaps provide some extra context?
“Self-Portrait As Helium Balloon” began, as so many of my poems do, with freewriting at my weekly writing group, the Ruby Tuesdays. In this case, the impetus for the poem was the opening phrase, “Already I am making myself lighter”, from a January Gill O’Neil poem that I ended up including as the opening of my poem. In O’Neil’s wonderful poem, lovemaking is what allows the speaker access to lightness and creativity. I instead thought about how shedding possessions and obligations could unburden someone, and imagined a lightness leading to literally floating away. But, as I wrote, I came around to the idea of thinking about what would be missed when airborne, what might be lost so the poem turned in that direction midway through. Later, a call from tiny wren lit magazine for “self portrait as…” poems gave me a title and some small ways of reconceptualizing of the poem.
Why was the poetic form the best fit for this particular piece of work?
The poem began as a block of longer lines without stanza breaks. In revision, I made some changes to the tense of the original (eg from “If I could float away from my floorboards” to “I float off floorboards”). This not only made the poem more immediate, but shortened the phrases considerably. As I made these changes and cut other bits to pare the poem down to what seemed essential, I opted for shorter lines. I then broke the text into couplets. I felt this form gave the lines and images more space, and seemed consistent with the floating imagery.
How do you revise your work?
My process of revision varies from poem to poem, but almost always involves chiseling away a larger block of free association writing to get to something that feels like a poem. Freewriting of course involves meandering, so revision means seeking out the hot spots, the bits that have energy, and teasing them into poem form. I listen for sound, rhythm and movement that I can build upon, and always aim for my line breaks to do some of the work of the poem. Some early advice from David O’Meara – to ask if there is a stronger or more apt word I could use instead of the one I first come up with – is always in mind. I am strongly inclined to lines of fairly uniform length, so when I am at that stage of shaping the poem, I am again looking at how I can find better line breaks. Focusing on the integrity of lines and stanzas can often lead to restructuring, moving sections around, or further trimming. And of course a poem is rarely 100% done. I’ll revise based on feedback from my writing group, and I’ll very often revise after a poem has been unsuccessfully submitted to a journal. Working with an editor is a whole other phase of revision. Even the previously published poems in Openwork and Limestone, my last collection underwent substantial revision at the (sometimes) gentle urging of John Wall Barger, my editor at the press.
What are you working on now?
As ever, I have both poetry and fiction projects on the go.
I’ve just finished revising my novel, Skin Hunger, and am getting back to short stories. Since my story collection, Seeking Shade, came out in 2020, I’ve published two new full-length stories and one flash piece, and I have a number of others at stages ranging from complete drafts some of which are out for consideration, to partial drafts (mostly openings!) to very early ideas or concepts for stories. Most of these have a speculative or at least slightly eerie feel to them and I hope they’ll coalesce into a collection at some point.
My current poetry projects include a long poem, which may be turning into a sonnet sequence, about the neighbourhood in Regina where I grew up, and an expansion of my chapbook, Meniscus Blister, into a full-length collection with water imagery circulating through family history and mental health challenges. And I always have new poems in the works that arise without consideration to theme or ultimate collection.
What are you reading or watching or listening to lately that intrigues or inspires you?
I am fairly omnivorous when it comes to art that I enjoy and that intrigues or inspires me. I read a lot of fiction over the summer when I was relatively housebound while recovering from surgery. I at first looked for books to lift my mood, reading fantasy (my friend Sam always has great recommendations on her Bookstagram, readnext (https://www.instagram.com/readnext/) ) and for the first time, I devoured happily-ever-after/rom-com novels including several by Mhairi McFarlane. They may inspire me to bring a lighter touch to some of my writing. I also consumed more TV than usual, including a bunch of fantasy (Wheel of Time, Shadow and Bone, The Witcher) and lawyer shows like The Good Fight and Lincoln Lawyer, which (as a former lawyer) I enjoy for just how unrealistic they are about the practice of law. The most intriguing show I watched recently was The Bear, which features wonderful characterizations and acting (Jamie Lee Curtis!!), and incredible pacing.
Now that I’m back on a more literary track, I’m continuing my run of Irish writers, including Claire Keegan, Donal Ryan, Doireann Ní Ghríofa and John Boyne, while keeping a healthy balance of CanLit fiction and poetry. I recently reviewed poetry collections by Emily Osborne (Safety Razor) and Rhiannon Ng Cheng Hin (Fire Cider Rain) both of which were fantastic. And I am revisiting the wonderfully moving and skillfully crafted Nuclear Family by my friend Jean Van Loon in light of it just having won of the Ottawa Book Award.