Josiah Nelson is an MFA student at the University of Saskatchewan. His work has appeared (or is forthcoming) in Existere, Vast Chasm Magazine, Queen’s Quarterly, and Hunger Mountain Review. He lives in Saskatoon.
You can read his poem Pieces in the July 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?
I go for a lot of walks around the South Saskatchewan River here in Saskatoon, especially when I’m thinking about a poem. The first three lines occurred to me one of these walks: they seemed to put to words something I was feeling, and I just kept picking at them, waiting for something to unfurl. Around that time, I had written a poem about October light using the word “aperture” before deciding to excise it. I guess it was hanging around my brain. Once I thought of that word in the context of this poem, it unlocked the poem for me. It told me it was about scope—big things, small things, small spaces, lots of light.
Do you have a collection of poetry or even a single poem that acts as a touchstone?
Yeah! A few. I love Marie Howe’s collection, Kingdom of Ordinary Time and William Stafford’s collection Learning to Live in The World. I like their wisdom and their use of image. There are a few poems I’ve memorized and will murmur to myself throughout the day: Howe’s “Annunciation,” Tom Clark’s “Poem,” Joshua Ware’s, “Poem Beginning With a Line by Lisa Jarnot,” Stafford’s “Ask Me,” and lately, Maggie Smith’s “After the Divorce, I Think of Something My Daughter Said about Mars.” Gentle poems, incisive poems, surprising poems. I love the way each of them unfurl.
If you didn’t write poetry, how do you think you might access the same fulfillments that poetry offers in your life?
I don’t know! I don’t think I would to be honest. I think I would feel as I do when the poems aren’t occurring to me: I enjoy looking around and paying attention to things just as much, but I don’t get the same fulfilment of rendering that faithfully—of passing those images along with care and intention. Lately, my poetic process has really slowed down. I’ve taken to turning toward the sun and closing my eyes. It feels nice, but I have no idea how to write about it.
Are there other art forms that inspire or inform your poetry?
For sure! Saskatoon has a great movie theatre—the Roxy—and I go there about once a week. I love being in that space: a story is appearing before me, but there’s plenty of space for my mind to drift. I’ve had so many helpful, clarifying, and generative ideas watching movies. Recent favourites include Maiden and A Quiet Girl. I also love listening to music. If movies make me meditative, I find music makes me want to move my body—sing along, dance. I think I love poetry because it sort of appeals to both these feelings—it makes me meditative, but it also makes me want to move.
What are you reading or watching or listening to lately that intrigues or inspires you?
I just finished reading Kim Fu’s collection Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century and really loved it. Strange, lyrical, perfectly paced stories. I’ve also been reading Karen Solie’s collection, The Road In Is Not the Same Road Out. Amazing poems I can feel stretching me.