Wren Jones (she/her) is an emerging writer whose poetry has appeared in Pine Row Press, Kestrel, Pinhole Poetry, Untethered and others. Her middle grade novel, The Real Dealio, was a finalist in the CANSCAIP 2021 Writing for Children Competition. She is a graduate of The Writers Studio program at Simon Fraser University.
You can read At dinner out to celebrate … in the January 2025 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 wrote this poem after a small experience I had at a meal. I think we all experience interesting small interactions with people – sometimes people we love and have history with, sometimes strangers we see or hear – and while small, they can have a poignancy to them and many layers. When I experience those moments, and they stay with me, I jot them down then write from them, jumping off to explore the other layers I have sensed or the bigger narrative that may be connected to them. I try and stay open and write whatever comes to me. In this poem, like in others I’ve written, a fictional narrative showed up and images that are magical or mythical. It’s fictional but gets at the heart of the poignancy that is connected with the small experience I’ve had.
Why was the poetic form the best fit for this particular piece of work?
Because of the narrative form, and the movement of time through this piece, I chose the left aligned stanza form for this piece, with each stanza forming a sentence.
How do you revise your work?
I’m glad to report I have a new relationship with revising, and actually enjoy it! I now approach it with a playfulness and experimentation to see what works. Also, a lot more patience. I’ll make a copy of the original, maybe put it in prose if it’s not already, and that helps me see what I’ve got, content-wise. I recently took an advanced course at SFU’s Writers Studio, called “The Poem’s Intention” taught by Jami Macarty. It was excellent and really helped me change my relationship with revising a poem – to seeing it as having it’s own part in the process – and my job to keep communicating and working with it to let that appear. To not be too grippy with my strong ideas about “what I am saying here!” As I am doing this, I’m in a couple of writing groups and have a few ‘feedback buddies” that I can share my drafts with and they tell me their experience of the poem. That helps me reflect and work at it until that “other” creative part (aside from craft and my focus on the content,) gets clearly expressed. Near the end of revision I want to look closely at the elements of craft and make sure it is all working to convey the poem – the form, diction, line breaks, etc. I am by no means suggesting I have mastered any of this, but only that I now have an approach that I’m enjoying and feeling clearer about.
As a poet, what does creative success or achievement look like for you?
Mostly it’s about doing it – having a regular creative practice as a part of my life. For a long time I thought about writing a lot but didn’t actually get down to it. As much as it’s challenging and frustrating at times, I’m pretty fulfilled by writing or revising for an hour or two. Also by engaging with other writers. So
We love the artistic underdogs, the experimentalists, the lovely weirdos — who or what might you get creative joy or energy from that others might not be aware of yet?
I get a lot of joy from the work of other artists in my classes at the Toronto School of Art where I take a lot of mixed media. We are given similar prompts and tools/techniques to try out but end up with incredibly different pieces. I get energised from experiencing different ways creative brains work! It opens me up a lot. Also, I’ve recently been reading this book, Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life by Dacher Keltner, and its such a great reminder of how experiencing nature (for me) and anything that helps me get out of my small self and gives me perspective, gives me energy and joy.
How do you make space for poetry in your daily routine?
I write in the mornings during the week, and do my contract work in the afternoons. I injured my back last year and sitting is uncomfortable for me. They have one standing desk at my local library where I work. I have more focus when I’m not at home. So now, every day I have to arrive at the library at 8:55 to make sure I get that desk!! Fortunately, it’s not like there are several of us elbowing each other in a mad rush for the desk, but if I don’t get there when it opens, someone else adjusts it down and sits at it like a regular desk, then I have to go up and explain why I need it, and perhaps ask if they’ll move, and I am a big conflict avoider so, ya, I get there early. Now I’m appreciating how my back issues have created this great morning arrival routine for me.