Mary Mulholland: "Ultimately home is within us"
How would you describe The Dodo Stories in one sentence?
The Dodo Stories explores a mother/daughter relationship which is moth-holed with secrets and gaps of a Portuguese-Guyanese lineage.
I was very interested in the T.S. Eliot epigraph: “And what the dead had no speech for, when living / They can tell you, being dead.” Other writers, such as Denise Riley in Say Something Back, have investigated this idea in their poetry too. Do you feel poetry has a unique means of enabling the dead to speak back?
Not unique. Poetry is my chosen form, but I believe all forms of creativity – as well as dreams, psychotherapy, even daily life – allow space for those who've gone before to speak to us.
I'm a great believer both in how the unconscious guides us (not least from inter-generational traumas), and also in how our intuition works, though hindsight is often the way this shows itself to us.
I don't know if the dead communicate through human-speak language, yet sometimes I feel and believe in their presence – for example when a left-field thought arises, and I ask myself, where did that come from? Or how I'm drawn to open a particular book and my eyes fall on a specific line. In such cases, immediately afterwards, I may notice something associated with someone no longer with us. I love and even kind of follow the eastern tradition of having an altar to one's ancestors.
The subject of the collection is learning about family stories / history. Did the writing of the poetry enable you to feel a connection with your family?
I've always had a good connection with my living maternal family and showed the MS to family members before publishing.
The Dodo Stories is very much my interpretation of an unknown past and how to fill the gaps in the inherited narrative. It's taken years of research. For me, it's brought clarity, a sense of peace and an understanding, even of unspoken family rules I'd grown up with, such as fear of speaking out or being controversial. Did it bring me closer to my dead forebears? Definitely. I grew in my understanding of the complexities of their lives, and respect for their resilience and courage.
Readers generally assume the ‘I’ of a poem is the writer, but given that you chose to write poems rather than a memoir I’m assuming at least some of the content has been fictionalised? How does it feel to tell what people assume is an entirely personal story?
This is poetry. All my poetry veers into the imagination. The I in my poetry is both me and not me. Some people use the term auto-fiction.
For instance, someone said to me they loved it that my grandmother had a recipe
book and were taken aback when I said as far as I know she didn't have one; I invented that as a metaphor to show her way of being, to tell a poetic truth.
Actually, this collection has seen earlier iterations: as fiction/memoir, as a film script. In my first foray into poetry, nearly 20 years ago, we were set an exercise, and this powerful image flashed into my mind of my grandfather, whom I'd never known, saying, "Always follow the light." I took the "light" to be a synonym for truth which is a concept I've always felt draw me – even though people may argue, there's my truth, your truth... A few truths are universal.
How do I feel about people reading this and believing everything? Is it too exposing? People generally read from the limits of their own consciousness, i.e., they will see what they want to see. I don't offer biography, but a way for someone not knowing their history to try to make sense of the past. In the macro is the micro and vice versa.
My thinking is if you write your poetic truth, and try to avoid causing unnecessary hurt or harm, what is there to fear?
One of the themes of the collection seems to be how it feels to be different, as a child, from your family. I wonder if could talk a bit about this theme?
Yes, difference/ identity/ belonging are key. A question I still find difficult is 'where are you from?' I have lived in over 30 houses, six countries. And as the youngest of my family my experiences and responses were different to my elder sisters. It led me to a career in transpersonal psychotherapy, and a personal journey to resolve dissociation and fragmentation. Ultimately home is within us.
There’s also a thematic focus on identity. I wonder what the relation between poetry and identity is for you? Can writing a poem enable the creation of an identity / a reformation of self on the page, for instance?
I don't find poetry creates an identity or reforming of my self on the page. I don't feel the Me on the page is necessarily me, but I do find it can enable me to see something I'd not previously been aware of. It's like stepping out of myself to explore some issue I've not understood. And at some level there is an aspect of me, as I wrote it.
How does The Dodo Stories compare to your previous books? Are there similarities formally, stylistically or thematically, for example?
For me writing in the initial stages is not a conscious thing; the conscious mind steps in at the editing stage. There will be connections with previous work for sure, as it all comes from the same brain/ source. A couple of the poems in The Dodo Stories were published in earlier pamphlets, in slightly different versions. Someone might think oh, the earlier solo pamphlets were about sheep or ageing, but in fact they all explore relationship: with the self, with others, with the natural and supernatural/ spiritual world. Formally and stylistically some poems in The Dodo Stories are definitely shorter.
This might be like being asked to choose a favourite child, but if you had to pick a favourite poem from the collection which would it be and why?
Haha, you'll be glad to know many spring to mind. To choose one, maybe 'The art of daydreaming' gets my vote. Why? This was the mother I grew up with.
You’re an editor at The Alchemy Spoon. I wonder how editing other people’s poetry impacts your own writing, and vice versa?
The main thing that helps my writing is reading. I love reviewing for The Alchemy Spoon and read loads of new books and do some editing for Broken Sleep Books too. I find the editing process magic. It's like sculpting from a chunk of rock. Where's the energy? Are the verbs, nouns and line-breaks working hard enough? Is the ending too ta-da? I'm also a fan of trusted workshop groups and am lucky enough to be part of Red Door Poets and The Circle, who are phenomenal poets. However proficient one may become as a poet, I feel it's advantageous to hear the opinion of other eyes/ears.
Which other poets inspire your writing?
Really hard to whittle down. Emily Berry, T.S. Eliot and Alice Oswald are unfailing inspirations. But I'm eclectic and catholic in my reading and can be inspired by many, many poets and not just British ones.
What’s been the reaction to the collection so far?
I was so excited to be included in Jennifer Lee Tsai's Guardian round up of top five poetry collections for October. Before publication day I became so anxious I had to have acupuncture! I opened the box when it arrived from Nine Arches but couldn't open the book itself for days. The first time I read from it was at the wonderful Poetry Pharmacy in York, for the launch. If the poems speak to people, that makes me so happy. I've been heart-warmed by the generous things people have said. A vain wish is that it might inspire others to find similar ways to heal a fragmented past.
I know you’ve done quite a few readings and events to promote the book recently. Have you got any others planned?
Yes, it's been wonderfully busy with readings, festivals and more to come. Some fixed, some not yet finalised, so, all being well, there will be readings in London, Arundel, Paris, Leeds, Southport, Swindon, Belfast and more. Oh, and online, e.g I will be reading with Sue Wallace-Shaddad and Alex Corrin-Tachibana for the Milton Keynes Literary Festival on 3 December (https://www.mklitfest.org/togethernotalone), and The Dodo Stories will be the subject of the online The Live Review on November 15 when Tamsin Hopkins and Fiona Larkin will discuss it. (https://www.tamsinhopkins.co.uk/thelivereview)
The best place to find out about forthcoming readings and events is via my website, www.marymulholland.co.uk
Buy The Dodo Stories:
Comments