Author Notes: Catherine Graham
Dorothy Molloy provides inspiration for Catherine Graham.Recent Puritan contributor Catherine Graham discusses her poetry from Issue XXI: Spring 2013.How Her Red Hair Rises with the Wings of Insects Came into BeingFour poems of mine published in the Spring Issue of The Puritan all began as glosas, an early Renaissance form developed during the 14th century by poets in the Spanish court. The opening four lines from another poet’s work (the cabeza) are woven into the last line of each of four ten-line stanzas.In my last book, Winterkill, one of the poems, “The Buried” was nearly a glosa. I had woven a quote by the British actress Tilda Swinton into the last lines of six stanzas. Until this poem, most of my work had been shorter, usually fewer than ten lines, but the glosa format demanded more of me. After Winterkill was published, I wondered if I could write another poem like “The Buried” but this time a true glosa. With countless poetry books in my study to choose from, it was Gethsemane Day by the late Irish poet Dorothy Molloy I pulled off the shelf. Without giving it too much thought, I chose four lines that spoke to me and began. I discovered, after writing my first glosa, a new cavern into my imagination. I wanted more from this experience, so the next day I chose four lines from another poem in Gethsemane Day. There was no plan, just an instinct to try writing a form I was familiar with from reading the glosas of P.K. Page. With several attempts under my belt, I gave myself a mission: to write a glosa using a cabeza from each of Molloy’s poems in Gethsemane Day.When this process ended I wanted more, so I reached for Molloy’s first posthumous book Hare Soup (Molloy died ten days before this book was published by Faber and Faber) and although I didn’t write as many glosas as I did with Gethsemane Day, a few came into being.Our voices are very different. One reader, a fellow poet, gave the following jazz analogy: “You’re Bill Evans and she’s Thelonius Monk.” And yet, Molloy’s lines worked as catalysts. They took me to new places emotionally, musically and thematically, where I discovered a voice that was more of me.
PK Page, Hologrammin'.After letting the glosas sit, I found a fresh and lively energy, a feeling lyricism often coupled with a sinister edge, but sometimes it felt like the format was getting in the way. I began to listen to the demands of each poem by letting go of the poems’ initial scaffolding. And yet, despite the partial or complete erasure of Molloy’s lines, they were essential to my process.I lived in Northern Ireland during the 1990s but never met Molloy. I did meet P.K. Page in 2006 when she invited me to her home in Victoria, British Columbia. She was a gracious, sharp-witted, inspiring host during an afternoon that went by much too quickly. It was a visit I cherish.No more of Molloy’s lines remain in the poem “The Animal Game,” and “Domestic” turned into a sonnet. “Lucy” and “My Skin Is My Grave” became free verse poems. When Molloy’s words do remain, they are italicized. Dorothy Molloy and P. K. Page became my spirit mentors during the writing of Her Red Hair Rises with the Wings of Insects. The book is my tribute to them.Catherine Graham is the author of The Watch and the poetry trilogy: Pupa, The Red Element and Winterkill. Anthologized in The White Page /An Bhileog Bhan: Twentieth Century Irish Women Poets, Graham’s writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Room Magazine, The Malahat Review, Descant Magazine, Poetry Ireland Review, The Antigonish Review, The Rusty Toque and The Fiddlehead. A Board member of The Rowers Reading Series and co-facilitator for The Platform Reading Series, she teaches Creative Writing at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies and has read her work at numerous venues including the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Her forthcoming collection, Her Red Hair Rises with the Wings of Insects, will appear Fall 2013 with Wolsak & Wynn. Visit her at www.catherinegraham.com.