A Chance Questionning Pamela Mordecai

Growing up as a student in Jamaica, the name Pamela Mordecai was synonymous with books for English language mastery and poetry. Think: New Junior English Revised and Sunsong. However, the lady behind the name is more than the cover. She is a poet, a writer, a teacher, a scholar and a living literary mastermind, with a whole body of work spanning several decades that commands serious attention and speaks to its own relevance. And of course, to my proud boast - an Alpha girl!

(Via All Booskstore.com)

I came across her poem 'My Sister Cries the Sea' and it was like a personal rediscovery. I am honestly put over the edge of awe when I read the effortless grace with which she writes and the creole duality of language she uses. So... I took a chance, on Facebook.

Mustered up some boldness and posed some questions I had been dying to ask from day one. Here are her unedited responses:


SS: Who is a poet?

PM: Well, the most inclusive definition would be, “anyone who has ever written a poem”. Another, more limited one might be, “one who earns a living from writing poetry.” And of course, there’s a pretty wide range in between!

SS:How can one find his/her voice as a poet? (Is this a crazy question?)

PM: No, it’s not crazy. I’m assuming that what you mean by ‘voice’ is the particular, unique way of writing – sometimes referred to as a ‘signature’ – that makes a poem distinctive, identifies it as the poet’s own and no one else’s. There’s only one way to do this and that is to become very skilled at your craft, in other words, become a really fine poet. As for how one goes about becoming a good poet, there are now thousands of books, websites, blogs, etc., that give advice on how to do that; there are fine arts programs in universities and colleges, and there are workshops offered by writing schools (intra-mural and long distance) and individuals, and there are writing retreats to go to all over the world, including in the Caribbean. Any google or bling search will give any aspiring poet loads of information.

SS: How do you get your poems from your soul to the page?

PM: Well, I don’t know about the ‘soul’ part. They come from the whole of me, and they are often very bad-behave, so I guess maybe I have a bad-behaving soul! But to answer the question, I simply write them down and keep revising till I get them right. There are a few people I ask to read them for me, including my husband Martin, a superb writer, and my daughter Rachel, who is on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where she teaches English, as well as other writers who are family and friends. I call on my colleagues as well, but only the ones I know will be honest.

SS: What were you thinking when you wrote 'My Sister Cries the Sea'?

PM: Poets shouldn’t ever answer questions like this, but just for you! I suppose I was thinking that Earth is dying, because we are killing her with pollution, and I was visualizing how that was showing itself in places in the Caribbean where I’ve lived (Jamaica, Trinidad). The ‘sister’ in the poem is, perhaps, all the women who know and are concerned about this impending death, and perhaps all the women writers (so they are sisters in that special way, as fellow writers) who know it, and perhaps the women who foresee earth’s dying as part as an impending end-of-the-world scenario, since I do think we are looking at the end of the world. But I hope there’s more to the poem than that. (Like, why is she ‘crying the sea’?) But I’m not going to do any more explaining of it… Poems should speak for themselves.

SS: Do you have a routine for reading/performing your poems?

PM: Again, I’m not exactly sure what you mean by a routine. If it’s a reading where I can do what I please (in other words, one that’s not confined to a particular book), I usually try to include some children’s poems because I have some that work very well and because I want people to recognize that good poetry for children is good poetry for everybody. I also rehearse what I’m going to read, even if I’ve read the poems a hundred times, and I time the readings carefully, since I hate when readers go over their allotted time. I try to take my audience into account as well, and to choose poems that will appeal to them. But that’s about as routine as it gets.

SS: What is your fondest memory as an Alpha girl?

PM: Roller-skating around the old McAuley Hall.

SS: May I contact you again if i have other questions?

PM: Absolutely. Thanks for your interest in my poetry. I’m going to take the opportunity to mention my collection of short fiction, PINK ICING, which appeared in 2006. You can see a review at http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/205862

You can also read the first story at http://www.insomniacpress.com/title.php?id=1-897178-32-

And you can listen to me read an excerpt at http://www.hswliteraryagency.humber.ca/videos/Pam%20Mordecai.mov

I also highly recommend following her blog http://jahworld-pmordecai.blogspot.com/, it is teeming with inspiration.