HELEN NGO is the current
Student Writer-in-Residence
at Western. She is also
a fourth year mathematics major,
poet by night, lover of cats,
caffeine enthusiast, and
a constant work in progress.
ROBYN OBERMEYER is a fourth year student
at Western University studying English and
Creative Writing. Her poetry focuses largely
on how human experience is shaped by
our relationship with nature. She is
currently working on a collection of poetry
that explores the human need to define
and categorize; this collection aims to create
new definitions of words and concepts that
fall less neatly into our compartmentalized
understanding of the world. She currently lives,
studies and works in London with her partner
and an ever-growing collection of houseplants.
TOM RUESS: I'm from Toronto, am currently
finishing up my undergraduate degree in English
Language and Literature, and am in the process
of applying for my Masters of Creative Writing.
My two biggest influences as a writer and poet
are Sylvia Plath and T.S. Eliot. That being said,
I'm probably more influenced by visual art -
specifically its use of colour - than any poetry.
Although I've been writing poetry since high-school,
this past year has been the first time I've had the
confidence to bring it to a public setting.
INTERVIEW WITH HELEN
Open Mic: How important is rhyme, or can rhyme be, to poetry?
Helen Ngo: I’m actually not much of a rhymer, but I have been compelled to rhyme on occasion. I have found that it depends on the spirit of the poem—it does add a rather lovely lyrical (or comical) quality. However, there often does exist rhythm without rhyme, and it can be equally as beautiful.
O.M: What are you trying to achieve when you write a poem?
H.N: I aim to capture some sort of image or feeling—I primarily aim to evoke emotion in the reader, and as a side effect, hopefully make the experience relatable, or instill a sense of wonder in the unknown.
O.M: What has being student writer-in-residence meant to you?
H.N: It has been very enlightening to connect with students from all over campus. I’ve had the chance to meet people who study the arts and people who study science, and they all share a love for the written word. I have been particularly inspired by everyone’s enthusiasm for The Penpal Project, a social experiment that I put together to connect anonymous students across campus through handwritten letters.
O.M: The received dogma may be that science and the arts are irreconcilable. How do you feel about this perceived distinction?
H.N: At the core of it, I think that art and science have the same goal: to capture truth and beauty. One does it with words and images, and the other with quantitative data and absolute logic. We’re all just trying to create our own little piece of wonder to explain the human experience.
O.M: If you could understand, instantaneously, any one language which you don't now know, which would it be, and why?
H.N: Latin, because I feel like my everyday life would be much more insightful if I understood the root behind our language. I would also like to understand Hebrew, because I’m curious as to whether we’re really interpreting this Jesus fellow properly, over two thousand years and many translations later…
O.M: What is one truth that you can't possibly know, but would like to?
H.N: Is there a pattern to the prime numbers?
INTERVIEW WITH ROBYN:
Open Mic: What are the essential differences between poetry and prose?
Robyn Obermeyer: I'm still not convinced that there are any essential differences between poetry and prose. It's possible to write poetic prose and prosaic poetry, and it's often difficult to distinguish between the two. For me personally, poetry offers a more concise, focused entry point to a topic I want to explore.
O.M: How important is rhyme, or can rhyme be, to poetry?
R.O: Some poets are exceptional at using rhyme, but I am not one of them. I find that rhyme often forces me into choosing an imprecise or improper word, and I believe that the perfect word should never be sacrificed because it doesn't fit into a specific structure (rhyming or otherwise). That being said, sound is incredibly important. Poetry and music are closely linked, and some of my favourite poems have an inherent musical quality to their rhythm, rhyme, and repetition. One of my favourite poems of all time is "Insomnia" by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and I believe that this is a perfect example of how sound and structure can create a melody out of words.
O.M: What are you trying to achieve when you write a poem?
R.O: Mostly, I'm trying to get an idea or feeling that's been gnawing away at me out of my head and onto paper (or screen, if I'm being honest - I wish I was a writer who still used pen and paper, but alas, technology is too convenient to pass up).
O.M: In the Fall of 2015 you were awarded the William Ware Tamblyn Scholarship for having shown "the highest degree of academic excellence in English and achievement in Drama." Wallace Stevens famously said that "Poetry is the scholar's art." Do you agree with Stevens? How has academia informed or shaped your work?
R.O: I actually very much disagree with Wallace Stevens' statement. I believe that poetry should not be restricted to scholars, and I strive to make my poetry accessible to those who have never studied literature. Poetry is an incredible medium that has the ability to distill even the most intense and complicated emotion into a few words. Anyone can write poetry, as long as you have the heart, determination and perseverance for it. It's a demanding medium, but it can also be incredibly liberating, regardless of whether or not the author or the reader is a scholar.
O.M: Who have you felt or do you feel are your principle influences? Which one or two lines or structures or motifs from among these writers' oeuvres stand out to you?
R.O: There is one musician and lyricist who stands out as my current primary influence. Aly Spaltro (aka Lady Lamb the Beekeeper) writes and sings about desire, heartbreak, and our animal natures, which are all topics that I explore in my own poetry. In her song "Spat out Spit", she asserts that we all have "Animal hearts / Pumping that animal, animal blood". This simple pair of lines ring so true - we are all, as she puts so eloquently it in her song "Violet Clementine", just "handsome animals".
O.M: If you could understand, instantaneously, any one language which you don't now know, which would it be, and why?
R.O: Icelandic. I have wanted to visit Iceland for several years now, as they have an amazing literary culture there. Iceland has more books read and published per capita than any other country in the world. I'd love to be able to read and speak Icelandic to experience their literature without needing translation.
O.M: What is one truth that you can't possibly know, but would like to?
R.O: I think that life is more interesting with a bit of mystery. Poetry and art often arises out of an unbearable not knowing, and there are few things that are so cut and dry that we can call them "true" or "false". There is more inspiration in the space between truths.
INTERVIEW WITH TOM
Open Mic: What are you trying to achieve when you write a poem?
Tom Ruess: It depends on the poem. This will sound incredibly shallow but often I’m trying to be beautiful. I’m striving to make something perfect even though I know it never will be. Black swan is one of my favourite movies and I feel like Natalie Portman’s suicidal spiral into madness, in an attempt to be perfect, is pretty much what I go through with every poem I write. This is one of the strangest comparisons I’ll ever make but I have a bit of an S&M relationship with poetry: it tortures me and I love it.
On a less strange/ artsy sounding note, a lot of the time I’m just trying to make myself laugh. I read this really pompous/ douche-y/ slightly sexist introduction to a poetry anthology a little while ago. It irritated me like a bad itch; I scratched it by writing a funny poem about the guy who wrote it and imagining what a sad, lonely life he must lead.
I always write poetry for myself – to express, purge, heal, laugh, or just create something that I couldn’t any other way. That being said, I also really do hope that others connect with the things I write. To me, the greatest power of poetry and literature in general is human connection.
O.M: Who have you felt or do you feel are your principle influences? Which one or two lines or structures or motifs from among these writers' oeuvres stand out to you?
T.R: My two biggest influences are T.S. Eliot and Sylvia Plath. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is the poem that made me want to be a poet. It’s hilarious, devastating, and beautiful all at once. His poetry’s so broken and yet perpetual at the same time. That being said, my favourite thing about Eliot is his use of sound and rhythm to create meaning. Listen to the first few stanzas of the Wasteland: the words become the way you feel when you go to sleep beside somebody and you feel as though you’re falling into them. I mean, these words were written almost 100 years ago yet when I read them they still feel like the closest thing on Earth.
Ariel by Sylvia Plath is my favourite poetry collection. I enjoy writing with an edge to it and Plath’s edge is very sharp and incomparably precise. The voice of Ariel is pure fury, but it’s the most controlled, meaningful, and lucid fury in the English language. At the moment, “Daddy” is my favourite poem. It’s like she’s performing surgery on American culture while simultaneously purging herself of the ancient beliefs that’ve tainted and caged her thoughts. There’s something about the line “a bag full of God” – I assume she’s referring to the bag which contains her father’s ashes – from that poem that stops me in my tracks.
I’m also influenced by various rap music. I often listen to rap before I begin writing to distill a rhythm in my head. I was once asked at a job interview which two people living or dead I’d like to meet the most. I said Kanye West and Sylvia Plath. I didn’t get the job...
O.M: If you could understand, instantaneously, any one language which you don't now know, which would it be, and why?
T.R: Russian for the literature and Italian so I can live in Florence.
O.M: What is one truth that you can't possibly know, but would like to?
T.R: I’d like to know what it feels like to be inside somebody else’s head. A girl in my Grade 12 World Literature class once said that when she read poetry she felt like she was curling up and going to sleep inside somebody else’s brain. Somebody else’s truth is the truth I’d like to know.
EVENT INFO
WHERE: The Mykonos Restaurant at 572 Adelaide St. North, London, Ontario. The restaurant has a large, enclosed terrace just behind the main restaurant, which comfortably holds 60 poetry lovers. Mediterranean food and drinks are available. The terrace is open to the parking lot behind. Overflow parking is available across the side street and in the large lot one block north, in front of Trad’s Furniture.
WHEN: Wednesday, February 3rd, 2016. Doors: 6:00 to 6:30 (It's a restaurant.) Event begins at 7:00
THE FEATURED POET: Three Western University Students, headed by Student-Writer-in-Residence, Helen Ngo, will open the poetry portion of the event at 7:00.
OPEN MIC: Following the featured poets, and an intermission at 8:00 pm, open mic poets will read to as late as 10:30. Each poet has five minutes (which is about two good pages of poetry, but it should be timed at home). Sign up on the reader's list, which is on the book table at the back. It's first come, first served.
COVER: Pay What You Can (in jar on back table, or use Donate Button on website Donate Page). Your contributions are our only source of income to cover expenses.
RAFFLE PRIZES: Anyone who pays what cover they can at the event receives a ticket for a raffle prize, three of which will be picked after the intermission. The prizes consist of poetry books donated by Brick Books and The Ontario Poetry Society.
Open Mic: How important is rhyme, or can rhyme be, to poetry?
Helen Ngo: I’m actually not much of a rhymer, but I have been compelled to rhyme on occasion. I have found that it depends on the spirit of the poem—it does add a rather lovely lyrical (or comical) quality. However, there often does exist rhythm without rhyme, and it can be equally as beautiful.
O.M: What are you trying to achieve when you write a poem?
H.N: I aim to capture some sort of image or feeling—I primarily aim to evoke emotion in the reader, and as a side effect, hopefully make the experience relatable, or instill a sense of wonder in the unknown.
O.M: What has being student writer-in-residence meant to you?
H.N: It has been very enlightening to connect with students from all over campus. I’ve had the chance to meet people who study the arts and people who study science, and they all share a love for the written word. I have been particularly inspired by everyone’s enthusiasm for The Penpal Project, a social experiment that I put together to connect anonymous students across campus through handwritten letters.
O.M: The received dogma may be that science and the arts are irreconcilable. How do you feel about this perceived distinction?
H.N: At the core of it, I think that art and science have the same goal: to capture truth and beauty. One does it with words and images, and the other with quantitative data and absolute logic. We’re all just trying to create our own little piece of wonder to explain the human experience.
O.M: If you could understand, instantaneously, any one language which you don't now know, which would it be, and why?
H.N: Latin, because I feel like my everyday life would be much more insightful if I understood the root behind our language. I would also like to understand Hebrew, because I’m curious as to whether we’re really interpreting this Jesus fellow properly, over two thousand years and many translations later…
O.M: What is one truth that you can't possibly know, but would like to?
H.N: Is there a pattern to the prime numbers?
INTERVIEW WITH ROBYN:
Open Mic: What are the essential differences between poetry and prose?
Robyn Obermeyer: I'm still not convinced that there are any essential differences between poetry and prose. It's possible to write poetic prose and prosaic poetry, and it's often difficult to distinguish between the two. For me personally, poetry offers a more concise, focused entry point to a topic I want to explore.
O.M: How important is rhyme, or can rhyme be, to poetry?
R.O: Some poets are exceptional at using rhyme, but I am not one of them. I find that rhyme often forces me into choosing an imprecise or improper word, and I believe that the perfect word should never be sacrificed because it doesn't fit into a specific structure (rhyming or otherwise). That being said, sound is incredibly important. Poetry and music are closely linked, and some of my favourite poems have an inherent musical quality to their rhythm, rhyme, and repetition. One of my favourite poems of all time is "Insomnia" by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and I believe that this is a perfect example of how sound and structure can create a melody out of words.
O.M: What are you trying to achieve when you write a poem?
R.O: Mostly, I'm trying to get an idea or feeling that's been gnawing away at me out of my head and onto paper (or screen, if I'm being honest - I wish I was a writer who still used pen and paper, but alas, technology is too convenient to pass up).
O.M: In the Fall of 2015 you were awarded the William Ware Tamblyn Scholarship for having shown "the highest degree of academic excellence in English and achievement in Drama." Wallace Stevens famously said that "Poetry is the scholar's art." Do you agree with Stevens? How has academia informed or shaped your work?
R.O: I actually very much disagree with Wallace Stevens' statement. I believe that poetry should not be restricted to scholars, and I strive to make my poetry accessible to those who have never studied literature. Poetry is an incredible medium that has the ability to distill even the most intense and complicated emotion into a few words. Anyone can write poetry, as long as you have the heart, determination and perseverance for it. It's a demanding medium, but it can also be incredibly liberating, regardless of whether or not the author or the reader is a scholar.
O.M: Who have you felt or do you feel are your principle influences? Which one or two lines or structures or motifs from among these writers' oeuvres stand out to you?
R.O: There is one musician and lyricist who stands out as my current primary influence. Aly Spaltro (aka Lady Lamb the Beekeeper) writes and sings about desire, heartbreak, and our animal natures, which are all topics that I explore in my own poetry. In her song "Spat out Spit", she asserts that we all have "Animal hearts / Pumping that animal, animal blood". This simple pair of lines ring so true - we are all, as she puts so eloquently it in her song "Violet Clementine", just "handsome animals".
O.M: If you could understand, instantaneously, any one language which you don't now know, which would it be, and why?
R.O: Icelandic. I have wanted to visit Iceland for several years now, as they have an amazing literary culture there. Iceland has more books read and published per capita than any other country in the world. I'd love to be able to read and speak Icelandic to experience their literature without needing translation.
O.M: What is one truth that you can't possibly know, but would like to?
R.O: I think that life is more interesting with a bit of mystery. Poetry and art often arises out of an unbearable not knowing, and there are few things that are so cut and dry that we can call them "true" or "false". There is more inspiration in the space between truths.
INTERVIEW WITH TOM
Open Mic: What are you trying to achieve when you write a poem?
Tom Ruess: It depends on the poem. This will sound incredibly shallow but often I’m trying to be beautiful. I’m striving to make something perfect even though I know it never will be. Black swan is one of my favourite movies and I feel like Natalie Portman’s suicidal spiral into madness, in an attempt to be perfect, is pretty much what I go through with every poem I write. This is one of the strangest comparisons I’ll ever make but I have a bit of an S&M relationship with poetry: it tortures me and I love it.
On a less strange/ artsy sounding note, a lot of the time I’m just trying to make myself laugh. I read this really pompous/ douche-y/ slightly sexist introduction to a poetry anthology a little while ago. It irritated me like a bad itch; I scratched it by writing a funny poem about the guy who wrote it and imagining what a sad, lonely life he must lead.
I always write poetry for myself – to express, purge, heal, laugh, or just create something that I couldn’t any other way. That being said, I also really do hope that others connect with the things I write. To me, the greatest power of poetry and literature in general is human connection.
O.M: Who have you felt or do you feel are your principle influences? Which one or two lines or structures or motifs from among these writers' oeuvres stand out to you?
T.R: My two biggest influences are T.S. Eliot and Sylvia Plath. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is the poem that made me want to be a poet. It’s hilarious, devastating, and beautiful all at once. His poetry’s so broken and yet perpetual at the same time. That being said, my favourite thing about Eliot is his use of sound and rhythm to create meaning. Listen to the first few stanzas of the Wasteland: the words become the way you feel when you go to sleep beside somebody and you feel as though you’re falling into them. I mean, these words were written almost 100 years ago yet when I read them they still feel like the closest thing on Earth.
Ariel by Sylvia Plath is my favourite poetry collection. I enjoy writing with an edge to it and Plath’s edge is very sharp and incomparably precise. The voice of Ariel is pure fury, but it’s the most controlled, meaningful, and lucid fury in the English language. At the moment, “Daddy” is my favourite poem. It’s like she’s performing surgery on American culture while simultaneously purging herself of the ancient beliefs that’ve tainted and caged her thoughts. There’s something about the line “a bag full of God” – I assume she’s referring to the bag which contains her father’s ashes – from that poem that stops me in my tracks.
I’m also influenced by various rap music. I often listen to rap before I begin writing to distill a rhythm in my head. I was once asked at a job interview which two people living or dead I’d like to meet the most. I said Kanye West and Sylvia Plath. I didn’t get the job...
O.M: If you could understand, instantaneously, any one language which you don't now know, which would it be, and why?
T.R: Russian for the literature and Italian so I can live in Florence.
O.M: What is one truth that you can't possibly know, but would like to?
T.R: I’d like to know what it feels like to be inside somebody else’s head. A girl in my Grade 12 World Literature class once said that when she read poetry she felt like she was curling up and going to sleep inside somebody else’s brain. Somebody else’s truth is the truth I’d like to know.
EVENT INFO
WHERE: The Mykonos Restaurant at 572 Adelaide St. North, London, Ontario. The restaurant has a large, enclosed terrace just behind the main restaurant, which comfortably holds 60 poetry lovers. Mediterranean food and drinks are available. The terrace is open to the parking lot behind. Overflow parking is available across the side street and in the large lot one block north, in front of Trad’s Furniture.
WHEN: Wednesday, February 3rd, 2016. Doors: 6:00 to 6:30 (It's a restaurant.) Event begins at 7:00
THE FEATURED POET: Three Western University Students, headed by Student-Writer-in-Residence, Helen Ngo, will open the poetry portion of the event at 7:00.
OPEN MIC: Following the featured poets, and an intermission at 8:00 pm, open mic poets will read to as late as 10:30. Each poet has five minutes (which is about two good pages of poetry, but it should be timed at home). Sign up on the reader's list, which is on the book table at the back. It's first come, first served.
COVER: Pay What You Can (in jar on back table, or use Donate Button on website Donate Page). Your contributions are our only source of income to cover expenses.
RAFFLE PRIZES: Anyone who pays what cover they can at the event receives a ticket for a raffle prize, three of which will be picked after the intermission. The prizes consist of poetry books donated by Brick Books and The Ontario Poetry Society.
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