Book Interview: Jai M Louissen's 'A Vision of Orchids'
Jai M Louissen is a Scottish-born poet, now living via London in the coastal natural beauty of The Netherlands. Having spent time composing songs and music as a singer, recording artist and performer, her work began as a longing to be closer to her own inner world.
Can you tell us a bit about the book you just published with Sunday Mornings at the River?
At the time of writing this book, I had just begun early morning automatic writing. I would write as I woke, still in bed, eyes half closed and walking the lands of that dreamy in-between place. So many surprising revelations, visions, symbolism in words, lines and images came flooding out. In A Vision of Orchids, I am also attempting to gather in and at the same time reveal different layers in myself. The book is an exploration of that and of seeming contrasts; nature and the ethereal, trauma and transcendence, sunlight and moonlight, earth and moon, grief and joy and inspiration and despair. I feel like in writing this, I walk and write the lines in between these polars and unite them.
What inspired you to write this book?
To be able to answer that, I have to unwind time a little, include my childhood in my mouth. The trauma I experienced then along with my creative and work outpourings as an adult are a part of the background to this book. All of this gave me the courage and the wish to dive heart first into the unknown and exiled parts of myself and express them. My work has been about making the inner and outer one wave, I am a therapist, specialising in Family Constellations, a singer-songwriter and mediation teacher, recording artist and performer, so I have always had a wish to find the truest words, the most honesty and vulnerability. In 2020, I was given the chance and life organised herself around me. I already had just let go of my music touring as it was, due to health. I bought my home, close to nature, with a studio with masses of space that I could work in. I was home inside myself finally. I decided I would write poetry, I had been writing a while, yet I had not fully bowed to the poet’s life. Now I did, with so much passion, that I wrote a new piece every day. It became all-consuming and not from my will. I plunged very quickly through so many levels inside myself, and the book naturally happened.
Nature especially has been a huge inspiration during this book and continuing. I live in an incredible place, next to an ancient valley where there are wild konik horses, so many birds and the most amazing forest surrounding it. This has become ‘our place’, where I, my partner and my dog go to bathe in the forest in all her seasons. It has become a part of me and is a big part of my writing in general.
The book itself is loosely held in four sections with transitional pieces, first is the teenager in me that deeply wanted to heal during the time of writing A Vision of Orchids. I believe you can see a change in my outlook as you move through the poems. The second part, an exploration of grief as a state, using symbolic images then the third section is still around the theme of grief as more specific and conversational too. And finally I move into a section which is ‘what is nurturing’: from meditation and my own darkness, to my relationship, to nature to embodying what is to be a woman now, not intellectually, but felt in the body. An elemental force of nature inside that pulls me into myself to discover my true power.
What does the title mean, and why did you pick it?
As I explained earlier, when beginning early morning automatic writing, my writing style changed and something inside me too. I connected to myself in a new way and perhaps on the outside it appeared subtle, but for me, it was a huge shift. I found myself remembering the book “A Vision” by Keats and his wife, which was a channelled book. I read it in January and wrote the title in my notepad. Orchids were always a part of the story too, the metaphor for the revelation of a woman seemed a perfect choice and that it was something natural. At first it was going to be salt and orchids, but then I happened to flick to the page where I had written A Vision and I placed them together, and it was just the right way to join these threads of the book together.
Who are some of your literary or artistic crushes, and did they influence you at all while writing this book?
I have read a lot of fiction and poetry, but I would say that I am drawn to imagist poets as it most describes my style. I also read a lot of the poetic fantasy writing of Ursula K Le Guinn when I was writing the book for pure enjoyment of its simple beauty (which is rare in that genre). But what stands out for me while writing A Vision of Orchids is the love I have for the female surrealist painters, in particular, Remedios Varos. Her work, also began in the early morning, connecting with the different symbolic planes of existence, feels as if my early morning visions have come to life in front of my eyes. So I feel a lot of kinship there. I was also listening to a classical pianist and vocalist from The Netherlands called Jyoti Verhoef, whilst writing a lot. But many many female vocal artists that can express grief are always the most attractive to me and I listen to them when writing sometimes to deliver me to the right place inside. Many many influences.
What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?
As the poet David Whyte says that poetry is the “conversational nature of reality” and I feel that the unexpected gift of the visions and subtle removal of lids inside has connected me to a power that I had only just danced with before. I have also been able to let go of a lot of trauma and embody more. I feel very thankful for this and for the courage I have bubbled and opened to allow this to happen.
What is the key theme and/or message in the book?
The key theme of this book is a walk across nature and the ethereal, trauma and transcendence and the way back to oneself.
What is the first book that made you cry?
When I was about six or seven reading The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe.
Do your family and "real life" friends read your work?
Yes, my husband does. It has actually been quite a journey for both of us. Having to read poetry in another language is already a challenge, but then also being on the spectrum and it not being the easiest thing to access ‘the symbolic mind’. But he has, and he is opening and learning and growing with me. My stepdaughters too, are also really supportive, they follow me on Instagram, super sweet. Recently I have also begun a Substack newsletter and many of my friends and family now read my poems.
What does "good poetry" mean to you?
Good poetry for me are when the images and the emotions are in perfect union
If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
Yes, very simply. Don't give up, you have worth.
How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?
I don't have any unpublished poetry books, but I do have a fully written unrecorded album. I am in the middle of writing a new poetry chapbook, a symbolic soul language dive into grief and the spirit of place. I am also going back into the studio to bring my singing voice and my poetry together.
What did you edit out of this book?
Many poems were contenders but never made it in. Mainly because I feel the internal changes in me reflected in my poetry, so once I have moved on from the internal state that created the pieces they seem not the right fit after a while. So there must have been at least three or four different versions of this book.
Jai M Louissen is a Scottish-born poet, now living via London in the coastal natural beauty of The Netherlands. Having spent time composing songs and music as a singer, recording artist and performer, her work began as a longing to be closer to her own inner world. You can find ‘A Vision of Orchids’ which she published with Sunday Mornings at the River here.