Poet Interview: Maggie Doyle
Maggie Doyle is a poet and digital content designer working in various story contexts including written word, film, web, theatre, and trans-media storytelling. Maggie has a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of British Columbia and works as a story consultant through her business, What Is Your Story. Maggie is currently working on a collection of poems about her walks by a river during the pandemic which charts the emotional tributaries of life in lockdown.
When did you become a poet? How did you know it was the right medium for your stories?
Well, I think I am still in the process of becoming a poet and may well be until I die, but I knew early on it was a natural way for me to express myself when in grade two we were assigned to write a haiku and I wrote 72 of them.
What inspires you to write?
Emotions. Usually, when I can’t figure something out about the world, I always turn to poetry. When things seem hopeless or alternatively when they are joyful, passionate, sorrowful, tender. The list goes on. I tend to process things, then write to express myself. I discovered a way into fiction fairly late in my career through the screenwriting form, and I’m pretty stoked about it. It’s a way into fiction that is very exciting for me, as I’m a visual storyteller. But poetry is my first love.
Who are some of your literary or artistic crushes or influences?
Early in my life, like so many others, I was inspired by Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton. I directed a play on Sylvia Plath as my thesis in my undergraduate theatre degree, and I really got to know her as a human being. What a towering talent. More recently, I’m reading Liz Howard’s Letters in a Bruised Cosmos, and finding deep inspiration on every page. I also love Jan Zwicky and still turn to her remarkable collection, Chamber Music. Lastly, I have a big crush on Sharon Olds. I mean, her career, her boldness, her odes! She’s truly a giant talent.
What are some common themes you see in your own work?
I think some of the common themes that keep reappearing would be water, in particular the ocean, family dysfunction, memory, motherhood, the brutality of the Catholic Church, occasionally politics. I can speak to a few of them. I suppose the ocean is a big theme that comes up again and again because I grew up near the ocean and spent so much of my life by it, so that is just a landscape that informs my moods and emotions across my lifetime. Family dysfunction—well, my family is quite dysfunctional (insert wry laugh)—so that’s rich material to draw from. Writing about it helps me figure it out, I think. Catholic Church theme comes from being raised in that environment and as an ex-Catholic, I carry shame about the behaviour of that religion and what it has done to Indigenous peoples around the world, not to mention the tens of thousands of children who’ve been abused by priests. Just so much damage and so little accountability so I like to take a run at them in my writing here and there as the rage needs to get onto the page.
Do you believe in writer’s block and how would you deal with it?
The only writer’s block there is for me is time. Having time to write—it’s never whether I can write. It’s an ongoing struggle.
Do you feel that sharing your poetry is a vulnerable process, and why do you feel that way?
Well, how can it not be a vulnerable process? I think if you’ve done your job, it should be, otherwise where are the stakes? What is the exchange between you and the reader? I think you have to take care of yourself in the process of course but yes, it’s a vulnerable process because you’re pulling back the veil of conformity, acquiescence, and resignation to poke the bear and wake up emotions, which in some cases, are painful but necessary.
What/who influenced you to become a poet, and how did they inspire you?
I would have to say that the poet and teacher Jon Furberg was absolutely my biggest influence. In my first year of college, he taught a poetry class, and it blew my mind. He would read Ginsberg, and we’d sit under a tree, and he’d smoke and climb in the tree and yell the words to Howl. I mean, it was the best. He introduced me to Ezra Pound, Ferlinghetti, Lowell, Graves, Plath, all the confessional poets and I remember thinking, you’re allowed to write this way? It just opened up the whole world to me. I’m grateful to this day that I signed up for that class and got to be his student. I have probably never left that confessional school of thinking about expression, which is probably why I love Sharon Olds, so much.
What is the first book that made you cry, and why?
Lord of the Rings. It still makes me cry. The binary nature of good and evil in that story is something I want to believe in, to believe that there is true goodness and that it can overcome the darkness. I mean, that’s it really. At the core of Frodo and Sam’s relationship is the nature of whether we love or not, whether we have the heart to love and really be there for someone. I know it might sound trite, but it was an early influence and I cried my eyes out through all of the scenes in all three of LOTR books (no, I’m not a big Hobbit fan, sorry).
Do you take poetry classes or read books on poetry?
I took poetry classes during my MFA, one of which was with the great Susan Musgrave, and it was the most intimate, life-changing experience I’ve had in a classroom. We were a small class of about eight people, and she created such an honest and safe place to really share our work in progress. I think we cried every day because the level of vulnerability and excellence was so high. I will never forget that experience. I read a lot of poetry books and usually always have one going by my bedside. I try to seek out younger female poets and buy their books because, you know, it’s hard being a poet in Canada!
What is your revision process like?
My revision process can take decades. I’m not joking. I still go back to poems I wrote when I was in my 20s and adjust a line break. It’s never-ending. There’s a poem I just pulled out the other day that I wrote in 2007, and I brushed it up, and it’s now a much better poem. As I get older, I often wonder if the editing process really ever ends. Mostly I try to cut away any lazy words and adjust line breaks. I am a big believer in reading your poems out loud. When my son was still living with me, he said he can tell I’m writing because he can hear my ‘poetry voice’ when he’s in another room!