Poetry Grrrowl: That Light Feeling Under Your Feet + Kayla Geitzler

Poetry Grrrowl with us all month long and get 15% OFF all of our featured collections until April 30th!

Interview with the Poet

All Lit Up: Tell us about your collection.Kayla Geitzler: That Light Feeling Under Your Feet is about the two years I worked on three separate cruise ships as a Gift Shop sales associate (aka Shoppie). The manuscript was actually my Master’s thesis. It was a challenge to write in many ways. I had never written to a theme and I had no idea how I was going to describe “the life”. A lot of my stories weren’t charming or PC. Most of them were depressing. I had to make them funny. Some of them would write themselves, like the mini-fridges poem. I borrowed the opening missive from an actual “fake e-Sea News” composed and sent about the ship by the Internet Manager after they took our fridges from us. He almost lost his job for that. Just like I almost lost my job for failing to perform to a high-femme presentation (“Balls”).That Light Feeling isn’t a clever wink replete with in-jokes. I was committed to presenting life on cruise ships in the most authentic way possible. It’s a hard life and it’s dangerous, especially for women. My first day on my second contract this huge man in an officer’s uniform walked right up to me and pinched my cheek. In a thick accent he said, “Delicious. I’ll have her tonight.” He nearly poked my eye out with his wedding band. And this was a normal day for him. My colleague said, “He breaks in all the new girls on the ship.” And sure enough, he was waiting for me after work. The package I received from the employment agency job said something to the effect that as newcomer on ships, you’re fresh meat for anyone who wants you. I was twenty-one. I remember thinking, ‘Do I really want to do this? It sounds like I’m going to prison.’ You had to learn to be fierce, fast. But within a short period of time, you adapt or you go home. If you stay you become an international bastard. Friends greet you with “paisan” regardless of where you come from.I didn’t put much of an effort into trying to suspend disbelief. Most of the effort went into making the language match the tone of each poem or finding the best form. The poems shift their form quite often because they have something peculiar or intimate to show. Like the guide dog who finally managed to tip his cruel owner down two flights of stairs. Every hour of the day on ships had its own pace and each person or situation brought a different element. Like the crew, who always worked hardest and longest for the least reward. They have a saying, “You’ll die for money” (“Crowd Control Training” and Thirst”). Here are some highlights of the life:

• a 104-hour work week (there are 168 hours in a week);
• three months without a full day off;
• watching someone crap their pants from the Dining Room to the forward elevators (length of two football fields);
• discreetly drinking on the job or working hungover;
• swapping items with the current “mafia” for future favours;
• avoiding sexual predators;
• $2 cocktails in the crew bar;
• midnight buffet;
• hurricanes and tsunamis (my first contract ended the same day Hurricane Katrina rolled into New Orleans, our home port);
• and chronic bouts of the Norwalk virus (4 confirmed infections).

 ALU: What is your process for beginning a poem? Has it changed since you began writing?KG: Yes, my process has changed a lot. I used to vomit down the page and clean it up (tidying my stream of consciousness) and I was rarely able to write unless inspired. Now, I can usually write whenever I please and bring fully-formed language and ideas to the page. Before that, the poem gestates. I ruminate on the idea and consider how I can bring in disparate elements that I find interesting and make them work with the piece. I research my topic when I need more inspiration or details. I pace and hum. I listen for sounds and rhythms that want to enter the poem and drive it. It’s like auditioning for a symphony. When I finally get around to putting the idea on paper, the poem and I are in dialogue. The spirit of the thing is there and when we’re not of one mind, I can’t get to the heart of it, which drives me crazy. I guess at that point it becomes the circus and I’m trying to make the big cats do what I want.ALU: What sparked your initial love of poetry?KG: I’m not trying to be cheesy or sentimental, but I feel like my love of poetry has always been present. My mother taught me to read when I was two, so I began reading poetry when I was very young. I think I formed an attachment to poetry then, like children do with the objects they love, believing each thing is alive and possesses its own unique personality.And my Dad used to read me poetry, usually one of the Roberts (Frost or Service). Service usually won out because we both love a good adventure story: “There are strange things done under the midnight sun by men who toil for gold!” When I was six, he taught me Blake’s “The Tyger” and encouraged me to act out the poem, to snarl and curl my fingers into claws, for his friends. He also taught me some Ogden Nash. When we had company, I would recite “Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker. Amen!” instead of saying grace.ALU: Who are some of your fave women of poetry?KG: Forough Farrokhzad, Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, Anne Simpson, Safia Elhillo, Marilyn Dumont, Gillian Sze, Katherena Vermette, Sei Shonagon. ALU: What do you find most informs and inspires your writing?KG: This is a hard question. I think, people, which is a broad idea, and travel. I am a very curious person. I like to see how people really live and wonder how we have lived. Pre-history, history, art, culture, tradition. When I travel this serendipity follows me about and I have genuine interactions and experiences that are really inspiring. I am also inspired by rebels, misfits, and evocative writing.ALU: If you had one superpower, what would it be? Could you describe it in a haiku?KG: Endowed with the fantastic ability to fly and command moths, at dusk I would transform into the Super Mothel! A seasonal superheroine I would glide over NB from May to September, clad in spotted latex and fuzzy slippers, haloed in the radioactive glow of my furry machete-fanged minions hatched from cocoons pilfered from Point Lepreau. On occasion, I would tag team with Mothra: Saviour of Humanity. My hideout would be linen closets and antique wardrobes; you’d find me snuggling with your cat. In addition to my nemesis The Nasty Naphthalene who would battle me with a cedar cricket bat, my enemies would include fracking and the exploitation of other non-renewable resources within NB. As moths don’t take direction well, the only thing they could really do is chew through hydrocarbon infrastructure (all moths are vigilantes) or work night shifts in recycling plants, as demonstrated in my unfortunately lame haiku: sustain or sufferthe chew! minions descendgnaw recycle rend!* * *

A Poem from That Light Feeling Under Your Feet

REVENGE: BEST SERVED WITH GHOST SHIP * * * 

Kayla Geitzler has lived in New Brunswick for most of her life, except for that time when she went away to work on cruise ships, and that other time she went Out West. She holds an MA in English — Creative Writing from the University of New Brunswick and currently lives in Moncton, NB, with her shorthaired moustachioed cat and longhaired bearded boyfriend.* * *During the month of April, you can buy That Light Feeling Under Your Feet as well as  any of our featured Poetry Grrrowl books for 15% off (+ we’ll send you a stack of our exclusive temporary tattoos and stickers to show off your woman pride!)Keep up with us all month on  Twitter,  Instagram, and  Facebook with the hashtag #poetrygrrrowl.BONUS: Test your knowledge of all the rad women of poetry with our  Poetry Grrrowl quiz!