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Tributaries: Barbara Tran + Precedented Parroting
Barbara Tran’s debut collection of poetry Precedented Parroting (Palimpsest Press) was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry in 2024. She shares a poem that evokes the feeling of a migraine, as well as one from River Halen, below.
Read “Atmospheric River (collides with migraine)”
from Precedented Parroting
ATMOSPHERIC RIVER
(collides with migraine)
LA Times article accessed
4:34 PM PST a continuous conga
line of moisture orographic lift
mountaintops dancer
gliding one knee
sunlight glancing
off the glossy
mugs and glasses silver-
ware and stainless steel
bowls I have not
washed all day my head
squeezed a wrung
sponge Vulcan’s Fire
aloe in bloom orange
as an emoji Nature’s
neon River asleep
on the sofa he’s not
supposed to be on (not
my rules) one paw
tap tapping lands
known only to him pre-
here pre-animal
shelter He calls
to a person a bird a
billowing bag flying
through a field fickle
as this February
An interview with poet Barbara Tran
All Lit Up: Can you tell us a bit about your book and how it came to be? How did you come to write “Atmospheric River (collides with migraine)” and how is it representative of your collection?
Barbara Tran: Birds began appearing to me, in body, voice, and feather: ravens, feral parrots, hawks (mid-hunt), blue herons and one purple, a yellow-bellied sapsucker. Even on a jetway, a feather greeted me. My winged guides woke me one night with their raucous singing. It went on long enough that I rose several times to record them. I wanted proof that it wasn’t a dream.
The birds’ appearances began in the leadup to the pandemic, to George Floyd’s murder, to the rise of wildfires in the West, to increasing instability in the weather. I wrote “Atmospheric River (collides with migraine)” before atmospheric rivers became commonplace. The atmospheric river that inspired the poem was an example of a Pineapple Express. These originate with a buildup of moisture around Hawaii and result in heavy precipitation on the western coasts of Canada and the U.S.
The ragged margins of “Atmospheric River (collides with migraine)” give the poem a rough-hewn look, which suits the volatile weather outside, as well as in the speaker’s head. In this poem and throughout the book, the visual forms complement mood and message. Also, in this poem as in the rest of the book, an image, event, or phrase may have been the initiator, but sound fuels the poem. Here, sound helps exaggerate the intensity of the light and ubiquity of the light’s reflections. Some migraine sufferers will be able to relate.
Assonance is hard at play here, and I am amused by the consonance between “orange” and “emoji” and the slant rhyme between “Nature’s neon” and my dog “on the sofa he’s not supposed to be on.” Sound is key in this collection. I recommend reading the poems aloud.
ALU: Has your idea of poetry changed since you began writing?
Barbara Tran: When I began writing, I thought it was genius to glue a cotton ball to my illustrated poem about a rabbit, so, yes, thankfully my idea of poetry has changed vastly since childhood. I don’t believe I’d read any living poets until university. Afaa Michael Weaver, my workshop instructor, kindly took me aside and recommended that I read (outside of our syllabus) Ntozake Shange’s “for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf.” That book blew my writing mind wide open.
ALU: What drew you to poetry? What do you most value about poetry?
Barbara Tran: Its embrace of the unknowable, its attempts to limn the ineffable, its inclusivity of form.
ALU: If your collection had a theme song, what would it be?
Barbara Tran: “Runaway” by The National
ALU: Choose a non-written piece of art (e.g. a song / album, painting, sculpture, or film) that you feel is a “sister city” or companion to your collection.
Barbara Tran: “Presorted, second class” by MyLoan Dinh
Barbara recommends…
“Some Animals and Their Housing Situations”
from River Halen’s Dream Rooms (Book*hug Press)
ALU: Why did you choose River Halen’s poem “Some Animals and Their Housing Situations” from their collection Familial Hungers? What do you love most about this particular poem?
Barbara Tran: Every time I read “Some Animals and Their Housing Situations,” I have trouble breathing. I imagine that I know what Frog, the rabbit, must have felt in his last moments, feet thrashing, the room (sky? earth?) spinning, as if I am drowning though I am not only on dry land but usually sitting on a comfortable seat as I read these words that send me hurtling through space every time I encounter them.
River Halen opens “Some Animals and Their Housing Situations” with the extinction of the St. Helena Giant Earwig. Immediately, our defenses are lowered. We lean in. Halen then, skillfully and seamlessly, shifts between tight focus and wide shot, minutiae and the universe, humour and profundity, until we understand how our treatment of one small, vulnerable animal expands kaleidoscopically outward, holding ramifications for each one of us and our own safety in this predatory world. We feel our rabbit hearts thumping and know that we cannot go on without taking steps to protect those more vulnerable than ourselves. This is writing essential to our survival.
Some Animals and Their Housing Situations
Nov. 30, in the year the St. Helena Giant Earwig was declared extinct
I had expected the bunny to be enormous, but it turned out to be
only the regular size. I had confused the kind it was—Holland Lop—
for another kind—Flemish—when I was googling, I guess because
Holland and Belgium are so close together, if you are thinking about
distance from a certain perspective, as a rabbit probably wouldn’t.
Flemish rabbits, also known as Flemish Giants, are the size of
sheepdogs, fat children, but taller, longer when stretched out, and
I imagined the bunny would lie next to me in bed like a softer,
sweatless, riskier version of my ex, with a heart rate up to 325 beats
per minute.
Reprinted with permission from Book*hug Press.
* * *
Barbara Tran’s debut book, Precedented Parroting, was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry and a CBC selection for Best Canadian Books of 2024. Barbara authored the titular character’s narration of Madame Pirate: Becoming a Legend, a virtual reality, short film, nominated for Best VR Story at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. She is a member of the collectives AfroMundo and She Who Has No Master(s).
* * *
Thanks to Barbara for answering our questions, and to Palimpsest Press for the text of “Atmospheric River (collides with migraine)” from Precedented Parroting, which is available to order now (and get 15% off with the code TRIBUTARIES until April 30!). Thanks also to Book*hug Press for the text of “Some Animals and Their Housing Situations” from River Halen’s Dream Rooms.
Follow our NPM series all month long to discover new poetry or connect with old favourites, and visit our poetry shop here.
