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Tributaries: Norah Bowman + My Eyes Are Fuses
In her new collection My Eyes Are Fuses (Caitlin Press), Norah Bowman examines the tensions between the freedom of art and the constraints of gender, through reimaginings of artists, historical figures, and ordinary women. Read “From the Night Ocean,” as well as a poem Norah chose from Erin Robinsong, below.
An interview with poet Norah Bowman
All Lit Up: Can you tell us a bit about your book and how it came to be? How did you come to write “From the Night Ocean” and how is it representative of your collection?
Norah Bowman: My Eyes Are Fuses is a blend of mystical art writing, imaginative feminist flight, and a liberatory imaginative story about an empress. Women take flight as birds, become whales, or simply head north and drive away from the violence of patriarchy – it is a feminist fantasy painted in feathers, art, rage, and love. “From the Night Ocean” calls forth whales and oceans as we resist oppression in our creative and everyday ways, as we become creatures that can breathe in water and live on land, that breathe in liberation and live through suffering.
ALU: Has your idea of poetry changed since you began writing?
Norah Bowman: My earlier poetry was guided by narrative and logic more than my current poetry. When I write now, I am approximating a sensation rather than trying to explain something or tell a story with a narrative arc.
ALU: What drew you to poetry? What do you most value about poetry?
Norah Bowman: Poetry liberates language, and so when we read or make poetry, we can be creatures in a new way. We can imagine our collective and individual liberation outside of the rules of language which are also, often, the rues of culture.
ALU: If your collection had a theme song, what would it be?
Norah Bowman: “Red Wine Supernova,” Chappell Roan.
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.
Norah Bowman: Queen Califia’s Magic Circle by Niki de Saint Phalle.
Norah recommends…
“Late Prayer” from Erin Robinsong’s
Rag Cosmology (Book*hug Press)
ALU: Why did you choose Erin Robinsong’s poem “Late Prayer” from her collection Rag Cosmology? What do you love most about this particular poem?
Norah Bowman: This poem is at once bitter and hopeful. It speaks from the page like a chant, it calls forth a world of possibility in a time when we are shadowed by fright. I hope when you read it you stand and read aloud, and you read it backwards, and you consider how you would continue this poem.
Late Prayer
May our weapons be effective feminine inventions that like life.
May we blow up like weeds, and be medicinal and everywhere.
May the disturbed ground be our pharmacy. May the exhausted
hang out in the beautiful light. May our souls moisten and reveal us.
May our actions be deft as the inhale after a dream of suffocation.
May the oligarchs get enough to eat in their souls.
May we participate in the intelligence we’re in.
May we grow into our name. May political harm
be a stench that awakens. May we not be distracted.
Let our joy repeated be power that spreads.
May our wealth be common. May oligarchs come out
of their fortresses and become psychologically well.
May their wealth be returned to the people and places.
May we shift slide rise tilt roll and twist.
May we feel the very large intimacy
And may it assist us.
Reprinted with permission from Book*hug Press.
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Norah Bowman lives on Unceded Syilx Okanagan territory, home to ponderosa pines and bunchgrass. Norah is a poet, artist, and feminist writer whose interests include art, feminist movements around the world, equity for all, and protection of the earth. She is the author of Amplify! A Graphic Novel of Feminist Resistance (University of Toronto Press, 2019) and Breath, Like Water: An Anticolonial Romance (Caitlin Press, 2021).
Photo of Norah credit Michal Gabanowicz.
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Thanks to Norah for answering our questions, and to Caitlin Press for the text of “From the Night Ocean” from My Eyes Are Fuses, 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 “Late Prayer” from Erin Robinsong’s Rag Cosmology.
Follow our NPM series all month long to discover new poetry or connect with old favourites, and visit our poetry shop here.
