‘There comes a time when you have to hand yourself over to what you were meant to be – only you will know when.’ These words of wisdom set the tone as KM Neale joins us to discuss her creative journey, archived works, and reimagining poetry across genres.
On Visual Symbolism
Question: I always disregarded red as a colour for my outfit, but your collection Lessons in How to Wear Red seems to fight my preconceptions. In what ways do vivid chromatic choices influence your imagery, or does the writing tend to precede the aesthetic design?
KM Neale:
Ideas carry colours and colours create ideas – it’s difficult to disentangle them. William Carlos Williams’ The Red Wheelbarrow is a good example of this entanglement. That red wheelbarrow is ‘glazed with rain water…’, so texture comes into play. Then, the ‘white chickens’ set up a contrast, a juxtaposition of glaze/water and feathers. So much in that wheelbarrow – and so many possible interpretations of its meaning.
Once I have an idea, colour appears – so, yes, I suppose the words precede the colours. But it’s not on a conscious level. It’s not like sketching, then filling in with paint – it’s more organic.
On Your Migratory Path
Q: You have travelled widely throughout your life, spending time across Australia, the Americas, the UK and continental Europe. How have these shifting landscapes shaped the voice and atmosphere in your writing?
KM Neale:
You know, I hadn’t really recognised how much I’d travelled until I sat down to write my memoir (in progress). It’s as if each time I landed somewhere, I’d be ‘locked in’ to that place for the moment – not looking before or after. It was like meeting someone new. The British/Australian writer, Elizabeth Jolley, is often referenced for her ‘sense of place’ – the idea of place as a character, rather than merely setting. This resonates with me.
Just as my accent mimics my hosts’ (embarrassingly quickly) the voice changed in my writing. I think the Australian writing is ‘stripped back’, quite bare. The writing from the Americas is harsh, but comes with a lyricism/cacophony of a big land full of big potential. Europe is softer – there’s a sort of romanticism about it.
Researching my ancestry for the memoir, I was astonished to find several of my forebears had lived within a 50km radius of where I’d, finally, settled – they’re buried in moss-covered churchyards. They were travellers, too; from the Continent to the UK to Australia and the Americas.
On the Unpacked Suitcase
Q: You once mentioned a literal suitcase full of early poetry and short stories gathering dust while you focused on novels. What prompted you to finally unearth those pieces, and how did it feel to revisit your younger creative self?
KM Neale:
That suitcase rested in a cluttered room I called my ‘study’. I think I thought of it as ‘the past’/gone, while I worked on my trilogy (The Fox Pond Series). It was invisible. Once I’d completed the trilogy, I was looking around for new ideas – not many materialised, so the suitcase beckoned. It seemed like a huge task – some pieces typewritten, complete with Tipp-Ex, some handwritten on yellowing notepaper. My Husband, Peter, offered to begin the revival, cataloguing and questioning, deciphering my loopy handwriting. Without that offer, the suitcase would still have been gathering dust. So, we have the collection: Lessons in How to Wear Red.
On Musicality and Performance
Q: Your early poetry involved collaborations with musicians and filmmakers to blend spoken word with sound, while recently you have experimented with audio adaptations and artificial intelligence to reimagine your poetry in different musical genres. How does rhythm influence the way you construct your lines and how has hearing your words transformed by new technologies altered your perspective on the life of a poem after publication?
KM Neale:
In the 1990s, I worked with composer Daniel Biro (sargasso.com) and French film-maker Olivier Sarrazin on a series of videos of my poetry. This was a natural progression: I’d been performing my poems in pubs and clubs and theatres since the 1980s – usually accompanied by a beat-up ghetto-blaster and a library of cassette tapes(!) or a solitary guitarist.
The film didn’t change the rhythm of my lines – I read the poems over music. There was nothing ‘song-like’ about it – it wasn’t meant to be.
Happening upon AI, especially for the suitcase of poems, has refreshed my words and reminded me of the power of words and punctuation. I’m not a singer, nor am I a song-writer, so these experiments are about re-hearing. I’ve featured them on my website (kmneale.uk) alongside my own readings – same words, different nuances.
AI follows punctuation pretty closely; you have brackets around words and they are fed back, sotto voce, by backing vocalists. Suddenly, the line becomes more. Exclamation marks shout out the line – probably louder than I might have, but I love the emotion in it. The machine also repeats lines to fit its patterns – that repetition gives gravitas: ‘Where are we going?’ sounds darker when repeated.
A lot of the fun, though, comes from genre choice. Rap, Drum and Bass, Gregorian Chants, Country and Western and – one of my favourites – Polka.
All of this has led me back to poetry, giving the novels a rest for the moment.
On Reflective Advice
Q: Looking back at the years spent working in media and education before returning to your archived literature, what advice would you give to writers who feel their personal creative projects have been put on hold?
KM Neale:
I know it’s a cliché to say that ‘it’s never too late’ – but maybe some day it will be. While I was in media and education, I was channelling my creative energy into things that were – some days – rewarding. There comes a time when you have to hand yourself over to what you were meant to be – only you will know when. Do it.
Thank you, KM Neale.
Dear readers, you can taste a blend of warmth and quiet melancholy, a classic mark for a good haiku, in ‘Lessons in How to Wear Red’:
Above the fireplace
the photograph is fading
its corners twisting
KM Neale’s website: https://kmneale.uk/
Five of the author’s books so far: https://amoz.onl/7br
Lessons in How to Wear Red: https://mybook.to/LessonsInHowToWearRed
