In honour of Poetry Writing Month, I decided to interview a few poets that I enjoy reading. This is the fourth in a series of four interviews.


May 07, 2008


~paradoxicalshaman, a.k.a. Jordan Mounteer, joined deviantART in September, 2006. Since then he has received two Daily Deviations for his poetry and has a wide and admiring fan base. I have been reading his work for a long time and always enjoy his attention to detail, the richness of imagery in his treeplanter poems, and his ability to comment on (yes, that awful, heavy phrase) the human condition, without seeming pretentious or terribly scholarly. Although talented and published, Jordan is unassuming and down-to-earth.

In this interview, he talks about his writing process, his interest in nature and how that feeds into his poetry, as well as revision, which is the focus of this month’s lit activity.


^lovetodeviate: Tell us a little about your writer self. When you did you start writing? What changes have you seen in your work and process?

Jordan Mounteer: I never really imagined myself as a writer, I always saw myself more as a reader. Writing required a degree of confidence, of ‘ putting yourself out there’ that I’ve always struggled with and still do. But in the past five years lots of friends, colleagues, and teachers have pushed me to expand and express myself. I suppose the biggest changes I’ve seen in my work are a shift away from conventional forms and use of abstraction, toward a more imagistic, concrete, and fluid style.

LTD: You work as a tree planter, and you have a huge collection of bonsai at home. This constant interaction with nature seems to feed into your writing. Is this something that happens naturally or do you conscientiously try to translate experiences into words?

JM: The focus on nature in my writing is something that sticks out for a lot of people. The risk one takes in pursuing ‘nature writing’ is an alienation from a broad audience. Because so many people now live in an urban setting, or have an urban background, the idea of writing about nature can seem contrived and archaic. But having grown up in the bush and working in the wilderness I think there’s a degree of beauty in it that has been lost on many, and I feel obligated to try and re-represent, to re-invigorate that respect for our natural surroundings. So, I think that nature just naturally enters into my writing because it’s so much a part of who I am. But there is also a conscious element involved. I want people to take away a sense of awe and profundity. I want them to see and hear things the way I see them, and thereby ‘inherit’ that respect I’ve spoken of. However, like so many things, it also depends on context – I require of my reader that they’ve sat by a creek before and simply listened to it, or walked in the woods and wondered at its silence. Once again – the threat of alienation is ever present.





LTD: You have also created some very intricate characters, such as Jim and Leland. How do you go about creating a character for a poem?

JM: A lot of the characters in my pieces can attest to actual characters in my life. Since I can remember I’ve been conscious of that duality of human nature – the banality with the beauty, the deprived with the generous. And more often than not I try to focus on the darker sides of people, that side of them that contradicts stereotype, is idiosyncratic and unique in their own right, but still eerily familiar enough to make them human and believable to my audience. In Jim, I really wanted there to be a sense of conflict for the reader; giving the character a distinct ambiguity, a juxtaposition of compassion and mercilessness is what gives a character his or her strength and verisimilitude. I never really have a whole character in mind when I write a poem – to make them human, I think a degree of organic growth needs to be acknowledged, they have to find their own actions and words in the poem as you write it.

LTD: Do you have a favourite poem (or poems) that we can read online? And could you also tell us something about it/them?

JM: I could write a cookbook on Humble Pie... but I suppose if people were serious about reading my stuff, I'd have them check out Nelson, en route, which is one of my more polished pieces (exhaustively) and whose creation aspired to the idea of a 'Muse'. For some reason, girls are always my Muse. I'd also recommend Larimer. My second Muse is, of course, the natural world, and this poem came out of my experience with treeplanting and seeing (more or less) how invasive the human system can be on other systems of life.





Jordan/~paradoxicalshaman is in his third year at the University of Victoria in the Creative Writing program. I asked him to talk about his experiences there.


LTD: Has being in a Creative Writing programme at university helped you in your writing? Do you think it is necessary for others interested in pursuing a career in writing?

JM: Being the Creative Writing program at UVic has been one of the most helpful and positive learning experiences of my life – being able to work with other poets both above and below my ability allows you to be both student and teacher, which is an invaluable experience. It’s taught me a lot not only about form and content – the nitty-gritty of writing – but also about my own voice and personal style. I don’t think going to university to learn to write is necessary to become a good writer, or even to pursue a career in writing. If you’re devoted to your craft, read and read and read (etc.), and have a group of people that you can rely on for feedback, then it’s definitely within your grasp to succeed as a writer. However, having been in the writing program automatically gives you access to that hands-on environment and close-knit group of peers, as well as professors who know a lot about the craft.

LTD: How important is revision in your work? How do you take a poem to its final, say publishable, stage?

JM: I think revision is absolutely key to any writer. It is just as important as having written the poem in the first place. Constantly sculpting and going back over your work is what separates a good writer from a memorable writer. If you’ve never spent three days debating over the placement of a comma then you’re missing out on one of the fundamental aspects of writing – meditative revision. In my own work, I’m never happy with any finished product, which is probably why it takes me forever and never to send out or display my work. I’m extremely hesitant to let people see my poetry. But at some point you just have to put the pen down. Which brings me to the second key trait of any writer: a healthy ego. If you don’t have a smidgen of a pretentiousness about your work, you’ll never go far – you have to believe, if occasionally, that what you write is fantastic, so that you’ll put it out there.

LTD: There are many photographs in your gallery. Do you find that an interest in both poetry and photography (or any other art form) helps the craft of writing?

JM: I never expected to get into photography – I have a lot of friends who are avid photographers, and I think their passion for it just rubbed off on me a little bit. I’ve been a fan of =volcomchick on dA here for quite a while. I think restraining yourself to only writing poetry (or any other single form) is a very limiting and damaging. Even if it’s for your own benefit, gaining an interest in another medium of art inevitably opens up doors and creative thought processes, which helps and vivifies your writing.

LTD: Who do you read, on deviantART and otherwise?

JM: I’ve been reading a lot of Tim Lilburn, Earle Birney, and Jan Zwicky. On deviantART, I’ve always been a fan of `AbCat and ~wayfarergallery, who take to heart the Eastern appreciation for economy of words and imagery. And those who I can always rely on for excellent reading, like *jade-pandora, *jonzoiplu, *Adeimantus, *salshep, and of course the one and only *Negated. I’ve also been watching *poisonedrose lately, and the daily poems she was able to whip off for NaPoWriMo (…did I acronym correctly?) were extraordinary. …and then ^lovetodeviate is always a pleasure, of course. hahah

So Jordan/~paradoxicalshaman is a bit silly, too.

LTD: What are your plans for the future?

JM: I don’t really know what my plans are. For my part, I always imagined I’d be living out of a cardboard box when I graduated. The whole journalism aspect of writing (as far as I can deduce) is much too political for me. Granted, the very act of writing is political – but if I’m going to preach politics, I want to preach my own politics. And that’s not easy to do in the commercial realm of writing. I would like to take some ESL courses, perhaps, and teach English overseas. But beyond that… I guess we’ll just wait and see.



Thank you for letting me interview you, Jordan, and good luck in all that you do!

This was the last (but not least) in my series of interviews with poets. If things go well, I may continue interviewing people in the literature community. Suggestions are welcome by note or comment. Meanwhile, please do take part in ^GeneratingHype’s Revision Month activities:

Be Someone's Critical Friend!
What is Revision?
Polish that Poetry and Prose!

More interviews

Interview with a woman of many roles, ~Esin
Interview with a haijin, *Laurence55
Interview with a rising poet, *TheObviousChild