Antonia talks to poet John Mole about his new book 'Thin Air' and life as a poet.

Over the last two years poet, John Mole has written a selection of poems that he has shared online with his followers on Instagram, which I have personally enjoyed reading since the first lockdown took place. A selection of these poems have now come together in a new book called ‘Thin Air’ which you can request to order here. To celebrate the release of ‘Thin Air’ I wanted to ask John a few questions on this new collection and life as a poet, read below for his answers ~ Antonia

What was your inspiration behind this collection of poems?

At the outset of the pandemic, I began writing occasional sixteen-line improvisations on the changes in my personal and social life, and my responses to them. I was particularly fascinated by what I might call the vocabulary of the times; the word ‘lockdown’ itself and the many words, phrases, and concepts with which we became familiar – ‘restrictions’, ‘social distancing’, ‘bubbles’, ‘elbows’, ‘measures’, ‘road map’, ‘granular’ and so on. The poems accumulated along with a situation that seemed at the same time to be putting life on hold and to be encouraging us to notice so many small aspects of it that we had overlooked or taken for granted before. One of the poems became a meditation on silence, another a celebration of birdsong. Others noted and played with the language of government directives, and politicians’ often hesitant and bewildered responses to questions asked by journalists and members of the public. Throughout the past eighteen months or so I have been contributing them to the regular online ‘Plague20journal’, and this book ‘Thin Air’ is a representative collection.

Where do you write your poems?

Here and there. The Northern Irish poet Michael Longley has said ‘If I knew where my poems come from I’d go and live there’. I often quote this when I’m asked where I get my ideas from. Often I scribble ideas on scraps of paper then transfer them to the computer screen, see what they look like, and begin to work on them. Often words and phrases come to me while out walking. Like Winnie the Pooh, ‘I feel a hum coming on’ and that hum becomes words beginning to shape themselves into patterns of sound and meaning. When I get home I’m ready to start on the poem I hope they will become.

How does poetry contribute to your life?

That’s a big question. I can certainly try to answer it with three observations; one from Louis McNeice who said that he became restless when not writing it, from the painter Henri Matisse who when asked whether he believed in God replied ‘Yes, when I’m working’, and from another artist, Paul Klee who said that when he put pencil to paper he liked to take his line for a walk. Perhaps above all I agree with Robert Frost, that ‘poetry begins in delight and ends in wisdom’ and that if there is no surprise for the writer then there’s none for the reader. Poetry contributes endless delight, surprise and, I hope, wisdom to my life.

What advice would you give to aspiring poets?

Be vigilant, love language, and read as widely as you can.

I am, I suppose you would say, a poet of the page for whom the visual shape of a poem is inseparable from its sound and meaning, whereas in our present culture of open mic, rap, and poetry slams sometimes seems to predominate. All I would say to aspiring poets– though I hesitate to call it advice - is when you step away from the microphone and show me the poems you have just read, would I be able to take them away, read them and hear them speaking directly to me without amplification?