Kathryn Reese

ID 0:02

This is a Vision Australia Radio Podcast.

Kate Cooper 0:18

On Vision Australia Radio, welcome to our conversations on the work and experiences of Emerging Writers. I'm Kate Cooper, and our guest on today's program is Kathryn Reese, spoken word poet and scientist. Kathryn performs her poetry at Ellipsis - and we heard one of her poems in our program featuring the Ellipsis poetry night earlier in November 2024. She has published widely in literary journals such as Kelp Journal and The Engine Idling. Kathryn's poetry has also been shortlisted for the heroines writing prize. Welcome to the program. Kathryn, thank you. Would you begin by telling us where you grew up and what that place means to you now?

Kathryn Reese 1:08

Yeah, I was born on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, on Gubby Gubby land. I lived there till I was about six or seven. My grandparents lived there my whole life, and that continued to be the place that we'd go home on holidays to after we moved to Sydney, where we lived for a few years, moved back to Brisbane and lived for a few years, and then moved out to Broken Hill and lived there a few years before coming to Adelaide.

Kate Cooper

Which is home for you now. Yeah, I'd like to follow that up with a question that I've been asking other poets on this program, what are your earliest memories of working creatively? 

Kathryn Reese

That's, I think that's an interesting question, and the word that grabs me is "working creatively", because I'm not sure if I ever still consider the writing as work. So I was one of those kids that always had a book that I'm reading and a book that I'm writing on the go as long as I can remember.

Kate Cooper 2:10

Fantastic. So when did you first start writing poetry? And what is it that particularly draws you to this form of expression?

Kathryn Reese 2:19

I think it's the music and the ability to be really succinct and focus on one part of an emotion and explore that really thoroughly. I think I was first really introduced to poetry in year 11 and 12. English loved it then let it go for a long time. And it actually was when I my family went through some pretty nasty stuff, that I started writing, particularly poetry, because I could just go for a walk and write a thing and feel better about the world, and I think that's one of the main jobs that poetry can do for us.

Kate Cooper 3:08

And when you're writing poetry, do you do several drafts? Do you think about it in your head while you're walking and work on it in your head before you commit to paper? How does that go?

Kathryn Reese 3:20

Yeah, a lot of the time I will hold a thought in my head until it starts to come together, until I've got so much that I can't hold it in my head anymore. And often I'm driving and I'll have to pull over and write that bit, or if I'm out on the walk, I'll get my phone out and type it in my notes app, and then once I've got the raw materials, some poems take a lot of free drafting, and some take next to none.

Kate Cooper 3:50

It's really interesting because I've had other guests on this program say they get their ideas when they're driving. They have to pull over, get out the Notes app. And I've asked people, do you carry a pen and paper, pencil and paper? Do you use your phone? Sounds like you tend to go for your phone?

Kathryn Reese 4:08

Yeah, I do. I've got nothing against pencil and paper, but I think we're so used to having our phones right there these days, it's just a default it is, and I guess it also allows you to keep those drafts and have them at hand rather than scrabbling for a journal. Yes, Catherine, would you tell us about any favorite poets who have inspired you and why they inspire you? Sure this is this week's list. Ally [?] Eckerman is absolutely brilliant, and she's brilliant at super short poems, but also into weaving them together into these longer stories and narratives. I'm reading Diane Sousa, US poet's book Frank Sonnets, and it is so amazing. 

And I think also on a complete different level, the poets that I get to write and perform with the local poets that at Ellipsis, Pam especially, and also I'm part of a group that writes a poem a day every month in April and September, and so having that community as well, where we keep showing up is really inspirational. 

Kate Cooper

I think that's such a good idea. A previous guest on our program, Glenn Butcher, set himself a target in, I think, 2018 to write a poem a day for a year and stuck to the discipline. So just writing a poem a day for two months of the year and then keeping that going would be a fantastic discipline. How does it go, though, if you have to do your poem for the day and it's it's not one of those days, you know the day is not working for you, how do you do how do you manage it? 

Kathryn Reese

It's a poem a day. It's not a good poem a day, if what you write is three lines of nonsense, if you have a piece of found poetry where you see some text on a bathroom wall and you go, that's a poem, that's your poem for the day. And I think that frees you as a writer to just write. You don't you don't have to be the best poet for every poem, you can just show up and write what's there. 

Kate Coope

And Kathryn, I want to go back to something you said earlier about first being interested in poetry in year 11, year 12 at school. How often have I heard on this program about the critical role of the teacher in inspiring young people to develop that lifelong love of poetry? 

Kathryn Reese

Yes, I heard someone else say it's either a great teacher or a horrendous teacher that gets you writing and gets you confident with with your own expression. But I'm not sure at that point whether I was writing so much as just learning to enjoy what was on what was on the page the way that particular teacher taught me to read, not over emphasizing line breaks and reading for the punctuation. And I know different people read poetry in different styles, but for me, that brought a thing to life. And you mentioned before about the succinct nature of poetry, and I have difficulty being succinct, I can tell you now. So it's interesting, how you develop the discipline to be succinct. 

Yeah, and I think when I first started writing, it was the succinctness of necessity of an urgent thought that I had kids running around it. There's 10 years between my eldest and my youngest, and so there's a big variety of needs in there, and it's so busy you just need you have to be succinct to get that thought out. I love that phrase, the succinctness of necessity that is brilliant. It's a name for a book. 

Kate Cooper

Perhaps, I think it is. Catherine, would you perform one of your poems for us now? 

Kathryn Reese

Sure, this one does not have a succinct title. It's called Dinosaurs at a Resort Impact the Community and Have Flow-on Effects on the Economy.

My parents once owned a block of land two streets back from the beach. They sold it. Sold the she oak and the tussock grass, the swamp Daisy and the remnant stand of malaleuca huddled in what the council called easement, I called a creek, and my mum called habitat for snakes. Dad wanted to build a shed. I wanted a tree house, and the man who bought our block planned a Tyrannosaurus statue and a golf course for tourists escaping their sunless July wearing their tight jeans and closed shoes all over our warm and delicate sands, sands that shifted South each cyclone season, despite the groynes built to hold them in place.

I begged to sleep on that vacant block swag or hammock strung between the sturdiest melaleuca and a stunted eucalypt robusta dad coppiced with a Whipper Snipper years ago, in the quiet of the night, I might hear the surf beyond the neighbors TV and the cane toad shouting from the stormwater drain. Old mate, cane toad does well, now residing in a palatial water feature by a floodlit strelitzia beneath the chicken legged bulk of Tyrannosaurus Rex. 

What would you have me say on the things that are lost, the sedge frog, the scrub Wren, the water under the ground and your pineapple spiced gin seeping through the eco friendly boardwalk into the swamp of a sprinkler in need of repair. I'll collect your sugar rimmed glassware while you go chasing sunrise up a sacred mountain. You say you see everything up there? The river mouth, the sky rise, the agitation of golf carts like mosquitoes forming at dawn. I ask if you see the sandcastle ruptured by the tide.

Kate Cooper 10:34

Thank you, Kathryn - as we mentioned in the introduction, you're a spoken word poet who performs at the Ellipsis poetry events. What inspired you to first start performing your poetry at spoken word events? 

Kathryn Reese 

Really, it was ellipsis coming into existence. When Pam and Jazz started it, I asked Pam, well, do you need people to talk, or are you going to have everyone show up and want to speak? And she said, Oh, no, we'll have some slots. And so I braved it up and started reading a set. 

Kate Cooper

And for many people, it would be quite nerve wracking to start performing poetry in public. And I've had other guests who've talked about just how nerve wracking it is. So what experiences can you share about how you prepare for a performance and how do you manage any feelings of nervousness? 

Kathryn Reese

Yeah, I'm a big fan of sort of somatic therapy exercises, so sometimes I'll be tapping on acupuncture points just to calm my nerves.

Kathryn Reese 11:43

Sometimes it's visualizing my feet growing roots into the earth that's helpful, and sometimes it's just knowing that everyone else gets nervous too. I think we we think that we're the only one that's nervous, but you sort of open your awareness through conversations, like we're all in the same boat. It's scary poetry, especially words from the heart. And

Kate Cooper 12:12

yes, I think it does take courage to perform in public, because it's your creative work. You're putting it out there for other people to listen to and potentially comment on critique. So there is that, that real bravery that comes with exposing your innermost creativity. Yeah, and I think it's the same sending written work in to journals as a submission. So you'd never know. Sometimes you'll get a yes, we love it. Sometimes you'll just get a we love it, but no. Sometimes you'll just get a no,

Kathryn Reese 12:48

and that can be a difficult process as well. But you know, we learn to live with these sorts of rejections as writers, sure, and it could have nothing to do with the quality of your work and everything to do with what say a particular journal or a particular audience, for that matter, is looking for at the given time. It could just be timing it. I think it often is. It's, you know, for at a spoken word event. It's often have the audience warmed up and got their ears in for the written work. It's like, Are you the 50th submission this editor's reading and he should have got up and got another coffee, or are you like the one that he reads in the ideal conditions, and you never know exactly

Kate Cooper 13:42

on vision, Australia radio. You're listening to our conversation program, emerging writers. Our guest today is Catherine Rees, spoken word poet and scientist. Catherine, would you perform another of your poems for us? Sure

Kathryn Reese 14:01

this one is after Ginsburg and Whitman left the supermarket, which is written after Allen Ginsberg's poem a supermarket in California.

The last itinerants have left the Isles. It's just me, my mop and a sludge of watermelon pulp across the floor. It's just me unpaid overtime and an abandoned cart full of unwrapped cheeses, popped Pringles, warmed ham, avocados past their prime, and tomatoes split and weeping. I've cleaned the mess after the poets before. I know they're ill equipped for fiscal exchange. Who pays you to lather yourself in cream, to sample every spice, to become one with a penumbra of neon lights, my boss just wants a slogan for our cereal box, unwaxed, raw and good for the digestion.

I'll dim the lights.

Yes, lock the dumpster against rats and ravenous waifs, who will make stew with discarded fruit. I'll stare at the moon make picnic in the parking lot, unwrapped cheese, soft tomato and lukewarm ham.

Thank you. And that's an example of the ekphrastic poetry that I know. Pam Macon, who we talked about before, is very interested in So is this an aspect of poetry writing that really appeals to you? Absolutely, I think also what we were talking about earlier, about poets bouncing off other poets, and in this case, you know, a written poem that I encountered. And, yeah, that that's, it's sort of, and what, what happened after that? And where are we now? Where, you know, what economic factors are influencing the way we make art now, compared to when Ginsburg was writing, compared to when Whitman was writing, what's the same and what's different.

Kate Cooper 16:04

Catherine, I have another question that I've been asking guests on this program. How do you go about creating your works? You mentioned before about going for walks, stopping the car. Do you have a favorite place where you like to write? Or does it vary?

Kathryn Reese 16:20

I think I write a lot when I'm traveling or moving through a landscape, whether I'm going for a walk or I'm on a road trip back up to my family on the Sunshine Coast or somewhere else. There's something about place that I connect to as a poet, and something about that momentum of walking or or driving that really helps my thoughts come out in order. 

Kate Cooper

And following on from that, how important is rhythm to you? Do you read your work out loud to yourself as you're drafting? 

Kathryn Reese

Absolutely. Maybe sometimes when I'm drafting, not necessarily, but definitely, subsequently, when I'm putting a poem back together, that's when I'll read aloud and rhythm is it interests me, because I don't write in a formal metre, but I do really consider the music where my vows are going and the directionality and pacing. 

Kate Cooper

And I have a related question, how do your experiences of performing your poetry influence the way you write?

Kathryn Reese

I think that's an evolving question. I think one of the things is with spoken word, is that the words are there and then they're gone, and you're relying on someone's working memory to be able to put the picture together in a way that when I write on the page, I can jam a lot in and rely on which words are at the end of the line, which words are at the beginning of the line, or the placement of words beneath each other on the page, to to bring out aspects of an image in a way that just, I'm not sure quite, carries on in spoken word. And so this is one of the things about spoken word that intrigues me, is, how do I do that in this different form? 

Kate Cooper

And do you get feedback at performances? Do people come up to you and tell you what they thought. 

Kathryn Reese

Yes, often people will tell you a snippet of what they remember or particularly enjoyed about a piece - you don't, fortunately, I think, tend to get, Oh, you should have fixed that bit. Yeah, it's not, it's often not the sort of environment, because there's so many poets speaking. It's really hard as a listener to be able to give that sort of feedback, because you might have heard three or five poets in that set, and to be able to remember something distinctive and feedback, as I that takes a bit of experience as well as a listener. 

Kate Cooper

Sure. Kathryn, would you perform another of your spoken word poems for us? 

Kathryn Reese

Sure - this one is a longer poem, so I'll just read an excerpt of it. This is one that I did write on a road trip. I'd driven by myself up to the Sunshine Coast, just quite a drive, but this is what I wrote along the way, and it's different points on the road trip. So it's called Driving Home.

Yammeroo, we have been chasing the heat shimmer a couple of hours, and already your feet on the dashboard restless, splitting open the pack of red frogs and skipping about my playlist. Turn the music down, and I will tell you how this white dust landscape once was sea. Tell you of the shells crushed and the mineral salt cracked from this crest, the Mallee could be ocean tree tops, wind rolls, rise and curl, glisten as if with moisture, oh, in Sunset, blurs, watercolor, orange, pink, yellow, not just across the West, but right across the rim of the horizon. 

There is no one else here, you whisper, afraid... what will happen if we break down, crash? I will tell you that I know this road, but not like this soaked in Easter moon. Your restless eyes scan silhouettes, seeking ghosts and kangaroos. Menangitang, we have pulled into a rest stop, parked between a Mallee gum and a paddock of wheat stubble. Here we wait for sleep. Trace the road trains rumble from one horizon to the other. Map its route as it follows the highways, inexplicable curves. What is there to avoid out here? If you remember quadratics, plot the road, trains journey, discern if it matches the stars.

Kate Cooper  21:33

That's a beautiful example of the importance of place that you spoke about before with us. Thank you. Kathryn, you're relatively new to the community of spoken word poets in Adelaide. What's it like to become involved in this community? 

Kathryn Reese

I found it a really welcoming place, really supportive. I think everyone recognises the guts it takes to get up and have a go. And yeah, I've really enjoyed participating so far. And I've said before on this program that as an observer, as a listener, I can really sense the warmth and support in the room. It's lovely to be part of the audience that every spoken word event that I've ever been to, and we have a real richness. There is so much happening. Yeah, we were really very lucky. 

Kate Cooper

Kathryn, you're also a scientist. That's your day job. How does your work as a scientist influence your writing? 

Kathryn Reese

Yeah, I work in diagnostic microbiology, so infectious diseases, and I think there's this fascination with small and unseen things that I draw on and biological little critters. I think worms and fish and frogs and things like that will often appear and disappear from my poetry. And isn't that the beauty of poetry that it opens our eyes to what we otherwise wouldn't notice, wouldn't think about. 

Kate Cooper

That's lovely. 

Kathryn Reese

Yeah, I think, as a poet, my job is kind of a conservationist. We've got to keep hold on to these little moments and these small creatures and these small things, and make sure we don't just run through our busy lives and forget about them. 

Kate Cooper

And speaking of busy lives when you're not writing or performing your poetry, what do you like doing? 

Kathryn Reese 23:43

It's difficult. I think poetry has suddenly exploded and taken over so much of my life. But those bush walks I love, a walk late at night and listening for the frogs and recording them with the Frog ID app. And, yeah, being with friends and the community aspect, I think I also really enjoy there's a Frog ID app. There is. It's a citizen science thing. So you record your frog's audio call, and then the it goes to the Australian Museum, and they'll come back and tell you what sort of a frog it is and contribute to this massive bank of data of frogs that nearly covers all of Australia now. 

Kate Cooper

Wow. That's brilliant. That's brilliant. Thank you for telling us about that. Kathryn, what are you working on now and what are you looking forward to?

Kathryn Reese

I've just finished writing a poem for Red Room poetry. They run Australian Poetry Month, and they have a throughout August, they'll provide a prompt for a three line poem, and words, then they select three writers who've contributed those three line poems to write a longer work. So I've just sent off the edits for that, and I'm really looking forward to seeing that in print soon. 

Kate Cooper

That sounds great. Good luck with all of that. Thank you so much for coming and speaking with us today, Kathryn, it's been lovely to talk with you. Our guest on Emerging Writers today was Kathryn Reese, spoken word poet, scientist and keen walker as well, we've learned.

This program is produced in our Adelaide studios and can be heard at the same time each week here on Vision Australia radio, VA radio, on digital, online at va radio.org - and also on Vision Australia Radio podcasts, where you can catch up on earlier episodes.

ID 26:10

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