This morning I went out and the skies rolled back
Like giant white rugs. A bleary eye of sun
Opened far east and welled into our land
So ten thousand bits of water came alive,
Turned to silver mirrors and I heard the geese
Rising in acres, crying across the light.
From Waterland - (Iona - Saint Andrew Press)
Following my recent review of Kenneth C Steven's new book, The Poet's Handbook - A Guide to Building Great Poems, I contacted the author, who kindly agreed to talk to me about his own, very personal approach to poetry, and his other writing.
Kenneth C Steven was born in Glasgow in 1968, and moved to the Highlands of Perthshire as a boy of eight. He has spent most of his adult life there, and his fierce love of the West Coast, Iona in particular, informs much of his writing. His fifth poetry collection, Iona, which is about to go into its third printing, takes this landscape in its widest sense as its inspiration. Having been introduced to poetry at school through the works of Victorian poets, Kenneth remembers his subsequent introduction to Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes as something of a seminal moment. Hughes in particular was important:
"It sounds ridiculous now, but his work was a real revelation to me in that this kind of farmyard environment, full of smells, and the countryside… a world that I was familiar with, represented a legitimate subject for poetry."
His move into writing about his own cultural landscape came about only gradually, but was to form the bedrock of his later work, and whilst he is currently exploring other forms and subject matter, in order, he says, to avoid becoming a cliché of himself, he does admit that the temptation is to stay with the safe and familiar, the land he knows and loves so well.
POETRY TODAY
Ask Kenneth about his poetry tastes today, and he returns to Hughes and Heaney, but also mentions Edwin Muir, R S Thomas, and the 'seriously underrated' Kathleen Raine, all of whom it saddens him to say, have fallen out of fashion. However, he says, he himself has never been 'fashionable' in poetry terms, in spite of the fact that his work is known across the world, and has been published in translation. This, he feels is because of its nature. He writes almost exclusively of his cultural landscape, of his feelings for it and its people, which sets him apart from the avant-garde of today's poetry world, steeped as it is in the suburban realism of what he calls 'the dead baby in the canal' syndrome."There is validity in all of that poetry," he said, "I'm not trying to deny it, but I think it's very important for a good, vibrant literary culture to allow all of its voices to be heard. I think there's a danger that all poetry publishers are jumping on a bandwagon, producing post-Trainspotting stuff, which they think is what the trendy youngsters want. But why don't we cater to older people? Why don't we listen to rural voices as well as urban?"
Whilst we were discussing this, Kenneth's serious concern became evident.
"I debate with myself whether things can get much worse, and then they do. Essentially, what is created by writers and so forth comes from within the culture itself… and it doesn't take a genius to see the malaise in which we live. People are dispirited, cynical. It's a negative, iconoclastic age to live in. And Britain seems particularly privy to it at the moment. The bile within creates the bile without; that which comes through the pen. And I think until we see a change in that, there won't be a change in the kind of work produced."
His hope is that things will eventually come full circle, that publishers will come to recognise the peripheral voices that are not being given a hearing today. To that end, he says he would like to produce an anthology, calling it Untied Kingdom, which would do exactly that. He describes himself as a very spiritual person, something born out by his work, and he would like to see work published from those who are much more spiritual and focussed, those with a keen awareness of the wellspring of their landscape.
"I'd like to be engaged in something of that kind, something which would restore the equilibrium."
THE SCOTTISH POET
I've seen Kenneth described several times as 'The Scottish Poet', but paradoxically, his work doesn't sell well in his homeland, as it is considered 'too Scottish'. This isn't as silly as it sounds given that many fall into the assumption that what is familiar to us must, ergo, be familiar to others. I have become aware myself that what looks superficially like the 'fresh and new' in writing is often that from other cultures, other countries, that we simply haven't met before. There is no question that Kenneth's work stems from his surroundings, but reading it reveals so much of the universal. His acute observations of nature are a joy, as is his use of metaphor to deliver his word-pictures.Mushrooms
The night before a great moon full of honey
Had flowed up behind the hills and poured across the fields.The leaves were rusting, the wheat whispered
Dry and gold in the wind's hands.Andrew and I went to Foss. We drove over the hills
That were blustery with huge gusts of sunlight.We stopped and walked to the loch, left two trails
Through the grass, came on the mushrooms by accident.A village of strewn white hats
The folds of their gills underneath as soft as skin.We almost did not want to take them, as if
It would be theft - wronging the hills, the trees, the grass.But in the end we did, we picked them with reverence:
And they broke like bread between our hands,
we carried them home,Pieces of field, smelling of earth and autumn;
A thanksgiving, a blessing.In Snow Light, he talks of '… snow cobwebs that hung in rafters / Icing the trees, scarving every gable end. And in The Small Giant, he recalls seeing an otter … Playing games with the Atlantic - Three feet of gymnastics / Taking on an ocean.
For Kenneth Steven, landscape includes those who inhabit the land, all of whom he writes about with humanity and dignity, and not a trace of sentimentality.
Old Woman (segment)
Once she was beautiful, and knew it;
Once her blood's fire burned in a man's veins
Night after night, and her colours
Enflamed the coals of his heart.
Who may see that now,
When the nurses bring her things and swear
Behind her back because she cannot hold
A spoon, or manage all the stairs?A Poem for Ann (segment)
Three feet small
With dreams as big as Christmas.
A cornfield of curls
And a smile that would melt a soldier.
When you cry
All of you falls to pieces;
Everyone comes running to meet you…THE BALLAD OF READING GAOL
Although primarily a poet, Kenneth's work takes him into a number of other areas. In 1998, he set up a creative writing group in Perth Prison, following an invitation to visit. His first day at the prison is etched into his memory."I remember going in, and I was absolutely terrified. I wandered in, and the air was so full of smoke. I swam towards the chair and held onto it for grim life, and said, 'well - it's lovely to be here', and a voice came from the back: 'Well - speak for yourself!'."
In spite of what could have been a disastrous start, the group, under his tutelage, eventually produced a very moving adaptation of The Ballad of Reading Gaol.
"They related to Oscar Wilde's work hugely. I was very impressed, and I couldn't believe they had chosen this out of all the work I showed them. One guy was actually in tears after he read it. He said it was so emotive because it expressed so much of his own pain."
Following the production, there was a discussion between the prison authorities and the inmates about prison then and now, and Kenneth says the whole thing was a wonderful experience. Asked whether he would do prison work again, the answer was a very firm 'yes'.
"In fact," he said, "one of my dreams is to do a professional production, with the prisoners, of their adaptation. I think it would make an extraordinary piece of drama."
Sadly though, for the present at least, this must remain a pipedream, as so caught up in other work.
KENNETH AND CHILDREN
Kenneth's work with children takes him into schools up and down the country. He has worked as Writer in Residence from Primary 1 up to 6th Form, and he finds it extremely rewarding and enjoyable when the children are committed. He prefers working in smaller schools, and with smaller groups, as he feels this is where the children are more motivated. He has a very warm and long-standing relationship with Glenalmond College in Perthshire, and is always willing to evaluate the work of individual pupils ahead of visits, so that he can give them one-to-one feedback when they meet. Kenneth has also written for children, and has published two books - The Boy and the Blue Balloon, and The Bearer of Gifts, published in 1995 and 1998 respectively.THE TRANSLATOR
Although he has lived the majority of his life in Scotland, Kenneth spent two of his college years in Norway, and is a fluent speaker of both major Norwegian dialects. He has translated the work of a number of contemporary Norwegian authors, and is an official translator for the Norwegian Foreign Office. Indeed, The Edinburgh Review has just published the first ever English translation of a short story by one of Norway's top living novelists, Lars Saabye Christensen. Kenneth is understandably thrilled about this, and sees it as a great honour. Overall though, he admits to dismay at the tiny percentage of foreign literature which makes it into translation in this country."I feel very angry as a writer and a poet that we are so arrogant that we translate only 5% of the books produced each year into English, which is effectively saying that we believe the canon of English is of greater importance. We ignore a lot of authors at our peril."
WHERE TO NOW?
Having talked to Kenneth for almost an hour, I came away with an impression of a highly intelligent, committed, and yes, very spiritual person who is a tireless seeker of elemental truths. When I first contacted him, he had just returned from a trip to the west of Ireland, which is part of his quest for what he called 'a new country' for his work. He is, as I mentioned at the top of this piece, in a time of transition which he's finding both exciting and frightening. Aware perhaps of the limiting effects of labels such as: The Scottish Poet, as well as the danger of becoming a pastiche of himself, he is searching for his next direction."I am trying to discover where the new landscape is, and also what the new format for my work is. I'm writing quite experimentally at the moment, I think in an attempt to discover what new ground I want to break. Some of that is involving travelling, and experiencing newness, while obviously still relying on the foundation of the style I've developed, which I hope is strong, and has a voice."
For me, there is little doubt of that. I found re-reading Iona a rewarding and enriching experience, and will certainly be finding my way to more of Kenneth's work. For further information on Kenneth C Steven and his writing, take a look at his website.
© Zoe King 2002