Spilled Interviews: Jo Blair Cipriano
Séamus Fey and Jo Blair Cirpriano discuss birds, death and looking toward nature to guide us through grief
Séamus Fey: In this particular order of publication, I see a direct dialogue between the relationship of the speaker to grief, and the speaker to the precise grief of birds. I enjoyed the discussion beginning from this place of dialogue with Mary Oliver and her tenderness and making its way to the consideration of a dead bird in Taryn. As the writer, did you feel a particular shift in the relationship between the speaker and grief, and the speaker and the outside world as we made our way through these poems?
Jo Blair Cipriano: Before I started writing poetry, I’d read poems and be like, “Why are there so many damn birds in here?” so it’s really funny to me that I ended up with birds in all of these poems. It actually feels more accurate for me to say, “the birds put themselves in my poems!” which I know sounds like a very PoetTM thing to say, and there’s probably a meme about this somewhere, but it’s true. When my aunt passed away in December from an aggressive cancer, I was able to be in the room with her during her transition. She loved the Mary Oliver poem, “Wild Geese,” and so I read it aloud to her. When I got to the end, the part about finding a place in the family of things, I swear to god, a flock of geese flew over. My mom and I heard them squawking and honking and looked out the window, but it was too dark to see them.
I guess what I’m saying is, I see why poets are always writing about birds: those lil fuckers are everywhere! And they’re incredible. They tell you so much about a place. Even the migratory ones: the fact that they’re migrating is reflective of something. Right now I’m looking outside my window in Tucson, and there’s four different kinds of birds on this one tree, and none of them are birds we have back where I’m from in Maryland. Birds are an integral part of our world, and I think when you’re grieving, a lot of what you’re doing is world-building. You have to figure out how to (re)create a life, a home, a future around this explosion that’s shattered what previously was there. It makes sense that we’d look to nature for ideas on how to survive. On this note, I’d be really interested to know if readers sense a shift between the speaker and grief in these poems. I know everyone is different, but in my case, it’s me, hi, I’m the speaker, it’s me. I can’t separate myself from my poems, because they are myself. And the truth is, I am still very actively grieving all three of these people in all three of these poems in three different and difficult ways. I’ll be honest: grief has made me anxious, made me scared of the outside world, and made me fearful of losing people in ways I’d never been before. All I can do is cry and scream and look to the birds and write. Nothing is permanent. Not even these poems. And certainly not the way I interpret or feel them.
SF: If you made a playlist for these three poems, what would be on it? Were there any songs that were on repeat for you at the time of these pieces’ conception?
JBC: Yes, and here they are with zero further context:
Songbird — Eva Cassidy
I Heard You Got Too Litt Last Night — SAINt JHN
Where Do You Go — Yebba
Piove — Jovanotti
Little Brother — Ella Vos
Cut Me — Moses Sumney
Womxn — Låpsley
Broken Horses (Santo Domingo Edit) — Twin Shadow
MEGATRON — Nicki Minaj
Oil and Water — Rationale
Here You Come Again (Recorded at HOB Studios, Toronto) — Charlotte Day Wilson
My Love — Inez
J’me tire — GIMS
Both Hands — Ani DiFranco
Fuck Em Up Sis — Renni Rucci
Say It — Maggie Rogers
Hasard — Achile
But Not For Me — Sarah Dooley
Hard To Find — The National
I Don’t Care — Justin Bieber & Ed Sheeran
You can find Jo’s songs on a playlist here
SF: In noticing the way these themes weave together and create a dialogue, I’m wondering if they are part of any collection you want to give all of your fans (it’s me, one of your fans) some insight on?
JBC: First of all, I’m so honored to have fans. Fan? Fans? Even if it’s only you, you count as multiple. You count as infinite. (I also am obviously a huge fan of yours. Like, have your issue of APR on my bedside table literally only because you are in it.)
But yes! I am working on a full-length book project, but it’s still in the early stages. I haven’t even begun to send it out yet. I do have some readings, events, and a panel at AWP (oh my!) coming up, though. My website is www.joblaircipriano.com, and I’m @jo_blair_cipriano on IG & @joblaircipriano on Twitter (for now) if you want to do your best to keep track of me/my work there.