Q&A with Rosa Caines
“I wish I could wear my skin inside out / so that I could crawl down the street / a heaving mass of limb and bone and shining muscle…”
~ ‘a real life meat suit’ by Rosa Caines
Your poem ‘a real life meat suit’ rails against representations of sexual violence in the media - it is intimate, powerful and angry. Can you tell us more about the inspiration behind your piece?
I write anger a lot and it is something I want to explore more. I have always been interested in the representation of women, as a woman it is hard to know what is real and what is performed, perhaps particularly as a queer woman. I have always been focused on this, I used to get so emotional about all these small moments and would be called over-sensitive and hysterical and intense but these moments matter, they are part of the rape culture that exists in our society. I write a fair bit about sexual violence, I am interested in the body and the memories it stores and also body horror. I am interested in how much space we are encouraged to take up and how to shift power in poems. This particular poem references a personal experience as well as a wider issue so it feels particularly intimate to share. I do like that ‘confessional’ tone in my writing which is maybe why it took me a while to get used to the idea of sharing them. I wrote this poem in a rage and am glad the anger carries through, I wanted it to have bite.
Your use of similes is visceral and evocative. For example, "you split my lip like a nectarine," and "I fold like a summer deckchair." How important is visual imagery in your writing process?
It is so important, I want to use bold imagery but I never want to be too flowery to the point where it is alienating or too pretty just for the sake of it. I want it to be punchy no matter what I am writing about. When I was younger the first poetry I really fell in love with was the Spanish surrealists especially Federico Garcia Lorca whose poems are so surreal and strange and aching; they are full of this wild imagery and colour and I always connected with that kind of visual language. That was my introduction to poetry in a way. I like poems that punch you in the gut or where a line will haunt you and you don’t know why. I want to get something across when I am writing, it doesn’t need to be all mapped out or to completely make sense but you want a feeling or a mood to come through. It is funny how sometimes similes and metaphors can feel closer to the truth than straightforward true-to-life descriptions.
Your poetry has been published in The Rally and Sunday Mornings at the River. When did you first start writing and submitting poetry and why?
I have pretty much always written it, I used to be near constantly scribbling; on bus tickets, scraps of paper, walking along, at work, in the club toilets, on my arm if I didn’t have anything to hand, it would just spill out of me. I used to keep an old tin in my bedroom full of these written out, folded up poems. I kept them all but it felt too much to share them. Someone once told me if what you are writing doesn’t make you blush occasionally it isn’t enough and there definitely is a sense of sharing something very intimate like peeling off a layer of skin or letting someone look directly down an artery. My poem ‘London (a love letter)’ was broadcast on BBC Radio London to celebrate National Poetry Day last year and that was the first time I properly shared a poem. Now I want to keep sharing my writing and to connect with other emerging writers, I am really excited to perform some pieces at poetry nights as things slowly open up again.
What is on your reading list at the moment?
I am reading Sophie Robinson ‘Rabbit,’ Ariana Reines ‘A Sand Book,’ Arienne Riche ‘A wild patience has taken me this far,’ Rachel Long ‘My darling from the lions’ and I am rereading ‘Crush’ by Richard Siken and ‘Night Sky With Exit Wounds’ by Ocean Vuong.
Rosa Caines is a poet from Brighton and lives in London. Recent work has appeared in Rogue Agent Journal, Sunday Mornings at the River and The Rally. She rates enthusiasm over sarcasm.