Finding the Form with Rose Maloukis
I use tools and lessons from my painting life which align well with writing. At one time, I made a splendid piece in black ink on craft paper. A few years later I did the same image in water-color, and again in oil. The latter two were only passable as art but the ink drawing sang.
Both Coif in Blackwork and Her Coif, are set historically in the 16th or 17th century. To me they warranted a simple format. Nothing else would suit them. They seemed to arrive with their form and their layout dictated by the content.
“To me they warranted a simple format. Nothing else would suit them. They seemed to arrive with their form and their layout dictated by the content.”
As for form in a broader sense—poetry is always my first choice.
I write very little prose other than notes and an occasional essay. Initially I wrote only short poems, very few any longer than the ones mentioned above (12–16 lines). Lengthy poems seem to require what I call a “true narrative.” In my attempts at writing such a poem, rarely was I able to sustain even my own interest. I have great admiration for poets who write in long-form; Alice Oswald is a favorite.
Recently I’ve become interested in experimental poetry and in the past year have combined “loose narrative” with that expression. I’m thoroughly enjoying the process. A few poems have shown up asking to be written in prose. I am attempting to accommodate them — experimentation in another form.
Rose Maloukis, is a poet and visual artist, with a BFA from Wayne State University, Detroit, MI., who in 2015 found that her painted lines were turning more and more into written ones. She has since then: been shortlisted for an international award, won prizes from Geist and ARC, and been published and featured in The Fiddlehead. Her chapbook, Cloud Game with Plums was published in 2020 by above/ground press. Several of her recent line drawings, as concrete poems, are part of her (nearly completed) first full-length collection.
Photo by Sarah Brown on Unsplash