Agape Editions

Blog Mistress Jessica L. Walsh talked with poet Kiara Nicole Letcher on her new book Oxblood, available for purchase here.

JW: When reading Oxblood I thought of the poem “The Quiet House” by one of my favorite poets, Charlotte Mew, which contains a line stating “Red is the strangest pain to bear.” The pervasiveness of red as life force and pain is of course signaled even in the title. What is behind the color as a thematic thread and motif?

KL: I first saw the color Oxblood years ago and I was entranced. It’s so vampy. I looked up various versions of the color, even the history of it in fashion. Then I painted my nails in an Oxblood like color (Market by TenOverTen is my favorite). Anyway, I know that is strange. However, when something is striking for me on a deep level visually, sonically, spiritually etc., I become enchanted. I must investigate.

Poetry for me in an investigation and an examination of myself, others, and the world both seen and unseen.

Oxblood for me is a richness. So much of the book is honoring drama and being self-indulgent and overindulgent. It’s a melodramatic color that I think conveys life, vamp and devastation.

JW: One line recurs in Oxblood: “Something is happening that should not be happening.” We see it both as a title (p. 13) and as a line in “Garden Hose” (p. 74). The dactylic meter is captivating, but what else does this declaration/warning connect to the book’s larger themes?

I’m so glad that captivated you!

The first “full” poem in the collection, “There’s a fly in my Champagne Coupe, The door is locked from the wrong side,” is actually my first call of an examination of things that are happening that should not be. There’s multiple calls to this study throughout the book. Like in “Disruptions” there are fires, floods and waltzing tears.

I like attempting to create worlds within my poems. There are a few visuals, colors and statements that are similar, if not a full-on mimic of that line or title. I want readers to feel the mood of the book and get a little lost. Stumble around in the strange forest and then find a way back, hair a little mussed and lipstick a little smeared. I like to think my poems speak to each other as they have spoken to me. I want the reader to eavesdrop on the conversation that the poems have. I’d say that even from a collection standpoint, I think of my chapbook (Scream Queen) as a little sister to Oxblood.

We see and hear about things happening that should not be happening all the time. In our lives we have those disturbances. Sometimes it’s magical/beautiful (werewolves or daydream-soaked lips). Then other times its devastating (assaults or being called a stupid fucking bitch).

JW: Talk to me about the tension in this collection. There are striking juxtapositions of innocence and fear—“ice cream melts / like a scream”—as well as moments when desire clashes with reality in irreconcilable ways: “I want to be murky and mysterious / but I lack the ability to shut  the fuck up”. The poems don’t seem to seek a resolution to tension, but rather to inhabit that space indefinitely. What do you hope readers find in that ongoing tension?

I’m a big fan of horror novels and movies. I love a good thriller–the building of a tense moment with sound, or chillingly the lack there of. Building tension with descriptions, color, mood. It interests me. It makes me feel a touch of exhilaration.

I love the idea of being a witness to great beauty, melancholy and ugliness. It’s like observing or looking for the truth. I’ve always felt some shame in the things that I have wanted, or the strangeness of myself. I hope that readers find space for themselves and feel kindred in the books and speakers’ strangeness. I hope they take away questions and maybe their own resolutions.

Can we be soft and full of ferocity? How do we handle dual sides of glitter and dirt?

I hope the tension is tangible for other readers. That they feel the floods and earth, run down a darkened alley way. Taste the whiskey burn, remember the smell of cigarette smoke. Contemplate how their lives are faerie tales.

JW: What are you working on next, either in poetry or other creative pursuits?

KL: I have so many ideas, I think I’m a little blocked right now! I have been trying to write poems connected to/inspired by ghost stories for a while. I hope to kick this writer’s block and sit in that world. However, for now I think that Oxblood is still holding me in its vessel a little bit longer.

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Kiara Nicole Letcher is the author of Scream Queen (The Orchard Street Press, 2019). She received her MFA from The University of Nebraska at Omaha in 2014 and previously served as a Board Member for the Nebraska Writer’s Collective. Her work has appeared in Green Mountains Review, Plainsongs Magazine, Solstice Literary Magazine, Querencia Press, Adelaide Magazine, Quiet Diamonds, and The Corpus Callosum. Her work is forthcoming in South Dakota Review and Laurel Review. She resides in Omaha, Nebraska. You can find her at her website, kiaranicoleletcher.com or on Instagram @kiaranicolebang.

Jessica L. Walsh is a poet and the blog mistress for Agape.