Five Easy Questions with Rachel O’Neill
The Book Council’s Rachel O’Neill has been bringing us the low-down on writers, poets and editors with Five Easy Questions for over two years. On the publication of her debut poetry collection, One Human in Height, we’ve turned the tables and put her in the hot seat.
1. How would you describe One Human in Height in a few
words?
Hard to categorise, in the legal sense.
2. David Ignatow said of his shift to prose poetry: ‘So I decided: Cut loose and give
emphasis to the imagination rather than to the line. By “imagination” I mean also the
intelligence within the imagination, giving the intelligence its opportunity to explore
the imagination as far as it will go.’ What draws you to prose
poetry?
I like to think that a prose poem is a kind of kidnapper. It gets the reader to ask ‘where are
you taking me’ right from the start, probably because of its square or rectangular shape as a
block of text, and its ‘promise’ of narrative, which could induce excitement or anxiety or
hopefulness. I like how the quote above gives intelligence (within the imagination) its due. I
think a confessional intelligence is a wonderful companion to a confessional heart. I tend to
want the intelligence and emotion to be at work equally in a poem. Because of this I’m asking
the reader to work hard sometimes too, so from the structural level through to the surface
surprises or flourishes I need to know what work belongs to who: me, the poet, and you, the
reader. Writing prose poetry is challenging on so many levels, and I like a challenge.
3. Many of the characters inhabiting this collection are ‘family’, albeit of an almost
mythic, timeless kind. Would your own family recognise themselves in your
poems?
Someone said to me the other day that there are a lot of fathers in this collection, and it’s
true. My father probably only accounts for five per cent of the father quota (if he’s lucky!),
however. I’m drawn to exploring experiences that are likely common, or universal, but also a bit
odd or extraordinary, so perhaps that’s where all the mythic family members come in. I also hope
that the families in this book are diverse, and grappling with different kinds of strangeness. A
wider concern of the book is how we describe ordinary experience and also extraordinary
experience. What are the situations in which we become strange to ourselves, or others? I guess,
on a mythological as well as ordinary level, a family can either be a centre for intimacy and
understanding, or it can challenge that. There’s lots of tragic and comic scope there.
4. The book contains drawings from your series called ‘Love
Letters to Barbara Cartland’. How does being an artist influence your poetry or vice
versa?
It sounds a bit lame but I just like telling stories. Visual and written forms are geared toward
storytelling, but they don’t offer you any security about what storytelling actually is, or what
it could be. I like the challenge of that, as much as I like the challenge of trying to describe
experience in a way that a lot of people can relate to, but that also lends freshness to our
habits of looking and thinking.
5. How tall are you?
I once read a book on the feminist tarot, which described a woman as ‘tall on the inside’. I
like that description, perhaps because I’m the shortest person in my family and it still gives
me hope that I might still be able to grow in some way. My little sister long ago started
calling me her little sister. I’m about 5ft 8″ (on the outside).
Rachel O’Neill is a poet, writer and artist. She is also the Communications Manager for the Book Council. One Human in Height, published by Hue and Cry, is her first book. You can find out more on her website.
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