Hello beautiful, creative people!
We recently sat down with Niamh Murphy, our poet of the month for February. We had a fascinating chat about the inspirations and influences behind her poetry, and how she’s keeping motivated to write during lockdown. We also introduce her to a celebrity!
Below are some snippets:
If you had to give a recommendation of a poet to someone to read or listen to, who would be your go-to? I’m sure there are many!
Yeah, there are quite a few, but for me personally it's always Rupi Kaur, the Canadian poet. She's kind of the person that first drew me into poetry as a genre. I picked up her book Milk and Honey
and I found that I resonated to so much in it. So I bought her books, and then I started to watch her live performances on YouTube. The way she presents them is so beautiful, because she's normally stood in a circle of flowers around her and she's quite minimalistic with it.
Definitely give her spoken word performances a watch because she's brilliant!
Would you say that you draw a lot of inspiration for your own poetry from Rupi Kaur?
Yeah, most definitely. I think just the way that she delivers her poetry, it's so soothing. And because her poetry is similar to mine, very emotionally focused I think there is that delivery where you're almost quite patient and kind and gentle with the words, because the topics that you're talking about are quite raw. I think that soothing delivery has definitely come from her.
How are you finding writing and creating in lockdown?
I think, probably similar to you and similar to everyone that writes you sort of get inspired by everyday life. You could even have a conversation with someone and then it could just kick start something in your brain and you get the motivation to suddenly write something, and obviously, at the moment in the UK, life feels like it's on a bit of a pause. So that's been a bit of a difficult one because I haven't necessarily got new experiences that are inspiring different pieces of writing.
But the time that I've had, especially isolating at the moment, it's almost encouraged me to have a lot of reflection time and I had to spend a lot of time in my own company. So that's been my catalyst for writing at the moment.
I've channelled that time quite positively and it's just made me think about some scenarios or emotions that perhaps in everyday life I'd sort of pushed to the back because I'm keeping busy. So I think the writing that I'm doing at the moment is quite genuine and very raw.
I always find that when I'm writing it's a real cathartic outlet. I'm not necessarily too worried about the end piece, it's more the process that I enjoy. Is that similar for you?
I love the process, it’s almost is like therapy for yourself and if you speak to writers they will say that writing is the best therapy. If I have an emotion that's sat in me and I don't like how it feels and I just want to get it out, I'm going to start writing something and I'm chipping away and editing it. And I almost feel like I step into a whole other world for those few hours or even days that I write, it's a bit of an out-of-body experience.
Describe your writing style in five words or less.
Oh, that's a good one! Free, gentle, genuine, emotional, and sensitive.
If you had a message to give to the world, what would it be?
I would want the world to know right now that writing is such an important creative outlet, and even if you wouldn't consider yourself a writer, that doesn't matter. If you have thoughts and feelings are sort of spinning around your head or sitting on your chest then pick up a paper and pen, and even if you just start writing out random words that make no sense! I would just encourage writing, especially in the time that we're living in at the moment when everything seems a bit scrambled and the outside world seems less available to us.
If you want to hear the rest of Niamh’s thoughts the full interview is on YouTube here, and you can find Niamh on Instagram (@poetrybyniamh).
