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Poet Penny Sommervaille, a stalwart of the Auckland arts scene for many years, launched her first poetry collection on September 1. Like the author, the book is full of sweetly subversive, self deprecating pieces rolled in deadpan wit. Renee Liang talks to her friend and fellow poet.

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How long have you been writing poetry?

About 20 years

Why do you write? What do you write?

I write to find out what I am writing about and to explore what it is I am thinking. 

Education vs experience: what is more valuable to a writer?

Ideally experience underpinned by education. Education by itself is just like a dictionary. A parent on the TV the other day said she liked this very avant garde new primary school in Hobsonville, because it gave the children skills – I think she was referring to computer etc. skills, but I have been pondering on whether skills without any knowledge, or education is what we should want for our children. What about the ability to think and debate? Or is that a skill?  That is a bit of digression.

You are one of the best-connected people I know in the Auckland arts scene. Has it changed much over the years?

Oh yes, the arts scene in Auckland has changed enormously. The number of people who go to galleries, theatre, poetry, movies has increased along with the venues providing all these. Look at the increased number of young playwrights and poets and writers who can present their work to an interested, curious and critical audience. The arts scene is very vibrant, despite the complaints of young emerging students that it is too hard to break in. It should be hard, otherwise the quality and standards would drop away.  Anyway the proliferation of self published and performed work has increased without any editorial input often. My own work has been edited and workshopped.

What inspires your poems? Are they random thoughts, or quite ordered impulses?

Random thoughts, some in response to a demand from a workshop to produce something. Sometimes an overheard remark, sometimes a painting or stupidly worded news item.

How did you choose the poems for small decisions (were they small decisions?)

Choosing was pretty hard, as I was very certain my work wasn’t worth publishing, so I gradually assembled a collection of poems which people like Janet (Charman) told me I should put into a collection. Much of my work is performance so the idea of it being put on the page was hard to grasp. My poems aren’t ‘real poetry’, they are spoken. Then there was the ordering, and Makyla (Curtis) was brilliant at this. I just trusted her as it was in the too-hard basket for me.

Tell me about the process of working with your editor.

I was very lucky to have Makyla as my final editor. We agreed on almost everything. I have huge respect for her design abilities, etc. as well as her poetic advice. Before her I had editorial advice from Janet Charman. Between you and me, she often wanted my work to go into places I wasn’t interested in or prepared to tackle, but she was always encouraging and positive.

How have you found the self publishing process? would you recommend it?

I found the self-publishing experience fine, but then I don’t call myself a self-publisher. I relied entirely on Makyla  and her expertise in the publishing world on paper, print, layout, and formal stuff. I would just say yes, yes I will do it, and then it was all too hard!

What has been the response to the book?

The response has been amazing. I knew that people enjoyed my spoken word at PoLive, etc. but have been very overwhelmed by the response from strangers and people who think they don’t understand poetry.

What are you working on next?

Not working on anything. People say illness and challenged changes to lifestyle bring out all sorts of words -  not in me. I have hardly written a word. I have to say I was astonished a month or so ago when I had a thought. Just a thought, can’t remember what it was, but I recognized it as something I had lost, but it is returning. It’s a bit like coming out of a long mostly unhappy marriage and suddenly recognizing myself as the person I was before I tried to adapt myself to meet the expectations of someone else. I haven’t ventured out to anything poetic, dramatic or even films (until last night) yet. But it will happen I feel. There were times when I never thought I would be able to resume anything of my previous life. Age and mushy bones will always restrict me to a certain extent.