Jan Napier

Zebras and Storm

Lightning mosquitoes earthskin

as electric equines
barred and pumped

reflect and flash

trample the ogres

of everyday.


Interview

TSTmpj:  Your vivid depiction of a storm suggests to me that you have been personally affected by some wild weather.  Is this so?  Is the poem based on any specific storm?

Jan Napier:  I live two streets back from the Indian Ocean. The wildness and power of winter storms brings out a mix of exhilaration and fear. Watching a silver storm cell coming in, seeing the leading edge of the rain, a sea whipped and bruleed by Westerly gales, is to know that you’re blood leapingly alive. So no particular storm. Rather all of them.

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TSTmpj:  We all, necessarily, experience everyday routine as an "ogre" from time to time.  How do you cope with routine in life?  Is your own poetry writing a routine, or sporadic, depending on inspiration hitting?

Jan Napier:  Routine is an ogre at present. A year ago I broke both my wrists, and also have a frozen shoulder as a direct corollary. The frustration and helplessness engendered by this situation, made me pretty ogrish too. My days are still dictated by work, and medical appointments.  And of course my physical limitations. Such narrow constraints. As a consequence, my poetry has to fit in wherever it can. Not quite the priority I would like to afford it.

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TSTmpj:  The poem alludes to the fact that nature can be transformative to the human psyche.  Is it the bigger, more spectacular things, or the smaller, quieter manifestations of nature, that you draw on most in your poetry?

Jan Napier:  To be honest, it’s nature in all its multifaceted glory which attracts me as a writer (as well as a person). I love that line about nature "in all its infinite variety." Who could live and be happy in a world without trees, or spring rains, or pets?

Bio Note

Jan Napier has had work published in SpeedPoets, Famous Reporter, plus other journals.  She also writes reviews for on-line zine Antipodean SF.