Anna van Valkenburg: Inside the Pearl is a beautiful tribute to the Joy Kogawa House, and to Canadian history. How did you get the idea for this project?
Jude Neale: A good question. I had done a couple of launches there and loved the intimate atmosphere. It was a place where time had stopped. At my last reading there, Kevin Spenst was writer in residence and I got very curious about staying in this living, breathing house. During the Pandemic I too was given the chance to live there. Months before I went I knew what I wanted to do—document the house and its contents with poems and take pictures of everything. I had even named it Inside the Pearl. The house had a presence, a light I wanted to capture. And I so wanted to do it for Joy Kogawa.
AV: The poems in this book are of course descriptive, but there’s much more there. Each poem has a deeper historical and/or emotional connection. Why did you choose a haiku-inspired form for this book?
JN: Looking back I know it was plain ignorance. I thought haiku was a Japanese form that would suit the project. I found out after my first draft that the nearly sixty poems were not haiku. 5/7/5 wasn’t going to get me anywhere, so within six months of research nationally and internationally, I think I finally had an inkling about what a haiku might be. That is why I call them haiku inspired—a gesture, a glimpse.
AV: What is the role of poetry in shaping history (does it have one)?
Poetry has shaped history from Homer to Ferlinghetti. I believe as poets, history makes up our poems both quiet and loud. In my book, the Canadian Japanese internment during and after the Second World War is subtly woven throughout.
AV: In the preface you mention that Joy Kogawa creates a “bridge to truth for all peoples” through her writing. Can you elaborate? How does this connect to your mission for writing this book?
JN: Joy Kogawa took on the establishment and quietly determined to seek justice for all Japanese Canadians interned in the Second World War. In her 1981 book, Obasan, she writes of her experience of being in the Slocan, through a child’s eyes. This single book was a revelation to many like myself. It was so lovingly written, it impacted me greatly. Gentleness, love and light shone in that book. Joy was not embittered but empowered to demand justice despite the huge Canadian complacency. This is what I hope to bring to the world too. Light and beauty and truth.
AV: Since this is truly a book about the Joy Kogawa House: 1) what was your favourite part about (or of) the house? 2) Which poem from the book is your favourite? 3) Which photograph?
JN: I slept in little Joy’s bedroom on a small bed just so I could see the sun move across the room like when she was little. To look up at the ceiling and realize she had gazed there too or listen to the even breathing of my husband in the other room just as she had listened to her parents. It was magical!
My favourite poem is:
swoops of laughter
pour over quiet voices
bell song fills corners
And my favourite photograph is of a pitcher and a washbasin. Paul Hooson gave it an Old Master’s look, with the hue of wood and the white gleam of the pitcher.
AV: What did a typical writing day at Joy Kogawa House look like?
JN: That’s funny to think of now. It was the week after the first pandemic lock down was over. We were jubilant! So I got out of bed and drank four cups of tea before I started to scrutinize a room for objects to write about. Every two hours I’d have another pot of tea. Then write, look at photos until about 8 pm. Then we would go to all the empty restaurants for dinner. A very fine life indeed!
AV: What are you currently working on?
JN: I completed my eleventh book, The Flaw, this spring and am almost finished my twelfth, an art and poetry collaboration as yet untitled.
