A Dress With Deep Pockets
Jen Feroze
smith | doorstop
As an overthinker, I found dedicating my own book a challenge - the dedication and the content were at odds with each other. What I really needed for it to make sense was either a more hopeful poetic voice, or perhaps worse parents.
In ‘A Dress With Deep Pockets’, Jen’s dedication is to her friends, and if a dedication can be read as part of the tone of the collection, this gets it exactly right.
Reading Jen’s work feels like having a cosy night in with a best friend. Part of this comes from the warmth and joy that is generously used to describe all the subjects of the poems. From the Boxing Day Swimmers ‘salt-brined, making joyous hams of their bodies’, to Stacey who has an ‘impulse to stroke every cat’, to Linda who is a ‘beefy operatic fable’ - they are all not only well-observed, but also treated with care and tenderness, with soft worlds built around them.
The poems are punctuated with gentle humour, such as ‘I open my mouth and my mother falls out’ and ‘I’ve got the good guacamole and everything’. While the overall tone of the poems keep their warmth and light, there is still a poignancy that hints at loss and sadness, such as the Hare Girl from the opening poem, who is ‘sleek, fleet and disappearing into the trees’, and a story of two friends laughing that might not be all it seems titled ‘While Waiting For The Test Results’. Further lyrical passages like ‘last night catches like lava and stars in my throat’ further cement Jen’s ability to swoop back and forth through these different registers.
Most of the poems take an open form, but Feroze is unafraid to experiment with more traditional structures too. Her golden shovel inspired by Joni Mitchell and her sestina, Gorge, are both confident and well-crafted, and let’s face it, writing a successful sestina is always a bit of a flex.
I have a fascination about which pop-culture references poets choose to use, especially those that are slightly removed from the mainstream. There’s something about how everyday experiences form the poet that is compelling. Eating Findus Crispy Pancakes with food critic Grace Dent, crying, is a great example this - a moment both oddly specific and broadly resonant. (One can only hope the pancakes were the original cheese or minced beef.)
This pamphlet was a winner of the Poetry Business Prize, and it certainly has wide appeal. It is vivid, emotionally intelligent, and frequently funny. I hope Grace does consider Jen’s friendship invitation - based on this collection, I think she’d be great fun.
Jen was kind enough to answer some questions about her pamphlet...
What was the first poem you wrote for this pamphlet? Did it set the tone for the rest?
A version of Paris and not Paris was the first poem (originally titled Ode to an old friendship and much longer and flabbier!) but I didn’t have the plan for the pamphlet in mind until much later. I think it was probably Gorge that really kickstarted the pamphlet - the desire to write on friendships and the villages of people we choose as we grow up.
How do you decide if something is poem-worthy?
If it won’t leave me alone! I usually carry little seedlings of ideas round in my head for ages before getting anything on paper. If there’s an image or an idea that doesn’t drift away amid the chaos of life and work and small-human wrangling, then it’s tenacious enough to be a poem.
Do you usually know what emotional tone a poem is going to take when you start writing, or does it surprise you?
By the time I’m ready to actually write, I usually have an idea of the tone and feeling I want to bring out, but sometimes a sudden flash of an idea or different turn of phrase can change things when I’m not expecting it.
There’s such a strong sense of tenderness in how you write about people - where do you think this comes from?
Thank you, I’m really happy that comes through in my work. I think I’m definitely a poet of people rather than of place, and it’s trying to capture lively portraits of people that I’m most often excited by. When those people are those I love, I can’t help but be led by tenderness - this pamphlet in particular is full of non-romantic love poems.
Have any of the people in your poems read them? What was their reaction?
I love this question. Yes, for this pamphlet where there’s a poem that’s directly about one person (rather than an amalgam of people and their various attributes and gifts and quirks), I’ve run the poem past them to check they’re happy about it being included.
Writing about real people is delicate, and I try and tread carefully where possible. Having said that, there are definitely some poems in my wider body of work that haven’t been shown to the people who inspired them, and that’s a conscious decision too. If I’m writing about something difficult involving another person, I’ll always try and cloak things enough that it wouldn’t cause hurt or harm. Poetry about relationships of any kind should never be about putting someone so glaringly or obviously under a spotlight as to expose them or make them feel uncomfortable. As poets we’ve got a million different tricks of language, imagery and form to make sure that doesn’t happen, even if the subject matter in question is a personal or painful one.
You’ve included a sestina and a golden shovel in the pamphlet - do you enjoy working with form?
Most of my poetry falls most naturally into free verse, but I do love the challenge that form presents, and I do find that in certain cases the constraints it entails are actually very freeing. Sestinas are a favourite of mine to play with, although I’d say it’s rare that I get one that feels good enough, and there is often much wailing and gnashing of teeth in bringing it together.
What’s a line or idea from the collection that you hope readers don’t miss?
From ‘While waiting for the test results’: Fluent in friendship in the face of it all.
This was the last poem I wrote for the pamphlet, and I think probably most neatly sums up the feeling I’m hoping to create throughout.
What do you do when a poem won’t behave?
Accept that this will be one of many many drafts, and remind myself that there’s no rush. Also I send it to my amazing writing group on Whatsapp for their wisdom. It’s wonderful what fresh eyes and different poetic approaches can do for a recalcitrant poem!