Rob Taylor
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Rob Taylor lived in Accra, Ghana in 2006-07, and currently lives in Vancouver, British
Columbia. He is the co-founder and editor of One Ghana, One Voice , Ghana's only
poetry magazine. More of his poems can be found on his blog, spread it like a roll of
nickels.
Columbia. He is the co-founder and editor of One Ghana, One Voice , Ghana's only
poetry magazine. More of his poems can be found on his blog, spread it like a roll of
nickels.
- Emmanuel Sigauke Interviews Rob Taylor
ES: You are the editor of a powerful online poetry journal that publishes works by Ghanaians and other African poets.
What prompted you to co-found One Ghana, One Voice? How has your work with OGOV poets contributed to your
own writing?
RT: I don't know how powerful OGOV is, but it's good to see we're held in high regard by someone!
I was prompted to found OGOV after my first meeting with Julian Adomako-Gyimah in Accra in February, 2007. I had been
living in Accra since September of the previous year and had yet to find anyone who was interested in poetry in Ghana. I had
come to Ghana with high hopes, knowing that Ghana had a history of producing strong poets (Kofi Awoonor, Kobena Eyi
Acquah, etc.) and of producing literary magazines. Unfortunately, I found that far less was happening in 2006-07 than was
happening twenty or thirty years before, when Ghanaian poetry was at its high-water mark. Julian, having lived in Ghana most
of his life, was already quite aware of the problem. So when I met with Julian, we were both keen to do something to help
rebuild the infrastructure needed for a strong poetry community, and OGOV was born.
As for the question of how OGOV has influenced my writing, I would say that it has helped me keep focused. It's very easy
when writing in North America (I am now living back in Vancouver, BC) to get so caught up in the craft of writing a poem that
you forget why you started writing that poem in the first place. Who are you trying to reach? With what message? For what
purpose? These aren't questions North American poets consider often enough, but questions that are first on the minds of most
Ghanaian poets. I try to make sure that my poems are as direct and vivid and vital as that which the top young Ghanaian poets
produce.
ES: Your poems here make reference to Ghana. What effect has travel had on your poetry? Is Ghana a sort of second
home for you or your personae?
These poems were all written while I was living in Ghana. As a writer I am very bound to place, both in the sense that I write
about what I experience around me and that I write for the people around me. Generally, this has meant that I have written
about Canadian experiences for a Canadian audience.
Travel breaks me of that habit of writing locally. Not only do I see new things and discover new ways to write, but I am forced
to adjust my audience - to write for Ghanaians as well as Canadians. My challenge, then, is to make my poems both accessible
to those not familiar with the images, and interesting to those who are (I hope I have succeeded with these three!). More
fundamentally, travel both enriches and complicates my understanding of the world, which can only have good effects on my
poetry!
As for Ghana as a second home, yes, for sure. I doubt that Ghanaian themes and images will dominate my writing indefinitely
(though who knows, I did not write a single poem about my experiences in China until two years after I returned to Canada),
but the lessons I learned about writing and living while in Ghana will stay with me for the rest of my life.
ES: I know you are involved in many writing projects, some of which include promoting the art of others. Can you
talk in detail about these projects?
The first and foremost of these projects, of course, is OGOV. An online magazine, every week we profile a new poet who is
either Ghanaian or writing about Ghana, featuring one of their poems. We've been running since March 2007 and have featured
over 40 poets, 70% of whom are Ghanaian residents. It's been nice to see that even though I couldn't find them while I was
looking in 2006, in fact there are many Ghanaian poets out there!
Beyond OGOV, I also co-founded Simon Fraser University's student print poetry magazine, High Altitude Poetry, in 2004,
which I helped maintain for four years. HAP, which is still going strong, has been able to publish dozens of poets, and for many
of them HAP has been their first publication. HAP was my first foray into poetry publication, and in many ways it provided me
with the training that I needed to set up and run OGOV.
In addition to these major products, for the past year I have been the poetry editor at Red Fez. It's a great online magazine of
poetry and fiction, and I encourage everyone to check it out (http://redfez.net).
ES: What can you tell us about your chapbooks splattered earth and Child of Saturday?
splattered earth came out in 2006, and features 10 poems I wrote after traveling in China in the Summer of 2002. Child of
Saturday is a brand new chapbook of poems from Ghana. I'm pretty excited about it as it will allow me to promote OGOV a bit
here in Canada. Included with each chapbook is a free broadside with poems by two Ghanaian poets, Vida Ayitah and Edith
Faalong, to help better promote both their work and the work of OGOV in general.
If anyone is interested in either chapbook, I encourage them to visit my website (http://roblucastaylor.com), where they can
find out more and - if so inspired - place an order!
ES: What do you think is the value of a blog to a poet? Do you blog your poetry? Related to this, what do you think of
the growing trend of online chapbook publications?
Poets' blogs often serve useful functions as community-building devices also, allowing poets to share work, promote events,
and even get into an argument or two (ok, they're mostly for getting into arguments).
That said, I don't blog my poetry the way you do, Emmanuel. You're prolific! I have however posted 40 or so poems on my
blog over the years, mostly after they have appeared in other publications. I really love having my poems included in small, local
print magazines, but I also know that the audience they will be available to will be limited, so a blog proves valuable in expanding
the audience for my poems.
As for online chapbooks, I think that when done well they can be quite beautiful and easy on the eyes. And, of course, they
have the potential to reach a much broader audience. That said, despite all the web-based publishing I coordinate, I still think
that nothing beats the text on the page. I once reviewed a chapbook by Canadian poet Jesse Ferguson that had both print and
online versions, and I found it far easier for me to engage with the former than the latter. While online publishing reaches more
people, I don't believe it connects with readers as deeply as print publishing.
This is one reason why I think OGOV is far from adequate for serving the needs of Ghanaian poets and poetry lovers - print
journals are a must! But for now, we do what we can with the resources we have, eh?
ES: Is there anything else you would like to add?
I just want to thank you for the work you do here at Munyori, and for the assistance you've been able to provide through your
interactions with OGOV. This is a great site and I look forward to it growing even stronger in the months and years ahead.
| Rob Taylor's Poetry and Images |
image 1
home with the catch
the shore swarms
color and light
slippery hands
lift, toss,
place in thick baskets
in the distance
above the breakwater
ant-like boys
pursue a football,
antennae wobbling
in the breeze.
© Rob Taylor
home with the catch
the shore swarms
color and light
slippery hands
lift, toss,
place in thick baskets
in the distance
above the breakwater
ant-like boys
pursue a football,
antennae wobbling
in the breeze.
© Rob Taylor
Photo: Cape Coast, Ghana. ©Marta Taylor
photo of carpenters at work, taken through the window of a
speeding trotro
Astounding how the camera captures what to me is only a blur,
reveals an image as sharp as my fingernails, smooth as my palm –
cracked lines appearing, interlacing, trailing away,
studied casually, with focused eyes.
© Rob Taylor
Photo: Cape Coast, Ghana © Marta Taylor
Estuary
The Volta is bloated and still
in the moments before it tastes
the sting, as though for the first
time doubting its desire to once
again be a small part of something
much larger, a feeling we share
as we lift our paddles and let
an invisible current drag us steadily
into the estuary, which opens before us,
shrouded in the fragile silence of
the early evening and shimmering blue -
unlike the mouth of the Fraser
where planes scream into the sky
packed with passengers destined for
places we have all dreamed of,
flying in insistent, straight lines
over the curving planet - the
mountains and valleys of our birth -
their hands folded gently on their laps.
© Rob Taylor
The Volta is bloated and still
in the moments before it tastes
the sting, as though for the first
time doubting its desire to once
again be a small part of something
much larger, a feeling we share
as we lift our paddles and let
an invisible current drag us steadily
into the estuary, which opens before us,
shrouded in the fragile silence of
the early evening and shimmering blue -
unlike the mouth of the Fraser
where planes scream into the sky
packed with passengers destined for
places we have all dreamed of,
flying in insistent, straight lines
over the curving planet - the
mountains and valleys of our birth -
their hands folded gently on their laps.
© Rob Taylor
Photo: Ada, Ghana. © Marta Taylor