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QaR
December 2009 
Interviewing Amy, the poetess yet to be ;-)
Goddess2day
Interview with Amy Ramdass, author of the poem, "I'm a woman." Angie Feliz: What inspired you to write this poem?
Amy: Hmm. Most likely my mother. Well, to be totally accurate, it wasn’t one particular experience or person that inspired me to write this poem but bits and pieces of everyone and everything that orbited my world. One of the ingredients probably came from Maya Angelou’s Phenomenal Woman. The others were born from impressions left by the past and the recognition that the time has come for us women to rise above our destined roles in life, to come together as one unit, to support each other so we’re better equipped to nurture our men and also our weak and young for a better working society.
AF: What did you feel when writing this poem?
Amy: Powerful? Bold? Courageous? Heroic? Ha ha. In any case, it was a great feeling being able to draw a picture with words to symbolize a deep yearning of the feminine soul.
AF: Did you do any further research?
Amy: There was no need for further research. This poem, like snowflakes, had already settled onto the grounds of my heart…..so maybe all I had to do was to scoop it up and mold the material into a certain shape or form.
Amy: Looking back it felt as if I started writing poems without realizing that was what I was doing. The first poem I wrote was probably when I was about seven or eight. I had lost a pet and the only way to deal with this tremendous grief was to pour this feeling out unto paper and then file it away. My early poems were really to immortalize a happy memory of someone no longer in this realm. Only one of my earlier poems was not about some dead thing or the other and that one was called “Cricket Fun”. It was written for and published by a local publication which was compiling poems from most schools in my country.
Amy: Bitterness? (Laughing) Why does a volcano express itself through an eruption of molten lava? Why not erupt in lotus flowers? What makes the mud expresses itself through the lotus blossom? Why not bloom molten lava? I suppose volcanoes erupt when pressure is too much below, when things need to re-adjust and perhaps the physical mud blooms in lotus flowers because the state of its mentality is in the pink of spiritual perfection or it merely blooms lotus to keep the balance. However, humans are universal beings so when it comes to expressing ourselves, there are numerous ways, animalistic, volcanic or soft and sweet like a lotus bloom.
Similarly, when there is unbearable pressure in an area of our universe, a poet will feel this imbalance but why express herself only in molten lava? And isn’t it more effective to become mud-like and bloom lotus in such a volcanic way that the world will sit up and take notice that we’re out of balance, out of sync?
AF: Are you a feminist?
Amy: (lol). Me? Oh, no, no, no. Oh, wait. What is a feminist? Is she a woman who sticks her neck out for other women when they are not being treated fairly and equally? Well, yes, the feminist exists in me as she does in all women. And I’m also one of those women who stick her neck out for men when they are being ill treated and taken advantage of by women. However, that said, I don’t really see the need to be a feminist in today’s society. And ‘sides why worry about that at all, the feminist is just another aspect of women who will rise like a tidal wave when the situation calls for it...
Amy: I enjoy writing all types of poems but find myself writing mostly lyrical, romanticism and rhymes. I am certain that nursery rhymes must have seeped into my soul at a tender age. You see, I happen to believe that we are all born with everything but the environment is what makes us, stimulates us, shape us through early impacts with such a force that a particular artist will emerge from within.
Amy: I’m drawn to all genres when it comes to reading material. (My early life depended upon this for survival) If it’s completely different from what I write, you bet I will be highly curious to delve into it.
AF: Does this poem fit your personality?
Amy: Oh, yes, everything I write, form or create is in line with my personality.
AF: Do you consider yourself to be a Goddess?
Amy: (laughing) All women are goddesses and a Goddess is all women in one. A woman is a goddess whether she’s aware she is universal being or not. And as for the aware woman, she may be considered a danger to society for she may appear fearless and seemingly without barriers and yet, she’s the safest person to be around for she’s in full control, one who has made herself at home on that thin line between dark and light. She is more than the roles nature mapped out for her and yes, she’s all womanly, dammit and woman means we’re goddess, the woman of a hundred roles who enjoys fulfilling her obligations and debts to nature and society. She knows that day will come when the world will not see her through the many roles she plays but only one word shall come to mind and that is, “goddess”. But for now, it does not matter for she has already unleashed herself in full. She has already earned her rightful title :)
AF: What is your preferred writing method?
Amy: If I have time, I prefer using what I call the “snowfall” method. I wait for all the information to gather itself on the ground of my mind or heart and then I take the material and mold it into a poem. If I don’t have time, then of course I have to head out into the forest to pluck all the information I need.
Amy: I see women in today’s society as being on top. (laughing) Literally and figuratively. But then again, when has women not been on top? When has women not had the upper hand? I am truly not that worried about our women but more concerned about our men. They are the ones in current need of protection and nurturing and perhaps my poem below was not directed at our men at all but mostly at my fellow women who don’t support each other as much as WE should.
AF: Do you have a special ritual that you go through when preparing to write?
Amy: Hmm, let’s see. First comes an inspiration and that could be from anything, a thought, a scene, a feeling. I let it simmer for a bit until the urge to create something to beautify a boring spot comes to full blaze. Next, I would begin gathering my material jut like a florist would select certain flowers or stems to make a bouquet. And ta dah, this is just the thing, I happen to see a poem as a word bouquet or an arrangement of words.
Amy: Defintely rhyming style :) It keeps the memory awake and alert.
From the depths of the core A yearning desire to be more Originally cut out to be me...simply me Yet a goddess stirs within me Whatever I am or will never be... |
Access: Public
