JNV

hat is a poem?  What is poetry?  Those are questions of  which with no doubt, are highly debatable.  Many have their own interpretation of what a poem is.  Or even, how a poem should read, or how it should sound. 

Most of us know what we think a poem should be, or what type of  material should be contained within a poem.  On the other hand, most of us have no idea what poetry really is. 

We base our thoughts and ideas of poetry on what we were taught at an early age.  “Poetry is a means of exchange.  A form of reciprocity, a magic to be shared, a gift.  There has never been a civilization without it”.  Writing poetry takes a certain level of concentration.  It demands from the writer to be precise in ones thoughts and use of language.  So why write poetry and who writes poetry?  These are questions we will embark on during this SM Exclusive with Poet ‘JNV’. 

J.N. Vermont, also known as “JNV” was born on June 17th, 1984 in East York.  He is a poet.  A poet at heart and in the true sense.  His poems display not only exceptional imagery, they behold a certain power and depth.  JNV will tell you that the ink on the pages of his poems, “come from his sweat and tears”.  I will tell you that they come from his blood, sweat and tears.  Influences in his work have primarily been obtained from his own life experiences as a youth - a teenager, and eventually from the man he is today.   Poetry is one of the oldest art forms.  Young poets may take the life lived on TV or in a movie and write about it as if it were their own.  Not JNV.  JNV lives, and has lived the experiences he writes in his poems.  His expressions and feelings in his work are real and his poems are meant to be heard. 

Much of your inspiration to write poetry comes from the experiences in your life. What age were you when you realized you had the ability to pen your thoughts?

I must have been around six or seven when I wrote a song for my Dad, he was always going to church and singing everywhere he went. Around age twelve and thirteen we used to have to stand up and read our own stories in front of the class.

Truth is Ii loved it cuz it was an opportunity to make the other kids laugh, sometimes incorporating slang which was considered taboo under other circumstances. In Reading Comprehension we would be doing some assignment and I would be thinking about ways to make the stories more interesting, how I could have done it better.

At this age, was poetry an outlet for you?

I started writing poetry on a more serious tip in Grade nine, having difficulty relating to most of the other kids in school. I hadn't grown up with a TV and everyone else was talking 'bout the Simpson's, Friends, BET, and Dawson's Creek. I had no idea who Bart, AJ., Ross, or Free were so Poetry was definitely a big escape from the reality I was dealing with unable to socialize in grade nine.

Very interesting! Most teenagers spend most of their time watching TV and playing video games. Your not having a TV provided you time to spend with your mind and your thoughts.

Looking back now, how valuable was this time for you, in terms of your ability to learn to exercise your mind?

If I had kids, Iwould raise them the exact same way. I didn't watch G.I. Joe on TV, i read the comic books, along with Gordon Korman, Louis L'Amour, and Ira Levin. I couldn't play video games but I could hit a bird on a wing with a crossman better than most people can a clay pigeon with a shottie.

Growing up without a TV forced us as kids to be more creative to have fun, we couldn't watch adventure on a screen, we had to create it. Bored? Draw, write, paint, play Leggo or Mechano, hunt each other with Nerf, or play cards, but you had to either use your talents or use your brain. Played so much Chess, Risk, Old Maid, and Monopoly we could beat most grown-ups as little kids.

Life without TV drew us together as a family but it made us less sociable, my closest friend was my brother, so it obviously had its negative side effects.When i got mad at him i couldn't exactly say 'your Mom' or 'Suck yu mumma'. the life we lived as kids was rich like good chocolate even though we hardly saw money with Dad scrambling to make ends meet.

Language is a vital part of poetry composure. How does a poet choose the right words for the poems they write?

Language... Language impacts the poem so much, it is solely responsible for a poem's authenticity. I don't speak French, Spanish, or Italian but I am fluent in Jamaican-Canadian, can understand Torontonian, and have the ability to switch to rural if the need arises.

If I'm writing from the perspective of a cowboy I have to use a word choice that excludes any language used after the 1890's, language is always relative to perspective.

A politician speaks very differently than a rabbi or a construction worker, so I have to remember who's eyes i am seeing things through when putting my thoughts down, whether its through my own or someone else's.

You've won various awards in many regions, including an award honoring the best student writer in Ontario, as well as Toronto. What was it like for you to be recognized for your work?

Winning the Marion Drysdale award felt great, but you can never settle on your accomplishments. You might be on TV yesterday but you're forgotten tomorrow.

Writing is not like boxing, what establishes you as a writer is about what you can produce today. You got writer's block? Tough luck, that's your own problem.

After winning the Provincial award, I kept expecting some publishing company to come scout me. Well it doesn't work like that, got to produce and then market and promote yourself.

Self promotion often times is very difficult, time consuming and sometimes costly. How have you been able to accomplish this?

On that self promotion tip, not really. Matter of fact I sort of waisted time and lost money. I would definitely have to say at this point Streetmusiq is the biggest place where my voice is being heard, nuff respect there. Bullet!!

In accepting these awards, have they inspired even further?

Yeah the awards did do a lot to boost my confidence in myself. And it wasn't one time, I'd keep winning more and more, realizing that it wasn't a fluke, I had some sort of talent. It made me realize that the distance to the top is no further than how far you are willing to climb.

Do you have plans to write and publish a book?

I did write a poetry/prose book that i sold out the back of my trunk. The local Chapter's bookstore said they would sell it on consignment and wanted me to do a book signing. Now me, I was feeling them on that fronting tip. This was late July '06. Well I told them I would have the time in September and we could set a date later, they said that was cool.

So then i started promoting myself letting everyone know where it was at and when i checked for it the next day I couldn't find it on their shelf. They told me it would take a few days to get it in their system, next week I would see it in Canadian Poetry. Well after a month went by of promotion I checked up on Chapter's again, and the book still wasn't there. Made me look like a liar, telling people to pick it up in the bookstore. I had people calling from T-dot asking for it and a radio show lined up for publicity.

Well when I went to the manager and asked her what was going on she said that I hadn't done the book signing, we needed a new contract. I told her it wasn't September yet, and she said she needed a book signing b4 she would shelve the books. Got me upset the way they were changing the story on me so I told her to just give me back my books. They were in the back somewhere, dusty already but it was the principle of the matter. A least they didn't try to jack me.

Would this be a book of poems or some other form of writing?

Man, I'm working on a lot of different stuff at the moment, short stories, poetry, songs, and an auto-bio too. I send out to a lot of publishing companies, but they never write me back except once. They wanted ME to pay THEM for printing my work. That response was not the most encouraging, but at least they replied.

Most publishing companies aren't really interested in writers if their name isn't Judy Blume, Sidney Sheldon, Stephen King, or Chaim Potok,etc. They consider anyone new to the scene as a gamble and the bigger heads in every area of life- from the music industry to politicians- never go out on a limb for people because they are simply too concerned with their own safety.

It's very disconcerting, people talk about links but talk is cheap. Then when you get a lil' food they wanna be the first to eat. Between school, the cost of living, and spare-time I still scribble down words in rhyme.

Speaking in terms of writing, how different is it writing poems versus writing lyrics to a song?

For me, writing a song is more complicated than a poem because when you write a song you write it for a specific type of singer or rapper, and everybody pronounces words differently. If I'm writing a song for or with somebody, I like to have them right there beside me so I can be in tune to their emotions, so I can see through there eyes and speak through their mouth.

There is nothing worse than somebody singing about issues that they know nothing about... there is an element of fidelity which must be incorporated for me to appreciate art. Eg.- A virgin prairie girl whose seen nothing but wheat fields rapping about selling rock just isn't cool, it's a mockery. The song is a part of the person even if they didn't write it, and making that song yours for you can be difficult if I can't see or hear you. Gotta keep it real.