We're back with a Poet's Point of View blog post with Shannon Bramer, author of Nightmare Jones. In this series, we ask Anansi and Groundwood poets to recommend art, writing, music, and more to experience in tandem with their new collections.

Shannon Bramer is an author of poems, plays and short fiction. She has published Climbing Shadows: Poems for Children, illustrated by Cindy Derby; Robot, Unicorn, Queen: poems for you and me, illustrated by Irene Luxbacher (David Booth Children’s and Youth Poetry Award); and several poetry collections for adults, including Precious Energy and suitcases and other poems (Hamilton and Region Arts Council Book Award). She lives with her family in Toronto, Ontario.

Shannon Bramer, while reading your new poetry collection Nightmare Jones, what would you recommend as ...

One song to listen to: 

Strange Isabella, by Gillian Welch. I would love to see a Cindy Derby painting of this song. Isabella fits right in with the cast and crew of Nightmare Jones. Here’s a lovely little lyric for you: “What do I care about the cold? It’ll never freeze my tongue./What do I care about the rain? It never rains where I come from …”

One film to watch: 

Bad Seeds, written, directed and animated by Claude Cloutier — because it is one of the most spooky, imaginative and beautiful short films I’ve ever seen. Cloutier’s work is populated by portraits, anatomy and science, and he’s known for creating universes that are open to all possibilities. In an interview he once said, “I find mechanisms of transformation; everything is allowed in my films.”

One piece of art to look at: 

The Mermaid Statue, described as “… a living work of art carved and performed by The Stringpullers” (Linda Wingerter and a rotating roster of puppet artists from New York, Connecticut and Vermont, with studios in Ithaca, New York and New Haven, Connecticut). I love that The Mermaid is a living but stationary sculpture that engages with her audiences silently. When I was a child, I was obsessed with mermaids; the idea of being torn between two worlds — belonging to both and none at the same time. I wish I could meet The Mermaid and all The Stringpullers!

One meal to eat: 

Melancholy Mushroom Soup with Sage and Dragon’s Blood Syrup. You could omit the Dragon’s Blood Syrup, but I don't recommend it. I first tried this at my favorite restaurant in the underworld, Persephone’s. For the recipe, please check out my favorite chef on IG, @soupsidaisy — she’s got a lifelong relationship with Persephone’s and sometimes shares little secrets if you are kind-hearted. The current menu at Persephone’s can also be found inside Nightmare Jones, on page 37.    

Once quotation to read from another writer: 

“Poor Deer comes back at dusk. Her pelt is damp and sweaty. Her back is bent. Her neck, twisted. The hem of her blue robe is caked with mud as if she has traveled a long distance to return to me. Her eyes are hard black marbles. Her crown is made of sullen stars. Is she real? Does it matter? She is part of who I am.” from Poor Deer (a novel) by Claire Oshetsky

One place to plan to visit:

A deep, darkly wooded area, perhaps an abandoned cabin in a wild apple orchard, like the one in Daniel Mason's incredible novel, North Woods. I’d like to find a buried box of old poems and befriend the long-dead sisters who wrote them.  They would show me around their immense, rambling property, and the tour would conclude in the affectionately named and appropriately magical, Witch’s Garden. In the evening I’d make myself a roaring fire in the fireplace and enjoy the creaking noises of the cabin alongside the sound of singing and scratching animals outside.

One question to ask yourself or a friend:

Where are you supposed to be now?*

*This is a question Leonard Cohen was asked while visiting a friend at the Verdun Mental Hospital in Montreal in the early 1960s.