Lover of Latin America and all things Spanish (and French), our very own Mr Piesse has just launched his debut collection of poetry.

Olas – which translates as ‘waves’ from the Spanish, is a collection of 14 poems, each with a dreamlike lyrical quality inspired by travelling through Latin America from Lake Titicaca in Bolivia to the Pacific coast of Ecuador.

You can hear Mr Piesse reading from his book here: while below in this Q&A we find out more about what inspired Mr Piesse to produce this collection.

When did you start writing poems? Why?

I can’t remember exactly when, but I have always been particularly drawn to this form of expression, which feels personal, succinct, free and quite raw. I think poetry is like music, in its unique combination of melody and rhythm. Like music, poetry also has an elemental quality, the potential to transport the reader to a deeper, more authentic place, which you hope, as a poet, connects the reader to something universal.  Growing up, I would always take a note-book wherever we were travelling, whether to Corfu or Cuba, so I suppose I started writing from my early teens.  My former English teacher, Peter Holmes, used to read poetry to us by wonderful poets  – Philip Larkin, Thomas Hardy, Stevie Smith, Malcolm Guite-  with great skill and flamboyance, often almost singing them.  When I read French and Spanish at university, I explored some of the great 19th century French poets – Baudelaire, Hugo, Mallarmé – and Spanish and Spanish American poets, such as Pablo Neruda, Carlos Fuentes and Borges, which created an impression on me.  Another key influence was a former colleague of mine, a talented linguist, teacher and youth worker, called Wlodek, who was also an accomplished poet.  He wrote sparkling and often witty poems in French, English and Polish.  His collection ‘Love, Tea and DNA’  is always in the top drawer of my desk, wherever I work.  

What inspired you to put pen to paper to create this collection?

I was fortunate to work and travel in Latin America just before the millennium – I know, I am that old!  It was the first time I had travelled outside Europe and the first time I had lived and worked in a place so rich in history and culture.  I shared experiences of living and working in Ecuador and travelling south to the northern tip of Chile with a girl called Grizel. When she died of MS a few years ago and when I went back to Quito in full mid-life crisis mode, I felt inspired to try to capture something of that time, something of her and something of the places that were both the same and different. Finally, having the privilege of teaching Spanish and its cultures has also enabled me to bounce ideas off generations of talented young students, whose curiosity and creative energy is a real gift. In fact, two former students of mine from NHEHS, Uma and Anya, who are both currently at Cambridge studying Spanish, gave me the push I needed to put pen to paper: gracias, chicas.  I lament the demise in popularity of linguistic and cultural studies in this country and hope that lockdown teaches us the value and fun of learning about different ways of being human – different melodies and rhythms, as it were – through multilingualism and through poetry.   

What are they about? Why do you love Latin America so much?

I hope that different people will get different things from them.  To my eyes, poetry is very much a dialogue with the reader.  It suggests and doesn’t dictate one particular interpretation. I suggest these poems set up a dialogue about  love and nostalgia.  About the passage of time, for example in ‘Barco’. About the love of a teacher, in ‘Maestro’. About the potential and violence of language in ‘Baptism del idioma’.  About the impact of conquest in ‘Conquistador’.  I also attempt to evoke some of the wonder and mystery of places, such as Lake Titicaca, the highest lake in the world and the flooded backwaters of the Amazon jungle, in the poem ‘Caimán’.  I’d certainly say waves/ ‘olas’ are a key motif, running through the collection and shaping many poems such as ‘Drifter’, ‘Chico Nuevo’ or ‘Barco’.  This summer, I read ‘Dart’, a collection of poems describing the river Dart in Devon, written by Alice Oswald; I was most struck by how she creates a real sense of fluidity and different voices.  I suppose my response was the poem ‘Barco’ and my decision to shift between English and Spanish, a bit like a current.  Although some purists might disapprove of this Spanglish, to me it felt just right. 

Do you have a favourite? Tell us more about it.

I like the percussive anger of the monosyllabic lines of ‘Conquistador’ and the up-lifting ‘Baile’, which conjures up joy and sunshine.  But, most of all, I am proud of the poem ‘Olas’, the poem which gives the collection its title and which in some ways gives it its essence.  It recollects a care-free time when Grizel and I spent an hour playing in the waves of the Pacific, in a place called Puerto López, on the Pacific Coast of Ecuador.  I remember the force of the waves pummelled us and nearly engulfed us, completely. When we emerged from the water, time stood still. We felt completely alive and yet completely insignificant.  I’d love to know what comes to your mind when you read it.  

Are you planning a further edition?

I am, indeed. I am currently half-way through my next collection of poems, which is inspired by my family’s circumnavigation of London, on foot.  It is called ‘Golden Ring’.  Watch this space!  

More about ‘Olas‘ and link to buy the collection here.