Nithy Kasa

Abstract

Nithy Kasa Nithy Kasa and Kelly Sullivan nithy kasa, a Congolese-Irish writer, is among the ten poets commissioned to write a poem for the Poetry as Commemoration project, an initiative of the Irish Poetry Reading Archive at University College Dublin, with support from the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport, and Media. She has also received an I bhFad i gCéin international residency for Cave Canem by Poetry Ireland, The Arts Council, and the Department of Foreign Affairs. Her debut collection Palm Wine Tapper and The Boy at Jericho (Doire Press 2022) was included on the Irish Times’s list of the best poetry books of 2022. It is also shortlisted for the Pigott Poetry Prize 2023. Her work is featured on the University of Galway’s archive and the Special Collections of University College Dublin. ________ Nithy Kasa and Kelly Sullivan corresponded by email between January and August 2023. Their communication has been edited for clarity and length. kelly sullivan: When did you first begin writing poems? nithy kasa: Writing came naturally to me. I was always scribbling something, usually what I thought of as a song. But after I submitted a “poem” to the school magazine, suggestions to write followed. I never dreamed of my poems as a giving me a career—probably because we were warned that poets struggle to earn a living with little chance of making it. And most people who write poetry must also have a job, if at all possible as teachers/lecturers. So I was advised to find a career that would bring me a comfortable life, but to hold on to poetry for the love of it. [End Page 183] sullivan: When did you first encounter Seamus Heaney’s poetry? Your biography on several websites says you moved to Galway from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in 2005. I wonder if, like many young people in Ireland, you first read his work in the classroom in Galway? kasa: Yes, they taught Heaney, Yeats, Mahon, and Kavanagh among other poets. We read many of Heaney’s early Death of a Naturalist poems, each one explained line by line. “Mid-Term Break” was my favorite. I vividly remember my English teacher, a poet in his own right, breaking down that poem: “The baby cooed is onomatopoeia: when words sound like what they mean.” And he pointed how careful Heaney’s choices of words were in suiting the speaker or characters in his poems. To this day, “Mid-Term Break” is my reference poem for writing. sullivan: Your poetry is often about what we might call day-to-day rituals, sometimes in the form of memories or stories about your own family. You also focus on the natural world in your poems, often on nature as it links to ritual and custom—as in Heaney’s poetry. Do you think his work has touched the subject matter or tone of your poetry? kasa: I never thought of it. Most poetry is generally about day-today rituals—poems drawn from deep-felt experiences. Since I’m a country girl, I suppose my love for nature shows itself in my poetry: the peacefulness it can bring. I see my work—like Palm Wine Tapper and The Boy at Jericho—as a kind of fusion in regard to subject and style. So many elements guide my work: Congolese folkloric storytelling, musical poetry from the likes of Simaro Lutumba, the styles of Adrienne Rich and Sylvia Plath—or Maya Angelou and Eavan Boland. There are other contemporary poets I read and words I hear, but as you have pointed out, it seems as if in that mixture of influences Heaney is there too. Taking a closer look at my work with that observation in mind, I feel complimented to have my poetry connected with Heaney’s. So thank you. sullivan: You have a very fluid lyric style. It is clear to me that sound matters immensely to you in composing a poem. Your work [End Page 184] is like Heaney’s in its attention to the sound of language, the differences in particular words—but maybe that’s what all poetry is about...