We had a great time talking to Issue 1 contributor Mike Liu about their piece “Whisper,” writing about the mundane, Palette Poetry, and more! 

Your poem “Whisper” is a brilliant meditation on family and memory, and it uses form in conjunction with language skillfully to convey the emotions and recollections behind it. There’s a lot of things to love about the piece, but what are one or two of your favorite aspects of it?

My favourite thing about “Whisper” is what it taught me about emptiness and white space. Often in poetry, the word choice / text is where the poet's focus lies, but I wanted to use the quietness—the whisper—as its own language. Originally the conclusion of this poem was very spelled out. I spent a lot of time toiling over creating the most beautiful line for the climax. But when I sat with the piece, and allowed its quietness to truly envelop me, I realized that “Whisper” speaks just as much with its pauses and blanks as it does with its words. Restraint is poetic, too.

I also love its unique rhyme structure, where instead of traditional end-rhymes, each stanza uses a specific front-rhyme, four times. It's a detail that most readers don’t notice, even though it is felt intuitively while reading. This rhyme scheme gives the body of the poem a spine, one that guides the reader through its confounding abstraction.

I just love “Whisper” for its uniqueness. When it comes to poetry, everything’s already been done before, but I enjoyed creating a “special” writing style with this piece, a signature that truly embodies me and how I write.

What did your writing process look like for “Whisper”? Did you develop its inventive form before or after you began drafting?

The structure came during the writing process. The first stanza came to me as a quick-write, and I was immediately enthralled by the front-rhyme structure and the intense spacing. By putting the rhythm at the front of the line, I had empowered the speaker’s voice. And by using dramatic indenting, I felt as though I had tapped into a cacophony of chaos and senseless noise. That was when I realized the heart of the piece—that this chaos was the perfect form to emphasize the love within a hushed whisper. From there, the form, and the message, became very intentional: write with disorganized honesty, and conclude with brevity and restraint.

We were drawn to “Whisper” partially because of its striking imagery, like “she dissects / my origami body, packaged rosy as a tongue” and “the doctor had bundled my body in that blue blanket and said / ‘my, this boy's bones are inside out!’” Where do you find inspiration for lines like these? What inspires your writing more broadly?

Honestly, those lines came very naturally! It’s a bit difficult to describe, but I mainly get inspiration for lines by imagining the concrete scene that the poem is based on. I try to imagine the images falling and meshing into each other, and then I find the words to describe it. It's like a trust exercise between the breath and the body: putting faith in my poetic subconscious to describe what it sees, and trusting my inner voice and its creativity to bring those images to life.

As for my writing in general, I’m inspired by the mundane. I’m always trying to observe the world around me—an elderly couple on the train, an overheard conversation about heartbreak, the neon colours of the city. It’s like feeding my subconscious: I try to live with intentionality, and trust that my poetic mind will find something profound in all that I have observed.

What’s a literary magazine you enjoy reading? Are there any pieces in particular that you’d recommend?

A lovely question! My favourite literary magazine is Palette Poetry. They’re a digital magazine that publishes experimental, free-form poetry, and specifically highlights colourful queer narratives.

I have two poems from Palette to recommend, both that served as inspirations for “Whisper”! First is “The Vegetarian” by Anjali Mulcock, which masterfully showcases the tenderness of familial love through culture and food. Second is “I tell Mary Magdalene an emotionally unavailable 33 year old man can’t save her but I can” by Bleah Patterson. This poem is beautiful and its scattered form inspired me to try what I ended up doing for “Whisper”. “Whisper” was my first foray into spatial poetry, which has since become my staple, so I definitely owe that thanks to these two wonderful poets.

Finally, since we’re Marmalade Lit, do you have a favorite bread, pastry, or jam?

I love a good blueberry jam. As for my favourite bread, it has to be my boyfriend’s signature sourdough loaves. I hadn’t thought of trying his bread with jam before...I will absolutely be trying that with him soon!