Meet Ash Raymond James

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ash Raymond James. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ash below.

Ash, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?

Creativity isn’t a singular beast. We seem to lump all the creative elements into a single term, but realistically, there are multiple forms of creativity in every living person. Some beasts require hibernation. There are times when living things fight against their beating, and we must give them time to rest. If you can’t write the poem yet, don’t write the poem. It will come to you; now is not the time for its existence, and we must be gentle. Keeping anything alive requires gentleness.

We explore multiple creativities throughout our lives. Birth beasts that sadly perish, but some become immortal, and it is easy to forget that immortal things require mortal care. Only because something lives forever doesn’t mean it deserves less love or kindness; we must treat it like any other beast. I say ‘beast’ because untamed creativity can be a dangerous thing. Keeping anything alive requires structure and care. When I can not create what I love most to make and the beast snarls and shows its teeth, I fall back into the old familiar. To love. To be kind. To show compassion. These are beasts that require no hibernation. Creativity is beyond the arts; it’s more than making music, writing, dancing, or any form of art. Creativity is in survival; it’s the meal we cook for a loved one, it’s how we tell our friends we love them. It is helping the stranger across the street or helping somebody carry coffee to their table. The way we hold things can be a creativity. My father fixing a printer is a creativity, and if you ever had the chance to see it, I have no doubt you’d agree.

All of us house pack animals inside of us, creativity exists within every person and you are already keeping it alive by just existing. Please remember to care for your beasts, to let them sleep, and to feed them. The way you care for and maintain yourself and your beasts is a creativity. Remember creativity is a wild thing that sometimes resists its taming; let it run free. It will return to you.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

In the shortest form, I am a poet. To some, that means I write poems, but being a poet means I can embed poetry in everything I do. There are poetic elements to the way I do graphic design, or coach poetry.

My evolution has reached a point where I love teaching as much as I love writing. I run a writers’ club called Woofenberry Writers Club, which is both online (free & paid tiers, please join) and in person in New Zealand. It runs alongside Yellow Lamp, a monthly poetry show and, recently, a lit mag that will go international next year. Creating spaces to house expression and all creativities is one of my favourite things I have ever done. To give people full rooms to share the parts of themselves they are most proud of is a true honour. Even the lit mag’s approach is different. I want to feature the weird and the wacky and take the poems that people are scared will be rejected and publish them. Poetry is wildly misunderstood, and I want to create work that challenges its perception. Let’s make crazy things. My whole career going forward will focus on mixing the serious and the silly just right. I want to give people space to share themselves and shed their agony. I want to be the coming out party for somebody’s weirdness. I have always preached the ‘be yourself’ mantra, say it over and over until you become it. Wholly you, unburdened by what you should be and proud of what you are. This is the goal. Create welcoming, friendly spaces for all corners of creativity.

Within Yellow Lamp, we have catchphrases. The first being, see you under the glow, and the glow is the literal lamp, but also the glow of the room. Then there is ‘come and get your lamp on’, which is saying ‘come and be yourself’ and witness others being themselves. Come and not be judged for allowing your strangeness a voice. We are Yellow Lamp, and there are no corners to hide in because we do not need them.

Personally, I am working on finishing the zine trilogy I started two years ago. Both Ghost Nocturnal and Echo Eternal were well received, and now I need to close them off, which is proving difficult but an enjoyable challenge. There will be projects after the trilogy that continue the story, but not in direct ways. Once I have rounded this off, I want to focus on ‘Fourteen Thousand Ducks’, my book on autism, and ‘I Will Never Forget to Remember you’, a collection of poems about my Grandmother’s Alzheimer’s. I also just co-hosted a season of Poetry Snaps, which is an Auckland-based podcast with Sarah Krieg, who helps a lot with Yellow Lamp. Engaging and getting dug into different poetry scenes has become such a passion.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Let’s rattle them off, then explain them. Perseverance, devotion, and gentleness.

To quote the band Gang Of Youths, you’ve got to persevere. Social media can be hard, and that is where I started. On the days when the engagement dropped or people weren’t responding the way I expected to my work, it was easy to change course to the popular or to give up entirely, but instead I stuck with who I was and advanced my voice rather than changing it. Whatever you do, you should be researching it. If you write poetry, then read books. Reading social media poems is excellent, but go to the library and read something from 1645, then read something from 2024, and take in as many types of poems as you can. I am not a big fan of old language or Shakespeare, but I still learned a lot from it. Within poetry, the same goes for forms. Learn them so you can break them.

I touched on devotion while talking about perseverance, but stay loyal to yourself. Be enthusiastic about who you are and have an energy that becomes contagious. Be unapologetically yourself, take criticism, but don’t give up. Devote yourself to your voice, and don’t morph into something you aren’t for the sake of clicks or peer pressure. Force your own evolution and get better.

Which brings us to gentleness. You are going to suck sometimes, and that is just a fact of life. It’s okay because we all suck. Your favourite writer has bad pages because they are human. You can’t expect everything you write to be incredible, but the less high-quality stuff remains a training, and oftentimes you can pull something from it on different days that transforms it into brilliance. Be gentle with yourself and don’t set expectations so high that they’re impossible to reach. Having a bad day of writing doesn’t make you a bad writer; it just means you are having a bad day of writing. Don’t blow things out of proportion or force it too much; otherwise, it will never happen. Explore some other creativities and return to it. Be kind and you will be rewarded.

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?

As an autistic, I am overwhelmed a lot of the time. Removing yourself from situations without fear of being rude is an important one. Not overextending and doing things because you feel like you have to is another. You have to have limits, and the people you love will understand. Carry the noise-cancelling headphones and listen to your favourite song in the restaurant, take a break and walk around the block, and get out of the situation before everything burns to the ground. I know what it is to tell yourself that you can get through it by just moving forward, but sometimes we have to stop, and there is no shame in that. Sometimes it is the smallest thing, and we tell ourselves it is stupid, but if your body is screaming, “Please help,” then listen to it and guide it towards the fire exit. Take the break. I promise there is time.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.woofenberrywritersclub.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ashraymondjames
• Other: www.instagram.com/yellowlamppoetry
  https://open.spotify.com/show/372HTk9DABl8m0ljlmlqyk

Image Credits

Savvy Bear Studios