Interview with a poet: Matt Nõmme

Fresh off the social media success of his most recent poem, Every C**nts Climbed Pen y Fan, Cardiff-based poet Matt Nõmme took the time to speak with Nation.Cymru about how he got started writing poetry, and where he hopes to go next. 

Your first poem originated as a joke, so I presume using humour in your work comes somewhat naturally to you?

A joke about my dead dog, scribbled in a notepad while bored out of my mind in A&E back in 2019. I had only ever read one poetry book, Don’t Call Us Dead by Danez Smith, and I had the audacity to think ‘I could turn this joke into a poem’. Proper Dunning-Kruger effect stuff.

I wouldn’t say humour comes naturally, but I only find writing poetry interesting when I’m stood in my kitchen giggling at some stupid line I’ve come up with, before reading it to my partner Hayley. She’s the unfortunate victim of all the rejected poems I don’t publish — could I ask your readers to please pray for her sanity?

Was there a poet or poets you liked that greased the wheels to get you into the form, or was it more of an impulsive thing?

Definitely not an impulse thing, I was awful for years and still often am (you should see my notes app). I’ve been massively inspired by so many poets and artists; Danez Smith, John Cooper Clarke, MF Doom, R.S. Thomas, but most importantly is the 2006 Iggy and the Stooges band rider, no joke; taking a simple, boring, bland document, like a band rider, and turning it into something hilarious has always stuck with me.

Go and read it, you won’t regret it.

Writers often get given the advice to ‘write what you know,’ and people are clearly loving your brand of slice-of-life/commentary poems. Does writing about Wales and Welsh topics come easiest to you? 

Yeah, I try to get some high-brow topic and distil it down to my experience; Every C**t’s Climbed Pen y Fan is about over-tourism; The AAAA in Caaaardiff, multiculturalism; Afterlife Insurance, death; My brother Sam, death; What world would you want to wake up in? death; my work is basically nosing through the obituaries in the paper, which was also my nan’s hobby.

Are there any topics or forms you’d like to explore in the future?

Not different forms of poetry style, but different forms and places that poetry can be published; through posters, graffiti, videos, invading spaces that people may not expect poetry to be and engaging with them directly.

As someone who started writing poetry in my late 20s, after being inspired by only one book, I am trying to engage with adults who haven’t even attempted creative writing since school, so hopefully they go out and write about their own lives, experiences, and perspectives.

I get the odd message where people share their work with me after seeing one of my videos, sometimes it’s one of their very first poems, and to even be part of the spark that inspired them to write.. blows my mind.

One of my favourite lines from Every C**t’s Climbed Pen y Fan is ‘how green is my valley? how brown is the top?’ Are there any lines from your poems that you’re particularly proud of? 

Oh, when I’ve written a good line, I puff my chest up and walk around the house like I’m billy big bollocks; it all comes crashing down when I perform it live, and the audience gives me crickets.

Keeps me humble, innit.

(I hope)

Poetry sometimes gets a rep as being all about soul-baring seriousness. What advice would you give to readers who want to write poetry but feel like they don’t have anything “important” to say?

People treat poetry like their cousins, only seen at weddings and funerals. Maybe meet up with your cousin for a pint when someone hasn’t died for once.

..if you do ever get incapacitated by the seriousness of poetry though, read one of my favourite poems, BESTSELLER by Paul Birtill. Cracks me up every time.

How are you feeling about the response your poems are getting and the upward trajectory you’re on at the moment? 

The response has been lush. I’ve learned that there’s a supportive and thriving poetry scene, that live performances are as important as ever, and that yanks absolutely hate swearing (every time one finds one of my poems, they let me know).

A new book is in the works, but the response to the Every C**t’s Climbed Pen y Fan video has reminded me that poetry can resonate with a wider audience, and maybe putting all of my energy into another book right now may not be the best way to reach them because it’s the words that matter, not that they’re on a bookshelf.

Matt Nõmme has been writing and performing poetry since 2019. His poetry collection, Happy Daze, is available now on his website. You can follow Matt on Instagram here.