Sunday 23 September 2018

Michael Dennis : part two


What poets changed the way you thought about writing?
There is a long list.  Earle Birney got me into the game, I’d already been writing some very bad poetry but when I heard Birney’s “David” everything changed.  Then Gwendolyn MacEwen.  Shortly after that I discovered Leonard Cohen and was transfixed.  When I first read Sir Jack Kerouac I was hypnotized.  Then around 1975 I heard Tom Waits for the first time and I remember the exact moment.  I was in a small hotel room in Thunder Bay watching American Public Television in the middle of the night.  Tom Waits introduced me to the idea of Charles Bukowski.  Al Purdy was in the mix early along with Alden Nowlan.
The truth is that every time I read a good poet it has an effect on my work.  Most recently I’ve been in correspondence with the American poet David Clewell, former Poet Laureate for Missouri.  He not only recommends that I read certain people, he sends me books that I have to read, sometimes he sends them with post-it notes telling me which order to read the books in.  It has been, and continues to be a steep learning curve but it is absolutely inspiring.  Clewell introduced me to David Lee.  David Lee is the best poet in America as far as this cowboy is concerned.  But there are some other monsters, lately I’ve been reading Albert Goldbarth, Dave Etter, Campbell McGrath, Sue Goyette, and damn, have a brain sputter.
Charles Bukowski, more than any one other writer, influenced how I think about the world of poetry, but he wasn’t a very nice cat.  As much as I love Bukowski I don’t share his ethos that poetry is more important than people.  Sometimes it is hard to reconcile a poet and their life against their body of work.  And then there’s Raymond Carver.  First time I read his work my heart stopped.
I can’t wait for the next poet to shake me up, bite into my way of thinking, nudge me forward.


No comments:

Post a Comment