Why is poetry important?
I read poetry for pleasure, it relaxes me. However more fundamentally it is one of the few sober pastimes dedicated to illuminating all aspects of the human experience. Poetry reveals absurdity and disrupts the imagined order.
It reminds us that there is another reading to life beyond the laundry list of chores and concerns that embattle us daily, that there’s a life behind life that can be glimpsed if however fleetingly.
How important is music to your poetry?
Music came first and was my gateway into poetry. I discovered Bob Dylan at a seminal age and through him discovered Ginsberg and the Beats, all of whom were influenced by Jazz.
I suspect a lot of poets are frustrated musicians, I know I am. Many poems in my recent collection Afternoon Music were named after John Coltrane ballads.
There's a place where one and all these things are the same.
Leonard Cohen wanted to be Garcia Lorca. Lorca of course wrote in musical forms and was a troubadour of the heart.
What other poetry books have you been reading lately?
My beside currently has books by Selma Hill, Claudia Rankin, William Stafford.
My favourite book of recent times is a collection edited by John Brehm entitled The Poetry of Impermanence, Mindfulness.
What do you feel poetry can accomplish that other forms can’t?
Poetry is intimate. A dialogue is created between the writer and the reader. Even the most irreverent poems are sincere in their desire to communicate.
Poetry illuminates the world around us. It can magnify the banal and open up observations of time and the universe. Like putting your favourite coffee mug under a high powered microscope. It’s nearer to science in that respect.
What are you working on?
I recently published my second book of poetry, Afternoon Music, with Palewell Press. I’m someway into finishing another collection. My first book was Night Work, the second Afternoon Music so I suspect this one needs to be about the morning.
