What poets changed the way you thought about writing?
Oh gosh—I wouldn’t have even been remotely interested in reading, studying, or writing poetry without the influence of four poets early on: M. NourbeSe Philip, Dionne Brand, bpNichol, and bill bissett. From each I learned a different and particular way of practicing the craft of poetry. From Philip, I learned how to use poetry as an interrogator of authority but also as a source of resistance, love, and regeneration. From Brand, I learned how to see and gesture toward a world of gorgeous complexity using everyday, mundane, human things. From Nichol, I learned how to just have fun and play, and not take the thing or the act too seriously. From bissett, I learned how to use language and its parts as shapes—much like how a painter uses a palette knife, letters and phonemes and fragments can create texture and form, also sound and dissonance.
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