Vasiliki Katsarou : part five

Why is poetry important?

Language and communication is a precious gift. The more language is used and trashed by those who seek to manipulate, the more poets need to be attentive to their words, which give voice to that irreducible part of us that eludes rational explanation. Poetry is not a display of eloquence. It serves another, more sacred purpose.

Vasiliki Katsarou : part four

How does a poem begin?

A poem begins in earnest ignorance. Or in beauty that overwhelms. Or often in a sense of the texture of time altering, and requiring some elaboration of consciousness. 

Vasiliki Katsarou : part three

When you require renewal, is there a particular poem or book that you return to? A particular author?

The poems of Emily Dickinson are a touchstone.

Vasiliki Katsarou : part two

What other poetry books have you been reading lately?

I've been reading D. Nurkse's magnificent A Country of Strangers: New and Selected Poems. I've also been rereading Charles Simic's The Monster Loves His Labyrinth: Notebooks. I'm almost shocked at how much more these aphoristic fragments resonate, a decade after I first read this book.

Vasiliki Katsarou : part one

A poet, editor, filmmaker, and publisher, Vasiliki Katsarou was raised in Massachusetts by Greek-born parents. She is the author of a full-length poetry collection, Memento Tsunami (2011) and two chapbooks, Three Sea Stones (2020) and The Second Home (forthcoming). Honored as a Geraldine R. Dodge Poet in New Jersey, her poetry has been published widely, and internationally, including in Poetry Daily, Otoliths, Tiferet, Literary Mama, La Vague, NOON (Japan), Corbel Stone Press’ Contemporary Poetry Series and Reliquiae (U.K.), Regime Journal (Australia), Mediterranean Poetry (Denmark), and Mandragoras (in Greek translation). She is co-editor of two contemporary poetry anthologies: Eating Her Wedding Dress and Dark as a Hazel Eye: Coffee & Chocolate Poems. She is currently poetry curator at Frenchtown Bookshop and a Teaching Artist at Hunterdon Art Museum in New Jersey. More at solitudehill.com.

What poets changed the way you thought about writing?

The poet Gustaf Sobin, whom I was fortunate to get to know in person while I was living in France. His spare, image-driven and linguistically attentive lines, that are both fragmented and fluid, impressionistic and philosophical, forever marked my own approach. When I returned to the US from France in the mid-1990's, it was Anne Carson's poems that turned my head. I had worked in film production in France, and I happened to pick up a copy of the "The Movie Issue" of Parnassus in 1997. Carson's abstract and vulnerable voice, and the combination of Greek mythology and filmmaking tropes, made a big impression on me. So many more poets, too: Mina Loy, Philippe Jaccottet, Lucille Clifton, Stephen Dunn, George Oppen.