Jennifer Firestone : part five

Why is poetry important? 

I find this question, or versions of it interesting (e.g. “Can Poetry Matter”). Americans definitely circle back and around this idea and worry that poetry is perhaps not important. It seems partially to do with the fact that poetry is not linked to capital or is in a very tenuous way, and so can poetry have value if it doesn’t have “value.” Poetry has personally resuscitated me, led me to interesting, supportive communities, and taught me how to mediate and actively explore my curiosities and concerns. I don’t take its role lightly. As a professor of poetry for over two decades I see its transformative properties leaving tracks all over my students. Whether it’s by examining the tightly balanced syntactical units of a Gwendolyn Brooks poems, her documentary eye archiving the working class neighborhoods of Chicago, or Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s look at migration, selfhood and speech in her hybrid and fused chorus of voices in Dictée, these poets grapple with language to express and archive important lived experiences and to question the world. I have seen students, many marginalized ones in particular, step into areas that felt inarticulable and taboo. It’s a wonder.

Poetry is one of the oldest art forms, what we turn to when we grieve, when we protest, and when we celebrate. Poetry in its boundlessness straddles various animal/alien worlds that only it can do.

Kimberly Campanello : part five

How does a poem begin?

For me a poem begins in a strange juxtaposition, a kind of tension that is revealed by a seemingly literal or real object or moment in relation to something else (another object or moment), a tension that creates a sense that things are not what they seem.

Charlie Baylis : part one

Charlie Baylis is from Nottingham, England. He is the editor of Anthropocene. His poetry has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize and once for the Forward Prize. His most recent publication is Drag City (Broken Sleep Books). He spends his spare time completely adrift of reality.

How does your work first enter the world? Do you have a social group or writers group that you work ideas and poems with?

I usually send stuff to magazines. I’m not a particularly social person and tend to be quite guarded about my poetry, so I find the idea of a writers group scary. I do look for feedback if I’m writing something longer, but it’s not a huge list of people, and I don’t necessarily follow their advice.

Juliette van der Molen : part five

What are you working on? 

I’m currently working on a few projects. I’m excited to tell the story of Dorothy Good in my upcoming collection: Confess. Dorothy was a 4 year old child arrested for witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials in the late 1600’s along with her mother. It’s a challenge to tell a life story through poetry. I’m exploring how the past connects with contemporary life and ideas. There are so many things we can learn from history. Unfortunately, we don’t always do that because we don’t recognize the historical roots of problems that plague humanity.

A.H. Lewis : part one

A.H. Lewis is a writer and poet living in Pittsburgh, PA. After earning a BA in English from Allegheny College, she went on to pursue her passion for literature by creating her freelance editing business, Happily Edit After, and publishing her first book just shy her 27th birthday—the first, undoubtedly, of many. She is a fan of all things related to summer and nighttime, especially during the clearest of starry skies, and more often than not she is wearing all black, from her combat boots to her lipstick.

How did you first engage with poetry?

I took a poetry class in college and absolutely hated it. I was terrible at it and I felt like I didn’t learn anything; I didn’t feel that I improved or found my voice or created anything worth reading. Fast forward about five years and I went through things in my personal life that tested my strength and patience, and this is when I revisited poetry. I found that the poetic form was the only way I could purge myself of anger, sadness, grief—everything, really—in a way that left me better than when I started. Poetry, and only poetry, offered me the catharsis I desperately needed.

Susan Glickman : part five

What other poetry books have you been reading lately?

The book that knocked me sideways recently is Louise Gluck’s Faithful and Virtuous Night, but for the past year, I’ve also been savouring Helen Dunmore’s last book, Inside the Wave, and several volumes by Jane Hirschfield and Alice Oswald. They all live on my night-table for emergency administration.

Stephen Page : part four

Has your consideration of poetry changed since you began?

No.  I love it more than ever. All forms.