Getting Out of the Way: The Quiet Poem
“By simplifying language, diction, detail, a poem can transcend the ‘lean moment’ and brush up against an intimate and unshakable truth.”—an essay by D.S. Waldman
“By simplifying language, diction, detail, a poem can transcend the ‘lean moment’ and brush up against an intimate and unshakable truth.”—an essay by D.S. Waldman
Katharine Ogle on Lisa Russ Spaar’s Orexia
by Zach Savich | Contributing Writer
Though my appetite is small, I will prepare a feast.
By Elizabeth Cooperman and Matthew Kelsey On July 10, 2014, Patricia Lockwood read at Seattle’s Elliot Bay Book Company from her most recent book of poems, Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals. The room–a book-lined basement annex with a small raised stage and podium–was full. Over the next few months, editors Elizabeth Cooperman and Matthew Kelsey exchanged a series of emails, sharing their thoughts about the event. This conversation results from that exchange. 1: Meme-Numbed MK: First impressions first: that reading was absolutely feral. The energy that Lockwood exuded seemed barely containable by the typical reading format. This was apparent from the get-go, when the woman introducing Tricia struggled to stay composed or even objective. She was effusive, probably to a fault. But between that anterior energy and the tone of Lockwood’s poems (and that voice!—those are hard poems to read aloud, I think, and she did herself a service), it’s hard to believe we were all seated, quiet and well-mannered, in the basement of Elliott Bay Bookstore, no? I know we’ll have to discuss how Lockwood became …
Poetry Northwest‘s monthly podcast series, The Subvocal Zoo, features editors and friends of the magazine interviewing poets during the 2014 Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Conference in Seattle. Each episode will feature lively conversation between writers in a different Seattle location. Episode 5 features Robert Hass in conversation with Amy Glynn. Their conversation takes place on the morning of the final day of AWP in the Japanese Gardens of Seattle’s Washington Park Arboretum. This is two wild minds meandering wonderfully, folks: topics of discussion include Gotland baptismal fonts, music and poetry, gardens, constraint and discovery, intense early encounters with poetry, and American poets’ relationship with the language of the sacred.