inquire

A crossing point for ideas, words, images, and energies

Excess

Joyelle McSweeney, in Jacket2, on Chelsey Minnis’ book Poemland (Wave Books, 2009):

 

“Through perverse excess, Art trashes conventional value, reassigning it to odd and ill-made receptacles which inevitably can’t hold; the chandelier is cut-down; asphyxiation has a baby; Art leaks and spills Art.”

 

 

Rights

Javier O. Huerta, interviewed by Lauro Vazquez in Letras Latinas Blog, about Huerta’s book American Copia: An Immigrant Epic (Arte Público Press, 2012):

 

“Octavio Paz says that prose is like a march whereas poetry is like a dance, but I feel that my most poetic experience was being part of an immigrant rights march down International, a march that feels much like a dance.  … [T]he march seems to be a living organism composed of diverse and immediate rhythms.”

 

Drift

Jennifer Atkinson, interviewed at The Cloudy House about her book Canticle of the Night Path (Parlor Press, 2012):

 

“Poetry asks of us both industry and idleness, drift and direction.”

 

 

Heightened

Michael Langan, in Polar! Magazine, writing about Cherry Smyth’s book Test, Orange (Pindrop Press, 2012):

 

“It’s surely no coincidence that, at times of heightened feeling – funerals, weddings, christenings – many people who would never consider reading poetry turn to it for comfort or celebration, and as a way to articulate complex emotions.”

 

 

Historical

Sheryl Luna, interviewed by Daniel Olivas in La Bloga, about Luna’s book Seven (3: A Taos Press, 2013):

 

“I think the historical is always related to the present. Human nature has not changed much over the centuries. We are still torn by our complex instincts and emotional responses.”

 

 

Lifelong

Jake Bauer, in TLR, writing about Eric Pankey’s book Crow-Work (Milkweed Editions, 2015):

 

“Death exposes a lifelong failure of the body; when it is opened, there is only absence.”

 

 

Pain

Lorna Dee Cervantes, author of Sueño (Wings Press, 2013), interviewed by Alex Stein in Michigan Quarterly Review:

 

“And the thing about suffering is it does not compute within the framework of taxonomies and hierarchies. How can I say that my pain is any more valid, any more significant, concentrated, painful, than your pain? How can one pain be legitimized over another? It just hurts.”

 

 

Witness

Nin Andrews, interviewed by Dante Di Stefano on the Best American Poetry blog, about Andrews’ book Miss August (CavanKerry Press, 2017):

 

“But my goal as a writer is not to explain, pontificate, or change what is or was, but simply to describe, to bear witness.”

 

 

Witnessing

Blas Manuel De Luna, interviewed by Eduardo C. Corral in Boxcar Poetry Review, about De Luna’s book Bent to the Earth (Carnegie Mellon Univ. Press, 2005):

 

“…keeping in mind that a poet’s not a documentarian, I do think that a type of witnessing is going on in some of my poems.”

 

 

Lasting

Elisa Gabbert, author of L’Heure Bleue, or the Judy Poems (Black Ocean, 2013), interviewed on rob mclennan’s blog:

 

“I don’t know that the poet has any particular role in culture. I think art exists to create meaning, but it could be any kind of meaning. It doesn’t have to be ‘relevant,’ or even lasting.”