The Prairie Schooner Blog

"Lived in the Half-Light, the Twilight": An Interview with Ted Kooser

pclark — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 20:45:42 +0000

by Laine Derr

When asked about poetry, Ted Kooser, former Poet Laureate of the United States, responds, “One important objective for me is to write clearly and accessibly.”

His writing reminds me of youthful days spent on my grandparents’ farm in Oregon, picking raspberries, having meals under a weeping willow, its shadow brushing slowly across our picnic table.

“Anybody can write a poem that nobody can understand,” Kooser continues, “but what’s the point in that?”

Laine Derr: You write of memories that you will hold onto forever, stories shadowed in mystery. If it is not too much to ask, would you care to share a memory that still visits you from time to time?

Poetry and Media #022

pclark — Sat, 05 Dec 2020 00:58:51 +0000

John Lee Clark's poem "A DeafBlind Poet" is a direct and compelling portrait of a disabled artist's life: "A DeafBlind poet has yet to be gainfully employed. A DeafBlind poet shares all his trade secrets with his children. A DeafBlind poet will not stop if police order him to. A DeafBlind poet used to like dogs but now prefers cats. A DeafBlind poet listens to his wife." Clark's work, both as a poet and as a teacher of Protactile, a new touch language for the DeafBlind, is the subject of a recent article by James Yeh. "Virtually every singificant DeafBlind historical figure was a poet, in addition to the things they were more famous or tokenized for," Clark said.

Poetry and Media #021

pclark — Fri, 27 Nov 2020 21:24:52 +0000

Al Robles's first and only collection of poems, Rappin' With Ten Thousand Carabaos in the Dark, was published in 1996. Long out of print, the book's second life officially began this month with the UCLA Asian American Studies Center's publication of an expanded edition. "The struggle and promise of becoming a Pilipino in America can be found in the poetry of Al Robles," wrote Russell Leong in his preface to the 1996 edition. Robles was a pillar of the San Francisco Filipino American and Asian American literary scene. Through his work at the Kearny Street Workshop, Robles mentored countless young writers, including Barbara Jane Reyes.

Poetry and Media #020

pclark — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 01:32:20 +0000

Henrik Nordbrandt is the subject of A Poet's Odyssey, a new film from Denmark's Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. It's an austere and compelling portrait of a man reflecting on the central themes and experiences of his life. Nordbrandt on being born in a warzone says: "I was born on March 21st, 1945. It was about two hours before the Royal Air Force bombed Copenhagen. When people asked me as a child why I was so nervous I said, 'I was born with shell shock.' It was a joke, but it's probably true." Nordbrandt's recollection of his earliest childhood memory: "I shit on the bed and spread it all over myself. It was a lovely feeling. My grandmother scolded me. She didn't like having shit on her bed. She put me in the sink and washed me with cold water.

Poetry and Media #019

pclark — Fri, 13 Nov 2020 23:38:33 +0000

Shirley LeFlore was the second-ever poet laureate of St. Louis. She got her start as a member of Black Artists' Group, an interdisciplinary collective of St. Louis musicians, dancers, actors, and writers. BAG is the subject of The Black Artists' Group: Creation Equals Movement, a documentary streaming through November 22nd as part of this year's virtual edition of the St. Louis Film Festival. The film tracks BAG's rise and fall, exploring the feeling of revolutionary potential that informed Black art in the late 1960s. The film also documents acts of authoritarian repression perpetrated by the United States government against Black artists and activists. "A lot of us was subject to get arrested," LeFlore says in the film.

Poetry and Media #018

pclark — Sat, 07 Nov 2020 01:29:11 +0000

Vahni Capildeo and Xasan Daahir "Weedhsame" will be joining forces for "Poetics of Place and Displacement," a virtual reading and discussion happening on November 11th. With all the talk of politics and elections, it can be all too easy to lose sight of how damaging, on a human level, the strange rituals of nations can be. From the UN: "There are now 80 million displaced people around the world--almost double the number from a decade ago--owing to war, violence, persecution, and other emergencies." Capildeo and Weedhsame are uniquely equipped to talk about this global castastrophe. Capildeo is the author of Measures of Expatriation, a book burdened by associations with leaving and distance--from mythical exodus, to bird migration, to recent conflicts in the Middle East and their human consequences.

Poetry and Media #017

pclark — Fri, 30 Oct 2020 23:40:02 +0000

Aeon Ginsberg's Greyhound is out this month from Noemi Press. Chen Chen calls it "a book of winds and departures, tattoos and returns; a beautiful book that recognizes how '[e]veryone is trying so hard to figure out / why we are alive.'" "I started writing this book in 2016 because I was travelling a lot, I was taking a lot of Greyhound buses to perform poetry in different places, to convene with writers, or just general degenerates I tend to cavort with," Ginsberg said in a recent episode of Mobtown Live.

Poetry and Media #016

pclark — Thu, 29 Oct 2020 00:02:18 +0000

Carlos Cumpían, a poet and high school teacher currently working in Chicago, wrote this in his introduction to the 1989 chapbook-length anthology Emergency Tacos: "Today you hear a lot about emergencies; emergency shelters, emergency medicine, emergency maneuvers, emergency pantries. Now, emergency tacos... simón que sí, emergency tacos are what we ordered.

When each fall comes, I fall in lines

astrosnider — Thu, 08 Oct 2020 20:03:25 +0000

Presenting our Fall 2020 Issue

When each fall comes, I fall in lines
across the field. Crows pick me out
of food for weeks. Photographs
of then are lost (I tell myself
they're lost). Bare, at the mirror,
I still don't see a man, I see
what could still be lost, what kept.
Owls cry, leave darkness on my tongue.

—excerpt from "Confessions of a Former Scarecrow," by José Angel Araguz, Prairie Schooner, Vol. 94, Issue 3, Fall 2020

Poetry and Media #014

pclark — Fri, 02 Oct 2020 22:09:28 +0000

Savannah Sipho's voice opens a recent episode of the Decolonization in Action podcast. Sipho is reading (in German) Maya Ayim's poem "Blues in Black and White" (“blues in Schwarzweiß”). The reading took place during a recent critical walking tour ("Dekoloniales Flanieren") organized to mobilize demands to change a racist street name in the Berlin's Mitte district. While the opening poem is in German, the ensuing interview with Sipho is in English. The interview covers a lot of ground, but here's a few things Sipho touches on: bringing her private writings into public spaces, her experience being Afrodeutsche in Berlin, and why she felt it was important to share the poem "Blues in Black and White" during the anticolonial walking tour event.