This past Sunday we played part one of our two-part interview with poet Dennis Phillips. Dennis has been a guest on Poet as Radio before, and we were thrilled that he returned to talk to us about his new book Measures (Talisman House 2013). After reading some poems to open the interview, Dennis described the basic format of the book, which is organized in alphabetical order. He talked about the influence Dante's allegories had on his writing poetry. The Odyssey is also part of the 'palette' that is used to paint these wonderful poems. Nicholas introduced the idea of grounding and place in the Dennis's work.
After the top/bottom of the hour, the interview moved into a discussion of the poem as 'puzzle,' as observed by Jay, as well as the density and significance of the content. It is work that 'invites slow and attentive reading.' There is an aliveness and immediacy to this work, which prompted a discussion of music and its ability to move one to emotion without a discernible intellectual explanation as to how. Towards the end of the hour, we touched on beauty and modernism in writing. Dennis talked about how he finds beauty in difficult work, poetry that inspires a continual pondering and engagement.
We will play the second half of this interview on April 27th.
Click here to listen
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