Passwords Primeval: 20 American Poets in their Own Words

by Tony Leuzzi (Editor)

Overview

Passwords Primeval sets aside the artificial boundaries of poetry "schools" and "movements" to cut to the art of the matter. Tony Leuzzi's astounding knowledge of poetry draws new insights from such luminaries as Billy Collins, Gerald Stern, Jane Hirshfield, Patricia Smith, and Martín Espada. These new interviews provide insights into the poets and their poems without compromising any of their mystery. Whether you're looking for deeper understanding of your favorite poets or are simply interested in the lives of contemporary artists, Passwords Primeval reveals the interconnectedness of these masters whose voices echo each other from opposite ends of the same canyon.

A Best Book for Writers by Poets and Writers Magazine

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781934414958
Publisher:	BOA Editions, Ltd.
Publication date:	10/16/2012
Series:	American Readers Series
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	8.80(w) x 6.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Tony Leuzzi has written three books of poetry, including Radiant Losses, which won the 2010 New Sins Editors' Prize. In preparation for Passwords Primeval: 20 American Poets in Their Own Words, Leuzzi interviewed 25 American poets across a five-year span. Many of the interviews were initially published in such journals as Arts & Letters, Jacket, Sentence, American Literary Review, Kenyon Review (online), National Poetry Review, Left Curve, Great River Review, EOAGH, and The Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review.

Table of Contents

Introduction Tony Leuzzi 9

Writing by Ear: An Interview Michael Waters 15

Horizontal Poetry: An Interview Gary Young 33

Singing from a Wound: An Interview Dorianne Laux 49

To Write with Dark, Eternal Ink: An Interview Gary Soto 69

Speaking Through a Second Throat: An Interview Patricia Smith 83

A Glimpse of the Beautiful: An Interview Scott Cairns 95

Open Secrets: An Interview Jane Hirshfield 111

Putting Blood Back into Words: An Interview Martín Espada 135

The Embrace of Everything: An Interview Gerald Stern 149

Poems Woven from a Sacred Thread: An Interview Nathalie Handal 169

Spontaneity and Surprise: An Interview Stephen Dobyns 183

By Way of Play and Accident: An Interview Karen Volkman 197

Poem as Gesture: An Interview Kevin Killian 209

Bat Logic: An Interview Dara Wier 225

Poetry Steeped in Intellectual Matter: An Interview Bin Ramke 239

A Poetry of Expansiveness: An Interview Mark Doty 257

Poetry in Present Tense: An Interview Billy Collins 271

Balancing Images: An Interview Carol Frost 283

Abandoning the Middle Distance: An Interview Robert Glück 297

Polysemous Poetry: An Interview Arthur Sze 313

Acknowledgments 334

Permissions 336

About the Author 338

Index of Names and Titles 339

Colophon 350

Editorial Reviews

Poet and professor Leuzzi brings questing intelligence and a practitioner’s empathy to this collection of interviews with 20 poets who are diverse in terms of aesthetic allegiance, generation, and practice. Leuzzi talks—about craft, poetic history, a poet’s work-life balance, and more—to famous poets like Gerald Stern, Martin Espada, Patricia Smith, Mark Doty, and Billy Collins as well as to lesser-known artists like Gary Young and Bin Ramke, coaxing from all of them lengthy, intelligent responses to probing questions. Some of the best moments in these interviews come from the least expected sources, such as Young, a revered but still fairly obscure writer of quotidian prose poems who has a profound thought about a poet’s hope for fame: “If you know you’re doomed to failure, then you can work freely.” Patricia Smith reflects on the process of revision that developed out of her days as a slam poet, giving the lie to the notion of the poet as hermetic: “My process... was to go in front of all these different audiences and figure out interactively with the audience what the poem needed to be.” Espada describes how the Bush presidency turned into political writers many poets “who don’t normally speak in a political vocabulary... I felt like saying, ‘Welcome aboard! What kept you?’” The range of topics proves that poetry isn’t just for poets. This book will be a joy for anyone who loves the art of conversation, not just the conversation of art. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"Poet and professor, Leuzzi brings questing intelligence and a practitioner's empathy to this collection of interviews with 20 poets who are diverse in terms of aesthetic allegiance, generation, and practice... The range of topics proves that poetry isn't just for poets. This book will be a joy for anyone who loves the art of conversation, not just the conversation of art." — Publishers Weekly *Starred* Review

"Leuzzi, while touching on discussions of tone and image and revision (which are common enough), takes advantage of opportunities for the poets to reveal unusual elements or expand to enlightening discussions on others’ works, or to speak on the influence that being married to a neuroscientist can have, or the surprising places one can go and find solace." — David Bloomenberg, Sycamore Review

From the Publisher