More Skagit Poetry Festival Highlights...
Check out this blog by Alexander Kramer for some insight to what one of the high school sessions (featuring Ted Kooser, Terrance Hayes, Matthew Dickman and Valzhyna Mort).
Some notes from his blog, but there are more on all the poets that read if you're interested--
Terrance Hayes:
He explained that lying is fun, especially in fiction like poetry. Even though most people think poems are autobiographical, he said poets just make stuff up. "If you're boring you gotta make stuff up."
His poem Shakur was about this story he heard from one of his friends in Nebraska, "probably the only black man in Nebraska. I don't remember his name, but you probably know who I'm talking about," he said to Kooser. The story behind the poem was about these kids that got high on meth, drove out during a snowstorm, and died from exposure when they decided to take a nap in the car.
"I heard this story, and I was wondering what music they were listening to as they froze to death out there," said Terrance. "Turns out, they were listening to Tupac Shakur; thus the name." In the poem, there's a line about "the drugs that made them think they were warm enough to chill."
~
Anyway, great notes on Alexander's blog about a session that many of us (since we're not high schoolers) couldn't attend.
Some notes from his blog, but there are more on all the poets that read if you're interested--
Terrance Hayes:
He explained that lying is fun, especially in fiction like poetry. Even though most people think poems are autobiographical, he said poets just make stuff up. "If you're boring you gotta make stuff up."
His poem Shakur was about this story he heard from one of his friends in Nebraska, "probably the only black man in Nebraska. I don't remember his name, but you probably know who I'm talking about," he said to Kooser. The story behind the poem was about these kids that got high on meth, drove out during a snowstorm, and died from exposure when they decided to take a nap in the car.
"I heard this story, and I was wondering what music they were listening to as they froze to death out there," said Terrance. "Turns out, they were listening to Tupac Shakur; thus the name." In the poem, there's a line about "the drugs that made them think they were warm enough to chill."
~
Anyway, great notes on Alexander's blog about a session that many of us (since we're not high schoolers) couldn't attend.
Kelli,
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for the post and link to my blog. I'm currently working on part two before I crash, and will follow up with parts three and four later this week when I can.
-Alexander