by HRM on September 1, 2013
I first met Gerald Fleming at a reading in Paris and was struck by his poems immediately. Sometimes I find it hard to describe what I like about poetry because, with the poetry I like best, it just works. It makes me feel like I’m more connected to the world, like I see things clearly.
Robert Frost once said that poetry is a way of taking life by the throat. The abrupt, vivid violence of this metaphor is integral to the work of Arda Collins, albeit with just a touch more mystery. Collin’s poetry is a way of taking life by the throat, nearly strangling it, then letting go before embracing it tenderly, stealing its coat, leaving it gasping for breath on a suburban street corner just as the day turns to night.
The following is a transcription from the Q-and-A session from the “Acclaimed American Poets” event, this past Monday at Shakespeare and Company. Catherine Barnett, Matthew Rohrer, and Deborah Landau read from their new or recent collections, respectively The Game of Boxes, Destroyer and Preserver, and The Last Usable Hour.
There is a particular feeling of reverence and fear I get when in the presence of greatness.
“Strand’s poems resonate with a shimmering sense of the infinite that befits his stature…His apparently simple lines have the eerie, seductive ring of the inevitable” – New York Times Book Review