Aldeburgh Poetry Festival II: Robert Hass (again), Kay Ryan, etc
November 16, 2011This will be shorter than the last post.
Long ago, Robert Hass was having a conversation with Milosz who was showing him some political poems. Hass was commenting on them reluctantly, maybe not thinking they were that good, so Milosz said something like this:
Sometimes it is better to be ashamed than silent.
Robert Hass [photo credits at end] |
Hass/Milosz wasn�t all seriousness� Hass once found a second-hand book, in Polish, on underwear - all the names and types. He gave it to CM, by then a grand old man and Nobel winner, and it made him so happy� I think it was at this point that Hass became tearful. Or maybe it was when he talked about how Milosz was driven by his need to recover reality through writing poetry, and the impossibility of this.
No tears from Kay Ryan, and she made us all laugh, often; but there was loss and anguish below the surface. She read her narrow poems like climbing nimbly down a ladder, or up; whichever way, gravity is with the listener/reader... And she talked - drawn out very nicely by interviewer Naomi Jaffa. I think the best thing she said was (approximately) this:
A poem never makes you feel heavier... it makes your parts feel further away from each other... gravity doesn�t have to weigh us down.
Hopkins and Dickinson were early passions/influences, but the first was her one-room-schooled grandmother who would recite poems by heart. Ryan was thrilled by Dickinson�s off-rhymes, and by her taking the mind as her subject.
Why that Ryan-poem shape? It�s like only liking crusts; narrow lines please her. As for length: short poems slow the reader down, make every word matter. No fat no slop. When she started writing, one couldn�t rhyme, so she chose mid-line rhymes. She tries to be very plain in syntax and argument, in order to help the line breaks and make the meaning clear.
There�s plenty that�s unclear [in the world], I like to clear the pool as much as possible.
Kay Ryan |
The Young Poets� reading, with Emily Berry, Hannah Lowe, Helen Mort and Sam Riviere was excellent and attracted a big audience. I already love Hannah�s poems so it was great to hear them in the Jubilee Hall. A long poem by Helen Mort especially struck me, about the re-enactment of one episode in the miners� strikes of the 80�s. It would be good if Aldeburgh invited more younger poets who�d bring their audience� the current audience isn�t as young, or as multi-cultural, as it could be. Especially the latter.
Masterclass |
To end, here�s an Aldeburgh Moment: Michael Laskey introducing Kay Ryan on that Stevie Smith poem - called, he said, �The Jungle Wife�. �It�s �The Jungle Husband�.. Freudian slip!� muttered the audience, rustling their copies. Michael: �You�re all such good readers�.
HappenStance and Magnetickidliv have both posted on the Festival in the last few days.
HappenStance and Magnetickidliv have both posted on the Festival in the last few days.
0 comments