“Can poetry be a form of social change? I don't know the answer to that. I do think art can have a social impact even if it may be difficult to see the effects of that impact, to assess or measure it.” ThinkingArtDifficultPoetry IsSocial Change Author:Dawn Lundy Martin
“When my work does speak to audiences, when it creates audiences around it, I feel a little less crazy because what that means is that there are folks out there who are interested in thinking about themselves and the world through a prism. The prism is a labor and there can be a pleasure in labor.” ThinkingWorldMeanSpeakPleasureAudienceCrazyLabor Author:Dawn Lundy Martin
“I reach readers rather unintentionally, I think, and those readers likely connect with the slant, the off-kilter, the part of the road you can barely see from the well-traveled road. So, when I'm writing, I'm not thinking about audience at all. Instead, I'm trying to see behind those shrubs, down that hidden path. We're the weirdos of the world and there are so many weirdos.” ThinkingWorldWritingTryingAudiencePathWeirdo Author:Dawn Lundy Martin
“I'm interested is the oblique as a concept deeply connected to human lived experience, not separate from it. I was listening to an interview with film director Stephen Frears on NPR the other day and he said, "People's lives are never what you think they are," or something like that. Human lives are oblique. It makes sense to me that attending to them in language is as well.” ThinkingFilmLanguageListeningMake Sense Author:Dawn Lundy Martin
“When I am writing poetry, I try to make my mind go a little lazy, to not think too much, as a way of opening up the part of the brain that makes poems. If I'm successful in this part of the process I'm often not. If my mind gets too lazy it will linger in familiar boring territory, it's like my mind can stroke the physical world.” ThinkingWorldWritingTryingMindBrainSuccessfulBoringFamiliarLazyWriting Poetry Author:Dawn Lundy Martin
“The precise laziness is akin to letting your eyes blur or glimpsing what's at the corners in peripheral vision. Or those moments when you think you see something but you're not sure you actually saw it in the end. The way I get to these places is just practice, like a kind of meditation that shapes my brain.” ThinkingKindMomentsEyeBrainVisionMeditationNot SureLazinessBlur Author:Dawn Lundy Martin
“I often feel trapped. I often feel like I'm trying to escape some trap, be it a way of thinking, a compulsion, or a way of life. I believe this persistent feeling comes from childhood traumas that stripped away my power. The effect, though, the resulting persistent desire to stretch out of confinement even when confinement is inevitable, is a gift.” ThinkingTryingBelieveFeelingsDesireI BelieveChildhoodTraumaInevitablePersistent Author:Dawn Lundy Martin
“I think the occupation of my poetry is akin to this desire to be many things at once - things that sometimes conflict. Regarding how the quotidian makes its way into the work, it's all of it, in a way. Like, when I'm writing poems, I'm just picking up scraps of whatever is happening around me - a geographical location, a love affair failed, the day the air felt like rope.” ThinkingWritingSometimesDesireConflictAffairPoetry IsLove AffairScrap Author:Dawn Lundy Martin