“When you recite you're giving a performance, in the way that an actor or a singer performs, and some poets are not interested in doing that, maybe because they're writing for a readership as opposed to an audience, or because they see poetry as a very private art.” WayGivingWritingArtActorsAudiencePoetPerformancesSingersNot InterestedReadership Author:James Arthur
“For me, poetry is a way of thinking, and like many poets, I'm driven by the idea of trying to find the impossible, perfect words: the words that will hold my subject.” ThinkingWayTryingIdeasPerfectImpossibleSubjectsPoetDrivenPoetry IsWay Of Thinking Author:James Arthur
“I don't think I'd ever get any better as a poet if I didn't push myself, very deliberately, to grow. My best poems surprise me, as they should, but I fight them at every turn, possibly just because I'm stubborn.” IfsThinkingShouldTurnsFightingGrowsPoetSurpriseStubbornSurprise MeBest Poem Author:James Arthur
“I try not to think in terms of what poems or poets should do. Most of us appreciate a wide diversity in music, in cooking, in movies, but in our own medium, poetry, we often fail to make allowances for tastes and projects other than our own.” ThinkingShouldTryingTermFailingPoetTasteDiversityProjectsAppreciateCookingWideMediumsAllowance Author:James Arthur
“It is hard to compare cultures without overgeneralizing, but I think a lot of American poetry has an assertiveness - an upbeat quality - that's less typical of Canadian poetry. Of course there are poets in both countries to whom that generalization does not apply. Speaking broadly, I'd describe Canadians as being a bit more reserved than Americans. Not less opinionated - just less direct.” ThinkingCountryCultureQualityPoetDirectCompareAssertivenessUpbeat Author:James Arthur
“I do like Canadian poetry. Christian Bök, Anne Carson, Carmine Starnino, and Don McKay are a few of the Canadian poets whose work has been important to me. But I'm not sure that I do see poetry as a world apart. Some of my metaphors are based in the fantastic, but I try to be true to life as I understand it. That understanding is affected by my Canadianness, my Americanness, my whiteness, my gender, my age, my education, my experience...everything about me affects my view of reality. But I try to wrestle against those partialities, not embrace them.” WorldTryingImportantRealityAgeChristianUnderstandingPoetEmbraceMetaphorGenderBeing TrueFantasticNot SureTrue LifePartiality Author:James Arthur
“I believe strongly in what John Keats called negative capability: the trait or practice that allows a poet to remain in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact & reason. For Keats, William Shakespeare exemplified negative capability, and I do think it's extraordinary that for all the thousands of pages Shakespeare left behind, we really don't know much about Shakespeare's own personality or opinions.” ThinkingBelieveReasonI BelieveOpinionDoubtMysteryPoetPersonalityNegativeExtraordinaryUncertaintyCapabilityTraitsLeft Behind Author:James Arthur
“I want each poem to be ambiguous enough that its meaning can shift, depending on the reader's own frame of reference, and depending on the reader's mood. That's why negative capability matters; if the poet stops short of fully controlling each poem's meaning, the reader can make the poem his or her own.” EnoughPoetNegativeMoodCapabilityAmbiguous Author:James Arthur
“I want to reiterate that my understanding of the poem is not the poem's core, true meaning. Once a poem goes out into the world, the poet is just one more reader.” WorldUnderstandingPoet Author:James Arthur
