Quotessence
Home / Authors / Matthew Zapruder Books
Matthew Zapruder

Matthew Zapruder Books

Poet

Related Quotes

“I think, secretly, that my poems actually do rhyme. It’s just that the rhyme is what I would call ‘conceptual,’ that is, not made of sounds, but of ideas that accomplish what the sounds do in formal poetry: to connect elements that one wouldn’t have expected, and to make the reader or listener, even if just for a moment, feel the complexity and disorder of life, and at the same time what Wallace Stevens called the ‘obscurity of an order, a whole.”

RhymePoetry Writing
Author:Matthew Zapruder
Create image

“When I saw the sun bears at the Oakland Zoo, I immediately was drawn to them. Not to be ornery, but regarding what you said about the speaker identifying with the bear: I'm not sure it's exactly right to say that the speaker feels that the bear must share his sadness, or whatever else he is feeling. That would be classic pathetic fallacy, which is certainly generative for poetry, but here the speaker appears actually to be rejecting that idea.”

FeelsSaidIdeasFeelingsWould BeSunSawsSadnessShareBearsClassicNot SureSpeakersPatheticFallacyZoosIdentifyingRejectingOaklandOrnery
Author:Matthew Zapruder
Create image

“The speaker tentatively reaches out with that feeling and realizes that it's kind of absurd, or at least a dangerous consolation, which is what I think is discovered as that longish sentence at the end of the poem comes to its conclusion. But here I am interpreting my own poem, which is kind of like making out with one's own high school yearbook photo.”

ThinkingKindEndsFeelingsSchoolRealizingMy OwnDangerousHigh SchoolSentencesAbsurdConclusionReach OutSpeakersConsolationHere I AmInterpretingYearbookHigh School Yearbook
Author:Matthew Zapruder
Create image

“[My poems] of course, it's symbolic, in the way that things in a poem can be - that is, pointing to something beyond its mere ordinary meaning, while also retaining all the qualities of that ordinary meaning. In other words, it's a bear, but it's also suggesting something else, just by virtue of the attention to it. But it's not "symbolic" in that way we are taught to think about things in poems.”

ThinkingWayCoursesAttentionQualityVirtueTaughtBearsOrdinaryMerePointingSymbolicSuggestingRetaining
Author:Matthew Zapruder
Create image

“Something can be symbolic without being a mere stand-in or vessel, which just brings us away from the true mystery and dread, into some boring version of what we already know. So what you say is true, in that the bear is a kind of parallel to the speaker, or imagined as such, but also very different. So if it's a symbol it is - ahem - a polysemous one.”

IfsKnowsKindDifferentMysteryBearsMereBoringVersionsSymbolsSpeakersDreadParallelsVesselSymbolic
Author:Matthew Zapruder
Create image

“There is all this stuff about how sensitive poets are and how in touch with feelings, etc. they are, but really all we care about is language. At least in the initial stages of the process of writing the poem, though later other things start to come in, and a really good poem usually needs something more than just an interest in the material of language to mean anything to a reader.”

NeedsWritingMeanFeelingsCareLanguageStuffProcessInterestStagePoetMaterialsReaderSensitiveEtcInitials
Author:Matthew Zapruder
Create image

“That is a horrible thing in a way, but it is the one thing poets can bring back to experience, this intense focus on language, which activates words as a portal back into experience. It's a mysterious process that's very hard to articulate, because it's focused entirely on the material of language in a way, but in the interests not just of language itself whatever that would mean - that's the mistake, by the way, that so many so-called "experimental" poets make - but in service to human experience.”

WayHumansMeanHardLanguageProcessInterestMistakeFocusOne ThingPoetMaterialsFocusedIntenseHorribleMysteriousHuman ExperiencePortalHorrible ThingsActivate
Author:Matthew Zapruder
Create image

“Milton on speed. I am going to need about a decade to think about that. That delay in syntax, the putting off of the click of the sentence into itself, is something that has always intrigued me. I love the emotional effect of it, and never want it to be merely a gesture. Sometimes I try it and it doesn't work, so I have to put the poem aside, and try again, more simply and more strange.”

ThinkingWantNeedsTryingSometimesEffectsEmotionalStrangeSentencesSpeedDecadesGesturesDelayTry AgainClicksIntriguedMiltonSyntax
Author:Matthew Zapruder
Create image

“Not that I play guitar anywhere near as well as she sings, but I think I have always had a tendency to play solos the same way, in emotional relation to the structure of the song. I choose simple lines, and only play what seems emotionally relevant, and often express that emotion in time, that is in play or resistance to the set time of the song.”

ThinkingWayWellsPlaySeemsSongLinesSimpleEmotionEmotionalRelationStructureGuitarResistanceTendenciesRelevantSolo
Author:Matthew Zapruder
Create image

“I've always been more than a little mystified by poets who seem to think talking to people as directly as possible is a bad thing. I mean, I don't want to set up a straw man here: I understand that for many poets - and for me, at times - writing truly means writing in a way that is difficult, simply because the poem is trying to grasp for something elusive. So the difficulty of the poem is just unavoidable, and not in any way artificially imposed. So "as possible" is the key part of the phrase above, I suppose.”

PeopleThinkingMenWayWantWritingTryingMeanLittlesSeemsDifficultTalkingPoetKeysDifficultyPhrasesBad ThingsElusiveStraws
Author:Matthew Zapruder
Create image

“Reading a poem is a real thing, a worthy thing. So to be there right with the reader at that moment is part of the effect of a title like "Poem for" something or other. Matt Rohrer does this a lot in his titles, and I think I might have gotten some of the idea to do this, or at least been reminded of how it can work, from his recent amazing books.”

ThinkingDoeBookIdeasRealMomentsMightReadingEffectsReaderWorthyTitlesThat MomentReal ThingsAmazing BookWorthy Things
Author:Matthew Zapruder
Create image

“Keats's odes are among my favorite poems ever. As are Neruda's. So yes, I think my poems are odes, though I really just see those titles as ways of more or less orienting the poem. I've never thought about this until now, but I guess you could say that one effect of all the titles, their pervasiveness in the book, might be to once again, as so many other things do, put into question the meaning of the word "for," which I suppose is one of the great human questions: what is all this for? Why, and for whom, are we doing whatever we are doing?”

ThinkingWayHumansBookMightEffectsMy FavoriteTitlesOdes
Author:Matthew Zapruder
Create image

“I'm more than a little suspicious of humor in poems, because I think it can at times be a way of getting a reaction out of a reader, or an audience, that is something closer to relief: i.e., thank god this isn't poetry, but stand-up comedy. Some poets are really funny, but more often poets are fourth rate stand up comics at best. But they benefit from the sheer relief of the audience.”

ThinkingWayLittlesAudienceComedyPoetReaderBenefitsRateReactionsReliefThank GodFourthSheerSuspiciousStand Up Comedy
Author:Matthew Zapruder
Create image

“That being said, some of my favorite poets are extremely funny. The aforementioned Matt Rohrer, for instance. Mary Ruefle. James Tate might be the best example of someone who is systematically misread because he can be hilarious. In his poems, as in all great funny poems, the humor is one very appealing version of the surprise and associative movement that is at the heart of all poetry.”

HeartSaidMightExampleMovementPoetSurpriseMy FavoriteVersionsInstanceBeing The BestMaryExtremely Funny
Author:Matthew Zapruder
Create image

“I just know from experience that reading a funny poem aloud, especially at the beginning of a public reading, can have a certain effect. Somehow narrowing the spectrum of possible emotional reactions. So while I like it when people laugh at my poems, and I definitely enjoy being funny in them, I don't really think that's the most important thing that's going on, at least not to me.”

PeopleThinkingKnowsImportantCertainReadingEnjoyLaughingEffectsEmotionalImportant ThingsReactionsSpectrumBeing FunnyEmotional Reactions
Author:Matthew Zapruder
Create image

“I personally believe the role of poets as poets (which is something different from our obligations as citizens, community members, humans) is to write poems. I believe this because I am quite sure poetry can do something no other form or writing, or human activity, can, at least not in such a powerful and distilled and undeniable way. And that we need this type of thinking for our survival as individuals and as a species.”

ThinkingWritingBelieveDifferentIndividualI BelieveCommunityPowerfulPoetSurvivalObligation
Author:Matthew Zapruder
Create image

“Today is such a strange day. The news is out about the Russians and mini-Donald. This seems like a turning point, but it certainly has felt that way before. Like all of us, I am vibrating with electric uncertainty. How do you manage to concentrate and write poems? I know that for me it is just a relief to be in that sort of thinking, away from the news and all the immense global and personal worries.”

ThinkingWritingTodayWorryStrangeManageUncertaintyElectric
Author:Matthew Zapruder
Create image

“I've noticed that there can be a visceral reaction to strong statements about poetry, as if anyone who has an opinion and expresses it is shutting people down. It's funny to see that expressed, and then to go back and read poetic statements by the great poets of the past: they are full of a passionate conviction! It is clearly possible to express strong feelings about poetry while also defending the absolute right of myriad approaches.”

PeopleFeelingsPastStrongOpinionPoetPassionateConvictionPoeticGreat PoetStrong Feeling
Author:Matthew Zapruder
Create image

“My own experience as a reader and writer has been that the more I read, and the more I live, the more different "types" of poetry I grow to love. I might not even believe anymore that there are "types" of poetry at all. I've come to love things I once would snootily have dismissed. Of course I still have my likes and dislikes, and there are things I think are just plain old bullshit, but more and more I am far more trusting of my loves than my dislikes.”

ThinkingBelieveDifferentDislikeBullshit
Author:Matthew Zapruder
Create image

“I don't think poetry needs to be "easily understandable." First of all, there are often complexities of syntax, form, unfamiliar absences, etc., that require a deeper concentration than is usually demanded of us. So that, right off the bat, is a little difficult. Then there is the deeper issue of what poetry is really asking of us. I feel it is asking us to read with great, even sacred, care and attention. That, too, is difficult. It requires discipline and the creation of a temporary zone of privacy, which is inimical to our current conditions of life.”

ThinkingCareDifficultAttentionCreationDisciplineAbsenceComplexityPrivacyZoneConcentrationPoetry IsTemporary
Author:Matthew Zapruder
Create image

“What poetry is asking us to accept can be difficult. Our proximity to our mortality, the fragility of our existence, how close we live in every moment to nameless abysses, and the way language itself is beautifully, tragically, thrillingly insufficient...these are some of the engines that drive the poem. It's natural to want to turn away from these things. But we have to face them, as best we can, at least sometimes. Poetry can help us in that nearly impossible work.”

SometimesMomentsHelpingLanguageDifficultNaturalExistenceAcceptingImpossiblePoetry IsMortalityAbyss
Author:Matthew Zapruder
Create image