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Quote by Matthew Zapruder

“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.”

Quote by Matthew Zapruder

Author

Matthew Zapruder

Matthew Zapruder is an American poet born in 1967. His work is known for its concise and direct language style, exploring themes of personal emotion, cultural identity, and the complexities of modern life. Zapruder's poetry has gained widespread recognition in the literary world, with his works winning multiple awards. more

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“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.”

Way Humans Mean Hard Language Process Interest Mistake Focus One Thing Poet Materials Focused Intense Horrible Mysterious Human Experience Portal Horrible Things Activate

Author:Matthew Zapruder

“For me, form is something I locate in the process of writing the poems. What I mean is, I start scribbling, and then try to form the poem - on a typewriter or on my computer - and, by trial and error, try to find the right shape. I just try to keep forming the poem in different ways until it feels right to me.”

Way Feels Writing Trying Mean Different Form Process Shapes Computer Errors Trials Different Ways Typewriters Feels Right Trial And Error

Author:Matthew Zapruder

“So for whatever reason those short lines just felt right to me, in my physical self. They were right for the movement of the poems. Some poems in the book have longer lines.”

Book Self Reason Felt Lines Movement

Author:Matthew Zapruder

“It's just interesting to me that the physical enactment of that mind moving has gradually changed for you in the last few years. It made me wonder if the change was deliberate in any sense, or procedural, like when A.R. Ammons stuck an adding machine roll into his typewriter to squeeze his verses into shorter lines.”

Ifs Years Mind Made Lasts Moving Lines Interesting Wonder Changed Machines Stuck Verses Deliberate Typewriters

Author:Matthew Zapruder

“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.”

Thinking Want Needs Trying Sometimes Effects Emotional Strange Sentences Speed Decades Gestures Delay Try Again Clicks Intrigued Milton Syntax

Author:Matthew Zapruder

“Mimesis has longevity on its side. But Oasis wrote two of the greatest pop songs of all time, each with lyrics that mean less and less the more you think about them. So I'm going to have to go with the Gallagher brothers.”

Thinking Mean Two Song Sides Brother Pops All Time Longevity Oasis Pop Song Gallagher Mimesis

Author:Matthew Zapruder

“Music and songs have always been a constant part of my life, and still are. My brother Michael, who is a songwriter and composer, is the one who most fully inherited the musical legacy of our family, but I got some part of it - mostly the feel.”

Feels Stills Song Brother Constant Musical Legacy Our Family My Brother Composer Songwriters

Author:Matthew Zapruder

“I was thinking a little bit about this very thing - poetry and music - the other day when I was listening to Lucinda Williams. The way she sings is very emotive, and there is a kind of drag to her articulation: she sings behind the beat, sort of like she's being pulled along by the song a little, or is in resistance to it.”

Thinking Way Kind Littles Song Bits Behinds Listening Little Bit Beats Resistance Drag Articulation Poetry And Music

Author:Matthew Zapruder

“It's a kind of de-familiarization in relation to the song: if she were to sing absolutely straight, right on the beat, because of the richness and intensity of her instrument - her voice - I think it could actually feel a little inhuman, too good somehow, separate from our concerns.”

Ifs Thinking Feels Kind Littles Song Voice Beats Concern Relation Instruments Intensity Richness Inhuman

Author:Matthew Zapruder

“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.”

Thinking Way Wells Play Seems Song Lines Simple Emotion Emotional Relation Structure Guitar Resistance Tendencies Relevant Solo

Author:Matthew Zapruder