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closeWashington's first poet laureate, Sam Green, who co-founded Brooding Heron Press with his wife, Sally, reads from his new collection of poetry, "The Grace of Necessity," Wednesday at the American Musuem of Radio and Electricity.
Question: You and Sally moved to Waldron Island in 1982 to "spend full time with poetry." Do you?
Answer: More or less, yes, we do. We read, write, edit or print poetry while we're on Waldron; we talk about it during the day; we think in terms of poems. Even when we're doing other chores (cutting firewood, working in the garden), poetry is pretty much always lurking. It has become, as Flannery O'Connor puts it, "a habit of being."
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MEET THE AUTHOR
Sam Green
"The Grace of Necessity"
7 p.m. Wednesday, as part of the Chuckanut Radio Hour American Museum of Radio and Electricity
1312 Bay St.
$5; tickets at Village Books, 671-2626
Q: What do you learn from being on an isolated island?
A: Living in a small place, in an identifiable community, has taught me a good deal about what it means to be a social being. Learning how to accommodate the ideas, the attitudes, the foibles of one's neighbors is also to learn that they are doing the same for you. It's all too easy to spend time complaining that others aren't what one wants them to be; living on Waldron has taught me to spend more time dealing with people as they are.
It's also provided an opportunity to better learn my own sense of self as a poet who can sometimes articulate a grief or a joy or a mystery for others who cannot do it the same way. It's improved my sense of — and value of — what an audience is, and who, more exactly, I write my poems for.
Q: How is teaching at Seattle University good for you as a poet?
A: Teaching is good for me because it clarifies how I think. Having to articulate to students what it is I do, means that I have to think about some of those things that have become, over the years, unconscious, or intuitive. Also, reading intently the poems they write for me, I'm moved toward ideas of mine, or structures that will work for both me and my students. It's also a joy, getting to share what I love.
Q: How has your life changed since your appointment as poet laureate (and as Distinguished Northwest Writer-in-Residence)?
A: The most dramatic change, of course, is that I'm more immediately public, more recognizable. I've spent much of my life avoiding that, happily on the edge of the "poetry biz." I hate playing credentials poker with other poets, for example. I'm far more interested in poems. This title is opening opportunities to do pretty much what I've done for the last 30 years: talk about poetry.
Partly, this means demystifying what a poet is, what a poet does. Over and over my own experience parallels that of my peers: we encounter people who say to us, "Oh! I didn't know poets were like that, or that there might be poems that are really meaningful to me."
When I was a child, I honestly did not know that there were any living poets, and I was embarrassed about my own love of it. I spend a lot of time with kids, trying to help them not to feel embarrassed by what they're drawn toward.
Q: What, specifically, have you done, and what are some of your plans to "promote the work of Washington state poets"?
A: Specifically, I've begun making appointments for a number of visits throughout the state. I'll be part of several writing conferences, give readings in libraries, bookstores, on college campuses, visit schools, Rotary Clubs, book clubs, and any number of other venues I can invent or encounter. I've already given more interviews — radio and print — in the past couple of months than in the past several years.
Certainly I don't believe in the elitist notion of art. That is, I feel as though art should be accessible to the widest possible audience. Especially I will make sure to read the work of other Washington poets as I give readings of my own (where there is time). I have been printing up a sheet with the titles of poems I read by others, along with bibliographical information, so that people can go and find books on their own afterward. From messages I've been getting, this seems to have had some success. Q: Do you find new poets, as you travel around the state, who you find worth reading, worth knowing?
A: Absolutely! I've already met several poets I didn't know. There is an embarrassment of riches in this state. So many talented poets. Even so, wonderful poems can come from unexpected places. High school kids sometimes make poems with a line or a stanza that leaves me stunned; I try to read as though any moment I will find the poem that will save my life.
Q: What can parents or teachers or adults do to foster an appreciation of poetry, or for that matter, reading and the written word?
A: The first thing any parent can do is model an interest of their own, and share it. It's easier for students to believe that poetry has value if parents treat it as though it does. It was a startling surprise to me, for example, to discover that a good many English teachers don't really care about reading poetry outside of the classroom. Trust me: this is not a slam. I have tremendous respect for teachers, and I know how little time they have of their own after giving their students what they need; but it did surprise me. Perhaps it shouldn't have.
A: Most Americans do not read poetry. Is this changing?
Q: I'd like to think it is. Certainly younger people are interested. One of those venues is slam performance, or "spoken word." It's an exciting branch of the larger tree of poetry.
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