"i write poems to find things out..."

2010-12-19T21:02:00.000-08:00

Mars Hill Review: In your last two books, you have... [... ] What were your intentions in doing so?

Scott Cairns: First, let me say a little something about intentions. I don't have that many. And I usually come up with them long after I've finished the work. So, for me, intentions are more like "likely stories." I think writers with actual intentions generally end up saying things they already thought they knew, and I'm not much interested in reducing my vocation as a poet to something like propagandist. I write poems to find things out, not to communicate some previously ossified conclusion....

MHR: As a teacher of creative writing, do you have any specific goals for your students?

SC: Yes. I want them to see themselves, and what they create, as part of an ongoing, vital tradition. I want them to turn away from the modernist, personal mode and its taste for ennui. I want them to find in poetry a means of consoling their losses, a way of witnessing grace, and an access to living, even now, in what we still might call the Kingdom of God. I want us all to be free of petty passions, and freed into serving enormous passions. I know that's pretty big talk, but I think poetry has the power to effect just such pleasures. I think the writer of John's gospel was onto something when he chose Logos as a metaphor for the Christ. I like also the Hebrew notion of word, davhar, a word which is also a thing, a power, an agent instigating other, subsequent words.

the rest of the interview is here.

start something

2010-12-18T23:29:00.001-08:00

because i want to write, and i don't want to balk because i feel i have nothing profound enough to say. but i want to look and listen and write and remember. fragments. hints. guesses.

it is saturday and raining and i didn't bring umbrella (on purpose) to the LACMA. it's good to be so surrounded by water.

c. and i saw william eggleston's "democratic camera" exhibition... rich images of daily life: magically mundane. like watching rain fall gently into garbage can. here's why i admire him: he finds beauty in ordinary things. that's what i('d) like to do. one must use strangely contradictory words to describe the same photo. he saw things and held them. images and mysteries marked his days. i like that.

http://www.americansuburbx.com/2010/07/william-eggleston-william-eggleston.html

driving to la, c. and i talked about simple ways in which we can live every day beautifully: light candles at dinner, leave lovely notes for dear ones. assess the remians of each day and constantly strive to live better. refuse to be discouraged. never cease to believe in the process of redemption. always, invite more ideas to come make a home inside. she is moving across the country soon. that is inspiring and requires vast amounts of courage. i love her.

we listened to mumford & sons... decided that a banjo is simultaneously the saddest and most joyful (and so the most soulful) instrument there is. i think m & s will be important for me. new beginnings.

'coco before chanel,' starring audrey tautou... coco's big dark eyes with which she saw and shaped her world. her guiding principle was her own heart and tastes. she was a bright, courageous, completely un-passive person. audrey, 'you have to create your life. you can't sit passively, waiting for something to happen.'

how to give meaning to life? help bring joy & spontaneity to the world. keep writing the pages of my life. new chapters. determination.

inner freedom

first violin.

resolution for 2011: make it the year of 'yes, i did.' as in, 'yes, i did what i always knew i could, what i always wanted to.' find freedom. create and share life.

septembear

"i write poems to find things out..."

start something