In English-language poetry, no assumption is more pervasive than that poetry and history oppose one another, no principle more conventional than that poetry and history are best kept apart. Shane McCrae, Jena Osman, and Bino A. Realuyo all three deny that assumption, and all three defy the accompanying convention. In Bound to the Past, McCrae interviews Osman about her recent book Public Figures, Osman interviews Realuyo about his recent book The Gods We Worship Live Next Door, and Realuyo interviews McCrae about his recent book Blood. Their conversations, complemented by an introduction by H. L. Hix and an afterword by Aby Kaupang, present a sometimes surprising and always intense inquiry into the possibilities for, and the implications of, active poetic with history.
Excerpt:
McCrae, Osman and Realuyo are revolutionists. They continuously rotate the questions and the view.
Is it true that history repeats itself? That we haven’t learned? Are our eyes so weary that we’ve disengaged from the turning the human dilemmas over and over again?
—Aby Kaupang
Language
English
Pages
60
Format
ebook
Publisher
Essay Press
Release
October 15, 2015
Bound to the Past: Poetry (out from) under the Sign of History
In English-language poetry, no assumption is more pervasive than that poetry and history oppose one another, no principle more conventional than that poetry and history are best kept apart. Shane McCrae, Jena Osman, and Bino A. Realuyo all three deny that assumption, and all three defy the accompanying convention. In Bound to the Past, McCrae interviews Osman about her recent book Public Figures, Osman interviews Realuyo about his recent book The Gods We Worship Live Next Door, and Realuyo interviews McCrae about his recent book Blood. Their conversations, complemented by an introduction by H. L. Hix and an afterword by Aby Kaupang, present a sometimes surprising and always intense inquiry into the possibilities for, and the implications of, active poetic with history.
Excerpt:
McCrae, Osman and Realuyo are revolutionists. They continuously rotate the questions and the view.
Is it true that history repeats itself? That we haven’t learned? Are our eyes so weary that we’ve disengaged from the turning the human dilemmas over and over again?
—Aby Kaupang