Modern Poetry (ModPo)'s Al Filreid and Kate Colby Discuss Eileen R. Tabios's Poem "As If" on ModPo's YOUTUBE Channel. You can see/listen to their discussion at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTSVrQBfY9g
AS IF
There was un
momento, a
poem
I wrote while
driving the
car.
My ego would
not let
me
pull over to
jot it
down.
"If a poem
is so
powerful
it will return,"
I have
Boasted
for a long
time to
other
poets, as if
I possessed
Some
knowledge they did
not already
possess.
It feels like
years and
yet
that poem has
not yet
returned.
What I recall
is that,
somehow,
it related to
perfect timing
y
flamenco.
~
Excerpts from the Conversation:
Kate Colby:
Such strict condensation really doesn’t allow you to predetermine what’s to be said. You have to fill the container as you are writing. So there’s always a surprise for the poet. The form leads the thoughts and it’s palpable here.
It feels so tossed off but it’s so funny and lands so nicely.
Al Filreis:
—Cid Corman-ean.
—[Title] suggests imagination…it’s as if _____________.
—Funny. This is a metapoem—the poem about forgetting the other poem.
—What fun is it to talk about a [poetry] form like this [hay(na)ku]. It’s still possible in the 21st century to create a completely different and new form based on tradition and do new things with it.
***
"As If" is a playful poem, such that it can be the root for a series of poems that can have different endings (an approach that was used for the series "Bauang Beach" in Because I Love You, I Become War). Here is the first riffed poem that was first published in the U.K.'s Stride Magazine--one can see how the poem's ending can vary after the word "somehow" in the 11th stanza:
Fishing: As If
There was a
moment, a
poem
I wrote while
driving the
car.
My ego would
not let
me
pull over to
jot it
down.
"If a poem
is so
powerful
it will return,"
I’ve long
boasted
tediously to other
poets, as
if
I possessed knowledge
they didn’t
know.
It feels like
years and
yet
that poem still
fails to
return.
What I recall
is that,
somehow,
it related to
the Tahing
Baila,
a Yakan dance
from Basilan
seeking
to emulate movements
of elusive
fish.
***
"As If" is featured in Tabios' bilingual English/Spanish book UNO DOS TRES / ONE TWO THREE: Selected Hay(na)ku Poems.
*****
Al Filreid is the Kelly Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, Faculty Director of the Kelly Writers House. More information at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Filreis
Kate Colby is an award-winning poet, essayist and author of six poetry books. More information at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Colby
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