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| Nathaniel Mackey |
In a statement released Tuesday, Poetry magazine editor Don Share said, “The poetry of Nathaniel Mackey continues an American bardic line that unfolds from Whitman’s ‘Leaves of Grass’ to H.D.’s ‘Trilogy’ to Olson’s ‘Maximus’ poems, winds through the whole of Robert Duncan’s work and extends beyond all of these. In his poems, but also in his genre-defying serial novel (which has no beginning or end) and in his multifaceted critical writing, Mackey’s words always go where music goes: a brilliant and major accomplishment.”
Sometimes I practice T'ai Chi and meditate to music, and of course music often accompanies me in the car. I imagine many artists do create their pieces while music plays in the background. But it's a curious idea, I think, for poetry. Poetry itself is akin to bringing out the music that is already innate in the words we speak and the language we own.
Me, I can be anywhere, when I write. For example, three years ago, I was at the Bahrain International Airport, heading back home to Dubai. I arrived well ahead of flight time, so I plugged in my laptop, and ended up writing several poems amid the crowd and noise. I don't listen to music, when I write, as that would be distracting to me. But whether I'm out and about, and simply sitting quietly at home, I am virtually completely absorbed in writing.
Music is evocative for me, and it's not that I cannot write to it or with it. More that, I'd want to be deliberate about it. That is, make the evocation a purposeful part of whatever I am writing.
Congratulations to Nathaniel Mackey!
Here is an audio interview by Curtis Fox, of the Poetry Foundation, last week, where Mackey relates his resonance with music and the story of the failed version of a human race in the word andoumboulouous. He also recites the poem On Antiphon Island, in which he uses that word.
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