Poet, editor, and teacher Jill Khoury interviewed me for Issue 54 of Rogue Agent, a journal of embodied poetry,. You’ll remember Jill from when we discussed the importance of online poetry workshops. I also reviewed her book Suites for the Modern Dancer, and we participated in a dialogue about blindness and writing.
So what is embodied poetry anyway?
Embodiment – which leads to embodied art – is the practice of describing life from where you sit, stand, lean. For disabled writers and artists, creating embodied art means taking the nondisabled audience – or the audience who may not share our impairment – into our daily experiences. Embodied art can be loud, political, and sharp. But it can also be quiet, unassuming, and subtle. Embodied poetry will change your mind about the body and the person who lives with it. It is poetry that is unafraid of the body, poetry that recognizes the body’s role in helping shape our daily experiences.
I am excited to share the interview with you! In this interview, Jill asked me about how I incorporate sensory imagery into poetry — which often relies most on visual images — and why I wrote the poem “Faith.” The poem is included in the interview, and you can also read it in my forthcoming book Neoteny: Poems.
On the Blink 