Peter Fallon was spectacular. I expected a short, cute and contemplative Irish gentleman, full of wisdom and with one of the best accents known to man. What I got was that -- and more. Not only was Peter Fallon wise and statueresque, he was also completely relatable at the same time, like a grandfather. He had a calmness about the way he read that immediately lulled me but still had me hanging onto every word. I loved that he remembered my name after I'd only been introduced to him once. I loved his small L.L. Bean backpack. I felt a sense of hope to know that there are great poets like him still out there creating extraordinary works, yet that they are so normal and lead lives much like the rest of us do.
Here are a few of his best gems:
"When I write poetry, I am most myself."
"There was no plan. I started with organizing readings, which led to a book, which led to other books; I was following a calling."
"The hard thing is the keeping going, the starting again, the persistence."
"There was a time when I thought I would learn how to write poems -- with practice -- but you don't know anything when you start again. If you're lucky, you try to finish. The restarting thing is the hardest."
"I have no fixed hours or routine: yellow pads and green pens."
"I ask, do I trust that poem? That's what matters."
These quotes really help me recreate our time with Peter! One of the things that really stuck out to me was the question about whether he trusted that poem...I had never heard a poet describe his work that way, but it seems to resonate with the reaction Auden later had to September 1, 1939. I also thought the green pen thing was really cute!
ReplyDeleteKate, thanks for putting these quotes on your blog. They capture the essence of his talk. I, too, resonated with the way he talked about trusting the poem.
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