What does it mean to make a narrative out of our thoughts and feelings. And really too, how do the people in our lives our relationships factor into our reality. When we write an ode to a lover, are we watching them in love with another person? Are we Keats watching the lovers in the glade and delighting in it, for the sake of the love itself—are we watching ourselves—what is truly in relation? can it be held—we are always in conversation on this podcast with the relational—what does it mean to witness a conversation, as a kind of outside third thing? In poetry, there is at work, a relation between the reader and the writer—there is also a phenomenon that the reader watches a between the poet and the poem, or the poet and their multiple selves. We’ll talk of much of this today with the poet, Ben Fama. We also discuss overlap between meditation practices and writing and engaging with poetry in a meaningful way.
Ben Fama is the author of several full length poetry books, Fantasy from Ugly Duckling Press, and Death Wish, from Newest York, and has just had a chapbook out from Blush, Compersion. He’s the editor and publisher of Wonder books, based in New York City, which publishes poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. Ben Fama runs a very affordable and innovative workshop collective called COOL Memories, IRL/URL Poetry Workshop and I highly recommend it, You can find out more by following them on Instagram and Twitter under COOL MEMORIES. Right now they have opened Jan-Feb classes: we’ve built a six week curriculum around Rainer Maria Rilke, taught by Courtney Bush and Ben Fama.
Sign up for COOL MEMORIES HERE:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc92YXrGsCtrHJhKauGxJcZcDxUIpsal4kZbT7-uhRzcgBJlA/viewform
