Poets Talk

Book excerpt: This is a book that takes on the “hard questions” about the role of poets in society together with the challenges of reading “difficult” poetry. Using the relaxed format of the personal interview, Butling and Rudy open doors to some of the most challenging and important poetry of the 1990s. Robert Kroetsch talks about his dread of systems and his subversive use of sub-literary forms. Erin Mouré and Daphne Marlatt discuss the feminist trajectories in their work—how to jump circuits and activate alternative networks. Dionne Brand links her poetics to Marxist politics and Pan-African liberation movements. Annharte explains her use of humour to de-program Native people. Jeff Derksen wants to disarticulate and rearticulate linguistic and social systems, while Fred Wah emphasizes the role of poetry in changing how we see the world.