WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.290 align:middle line:90% 00:00:03.290 --> 00:00:08.690 align:middle line:84% At AWP Boston last year, Timothy Liu spoke at a panel entitled, 00:00:08.690 --> 00:00:12.230 align:middle line:84% "Courting the Love Poem: Challenges of Sincerity 00:00:12.230 --> 00:00:14.030 align:middle line:90% and Sentimentality." 00:00:14.030 --> 00:00:16.850 align:middle line:84% He closed the panel with a poem in which the last two 00:00:16.850 --> 00:00:20.090 align:middle line:84% lines were, quote, "he said fucking his wife 00:00:20.090 --> 00:00:22.400 align:middle line:84% was as boring as the Stations of the Cross." 00:00:22.400 --> 00:00:22.940 align:middle line:90% End quote. 00:00:22.940 --> 00:00:24.620 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHING] 00:00:24.620 --> 00:00:28.010 align:middle line:84% It says a lot about sincerity in sentimentality, 00:00:28.010 --> 00:00:29.960 align:middle line:90% or lack of the latter. 00:00:29.960 --> 00:00:32.420 align:middle line:84% When we talk about American gay poetics, 00:00:32.420 --> 00:00:36.320 align:middle line:84% we usually consider one or more five umbrella aspects 00:00:36.320 --> 00:00:39.440 align:middle line:84% of the larger American gay poetics. 00:00:39.440 --> 00:00:41.060 align:middle line:84% And what I'm going to list right now 00:00:41.060 --> 00:00:45.980 align:middle line:84% is from Brian Teare and Peter Pereira's "Symposium" 00:00:45.980 --> 00:00:49.370 align:middle line:84% in Beloit Poetry Journal In 2011. 00:00:49.370 --> 00:00:54.350 align:middle line:84% One, transgressive stance or in your face very sexualized 00:00:54.350 --> 00:00:55.790 align:middle line:90% gay poetry. 00:00:55.790 --> 00:01:00.770 align:middle line:84% Two, love of hidden and/or contain and/or transformative 00:01:00.770 --> 00:01:04.819 align:middle line:84% language via anagrams, lyricism, et cetera. 00:01:04.819 --> 00:01:08.660 align:middle line:84% Three, the obsession of rhyming rhyme 00:01:08.660 --> 00:01:13.790 align:middle line:84% to get romantically sentimental attached sounds. 00:01:13.790 --> 00:01:16.010 align:middle line:90% Four, humor and irony. 00:01:16.010 --> 00:01:19.670 align:middle line:84% And five, the rhetorical situations and inquiries 00:01:19.670 --> 00:01:23.030 align:middle line:84% behind what it means to write a gay character. 00:01:23.030 --> 00:01:27.050 align:middle line:84% Timothy utilizes aspects of all five of these categories, 00:01:27.050 --> 00:01:29.120 align:middle line:84% weaving the interpersonal, cultural, 00:01:29.120 --> 00:01:32.630 align:middle line:84% and historical conflicts of Judeo-Christianity 00:01:32.630 --> 00:01:35.930 align:middle line:84% through the lens of a young Asian-American gay poet. 00:01:35.930 --> 00:01:39.290 align:middle line:84% The Judeo-Christian motifs traverse all his collections, 00:01:39.290 --> 00:01:44.210 align:middle line:84% taking in after the 9/11 fact ideological questioning 00:01:44.210 --> 00:01:47.690 align:middle line:90% in his 2005 For Dust Thou Art. 00:01:47.690 --> 00:01:51.920 align:middle line:84% The still narratives, ones which depict the body, the corpus 00:01:51.920 --> 00:01:56.180 align:middle line:84% and its more abstract love, are also infamous patterns. 00:01:56.180 --> 00:01:59.960 align:middle line:84% Timothy's concision exists at the structural contents level. 00:01:59.960 --> 00:02:02.390 align:middle line:84% Most of his books are sectioned into three or four 00:02:02.390 --> 00:02:04.160 align:middle line:90% separate parts. 00:02:04.160 --> 00:02:06.980 align:middle line:84% Even selected titles make their rare appearances 00:02:06.980 --> 00:02:08.690 align:middle line:90% at the title line lines. 00:02:08.690 --> 00:02:12.560 align:middle line:84% You have the marriage, romance, say good night, 00:02:12.560 --> 00:02:14.780 align:middle line:90% "Of Thee I Sing." 00:02:14.780 --> 00:02:16.400 align:middle line:84% That kind of repetition and rhythm 00:02:16.400 --> 00:02:19.160 align:middle line:84% and organized and pathos-driven conceit 00:02:19.160 --> 00:02:21.440 align:middle line:90% is what drives his poetry. 00:02:21.440 --> 00:02:24.710 align:middle line:84% Take "His body, like Christ, pass in and out of my life." 00:02:24.710 --> 00:02:27.800 align:middle line:84% Which is from his first book, Vox Angelica. 00:02:27.800 --> 00:02:31.040 align:middle line:84% Quote, "I was not indifferent, only hardened. 00:02:31.040 --> 00:02:33.620 align:middle line:84% A German violin instead of her voice. 00:02:33.620 --> 00:02:39.000 align:middle line:84% Later my lover smiling as Jesus, always late, never his fault. 00:02:39.000 --> 00:02:42.470 align:middle line:84% What are birds returning, singing compared to this? 00:02:42.470 --> 00:02:45.830 align:middle line:84% The lies I have forsaken to honor God." 00:02:45.830 --> 00:02:49.610 align:middle line:84% Timothy Liu is the author of eight poetry collections, 00:02:49.610 --> 00:02:52.308 align:middle line:84% including several that have won prestigious book awards which 00:02:52.308 --> 00:02:52.850 align:middle line:90% I won't list. 00:02:52.850 --> 00:02:55.040 align:middle line:84% You guys probably have looked that up 00:02:55.040 --> 00:02:56.930 align:middle line:90% or heard enough about it. 00:02:56.930 --> 00:02:59.840 align:middle line:84% His poems have been translated into 10 languages 00:02:59.840 --> 00:03:02.900 align:middle line:84% and his papers and journals are archived at the New York Public 00:03:02.900 --> 00:03:04.010 align:middle line:90% Library. 00:03:04.010 --> 00:03:06.530 align:middle line:84% He teaches at William Paterson University 00:03:06.530 --> 00:03:10.070 align:middle line:84% and lives in Woodstock, New York and NYC with his husband. 00:03:10.070 --> 00:03:12.350 align:middle line:84% Ladies and gents, please welcome Timothy Liu. 00:03:12.350 --> 00:03:13.847 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:03:13.847 --> 00:03:14.347 align:middle line:90%