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Matt Hart and Dean Young are
exemplary Surrealist poets.

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They incorporate automatic
methods, chance operations,

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appropriation, and
other Surrealist means

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in the making of poems.

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And like many Surrealist
visual artists,

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their works often take pleasure
in whimsy around the corner

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into ache, a
sadness, a sometimes

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momentary, crystalline song.

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Unlike their visual
counterparts,

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Dean and Matt use language,
a tool meant for meaning,

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to break us out of our usual
patterns of understanding.

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This is an onerous
task for any poet,

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but particularly those for
whom meaning itself is suspect.

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Some poets destroy the
meaning-making components

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of language in order
to rid it of deception.

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Our poets tonight have
found another way,

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to choke out deception
through active reception,

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that is, imagination.

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"It is the art of thwarting
the merely random,"

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Matt writes in a 2001
essay on collage.

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In a 2003 lecture on
Surrealism, Dean Young

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says, "We are so alienated
from our imagination.

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All we are aware of is--" and
there's a break in the tape

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there, a jump in
the audio, and all

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of a sudden all we are aware
of is an unanswerable mystery,

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a technical blip,
information the gods never

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intended us to have.

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All I can say is
that imagination

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scrambles into am I atoning.

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Our poets, no doubt, can
do better than anagrams.

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Tonight, we'll hear
first from Matt Hart,

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editor of Forklift, Ohio: A
Journal of Poetry, Cooking,

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and Light Industrial Safety.

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Forklift, Ohio, the
new issue is for sale

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out in the lobby, as is
Matt's just released chapbook,

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Revelated, and a CD from his
band, Travel, all of which

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are for sale for $10.

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And all of Dean Young's books
are also available for sale,

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courtesy of Barnes and Noble.

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But back to Matt,
he's also the author

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of the forthcoming Who's Who
Vivid from Slope Editions,

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and as I mentioned, the
just released Revelated.

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After that, Dean Young, author
of six well-loved collections

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of poetry, most recently,
Elegy on Toy Piano, he'll read.

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He's also the author of
Skid, Strike Anywhere,

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and the recently
re-released Beloved Infidel.

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He teaches at the Iowa Writers'
Workshop and the Warren Wilson

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Program for Writers.

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Please welcome Matt Hart.