WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.960 align:middle line:90%


00:00:00.960 --> 00:00:04.800 align:middle line:84%
Matt Hart and Dean Young are
exemplary surrealist poets.

00:00:04.800 --> 00:00:08.340 align:middle line:84%
They incorporate automatic
methods, chance operations,

00:00:08.340 --> 00:00:10.950 align:middle line:84%
appropriation, and
other surrealist means

00:00:10.950 --> 00:00:12.720 align:middle line:90%
in the making of poems.

00:00:12.720 --> 00:00:16.830 align:middle line:84%
And like many surrealist
visual artists,

00:00:16.830 --> 00:00:19.440 align:middle line:84%
their works often take
pleasure in whimsy

00:00:19.440 --> 00:00:22.770 align:middle line:84%
around the corner
into ache, a sadness,

00:00:22.770 --> 00:00:26.130 align:middle line:84%
a sometimes momentary
crystalline song.

00:00:26.130 --> 00:00:28.260 align:middle line:84%
Unlike their visual
counterparts,

00:00:28.260 --> 00:00:30.360 align:middle line:90%
Dean and Matt use language--

00:00:30.360 --> 00:00:32.189 align:middle line:90%
a tool meant for meaning--

00:00:32.189 --> 00:00:36.360 align:middle line:84%
to break us out of our usual
patterns of understanding.

00:00:36.360 --> 00:00:38.940 align:middle line:84%
This is an onerous
task for any poet,

00:00:38.940 --> 00:00:43.530 align:middle line:84%
but particularly those for
whom meaning itself is suspect.

00:00:43.530 --> 00:00:47.250 align:middle line:84%
Some poets destroy the meaning
making components of language

00:00:47.250 --> 00:00:49.620 align:middle line:90%
in order to rid it of deception.

00:00:49.620 --> 00:00:51.780 align:middle line:84%
Our poets tonight
have found another way

00:00:51.780 --> 00:00:56.580 align:middle line:84%
to choke out deception
through active reception that

00:00:56.580 --> 00:00:59.050 align:middle line:90%
is imagination.

00:00:59.050 --> 00:01:01.980 align:middle line:84%
"It is the art of thwarting
the merely random,"

00:01:01.980 --> 00:01:05.519 align:middle line:84%
Matt writes in a 2001
essay on collage.

00:01:05.519 --> 00:01:09.030 align:middle line:84%
In a 2003 lecture
on surrealism, Young

00:01:09.030 --> 00:01:12.430 align:middle line:84%
says, "We are so alienated
from our imagination.

00:01:12.430 --> 00:01:16.170 align:middle line:84%
All we are aware of is--" and
there's a break in the page

00:01:16.170 --> 00:01:16.950 align:middle line:90%
there--

00:01:16.950 --> 00:01:18.150 align:middle line:90%
a jump in the audio.

00:01:18.150 --> 00:01:20.550 align:middle line:84%
And all of a sudden,
all we are aware of

00:01:20.550 --> 00:01:22.710 align:middle line:90%
is an unanswerable mystery--

00:01:22.710 --> 00:01:25.560 align:middle line:84%
a technical blip,
information the gods never

00:01:25.560 --> 00:01:26.880 align:middle line:90%
intended us to have--

00:01:26.880 --> 00:01:27.930 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:01:27.930 --> 00:01:32.370 align:middle line:84%
All I can say that is
that imagination scrambles

00:01:32.370 --> 00:01:35.100 align:middle line:90%
into [INAUDIBLE] atoning.

00:01:35.100 --> 00:01:38.850 align:middle line:84%
Our poets, no doubt, can
do better than anagrams.

00:01:38.850 --> 00:01:41.340 align:middle line:84%
Tonight we'll hear first
from Matt Hart, editor

00:01:41.340 --> 00:01:44.070 align:middle line:84%
of Forklift Ohio, a
journal of poetry,

00:01:44.070 --> 00:01:46.110 align:middle line:84%
cooking, and light
industrial safety.

00:01:46.110 --> 00:01:48.360 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:01:48.360 --> 00:01:50.580 align:middle line:84%
Forklift Ohio, the
new issue is for sale

00:01:50.580 --> 00:01:55.080 align:middle line:84%
out in the lobby, as is Matt's
released chapbook, Revelated,

00:01:55.080 --> 00:01:58.920 align:middle line:90%
and a CD from his band, Travel.

00:01:58.920 --> 00:02:01.080 align:middle line:84%
All of which are
for sale for $10.

00:02:01.080 --> 00:02:03.930 align:middle line:84%
And all of Dean
Young's books also

00:02:03.930 --> 00:02:08.060 align:middle line:84%
available for sale courtesy
of Barnes and Noble.

00:02:08.060 --> 00:02:09.840 align:middle line:90%
But back to Matt--

00:02:09.840 --> 00:02:11.740 align:middle line:84%
he's also the author
of the forthcoming

00:02:11.740 --> 00:02:13.980 align:middle line:84%
Who's Who Vivid
from Slope Editions.

00:02:13.980 --> 00:02:17.340 align:middle line:84%
And as I mentioned, the
just released Revelated.

00:02:17.340 --> 00:02:20.520 align:middle line:84%
After that, Dean Young, author
of six well-loved collections

00:02:20.520 --> 00:02:24.600 align:middle line:84%
of poetry, most recently
Elegy on Toy Piano, will read.

00:02:24.600 --> 00:02:27.600 align:middle line:84%
He's also the author of
Skid, Strike Anywhere,

00:02:27.600 --> 00:02:31.470 align:middle line:84%
and the recently
re-released Beloved Infidel.

00:02:31.470 --> 00:02:34.530 align:middle line:84%
He teaches at the Iowa Writers'
Workshop and the Warren Wilson

00:02:34.530 --> 00:02:36.770 align:middle line:90%
Program for Writers.