
released 4/17/2025
For poet and Eastern Orthodox believer Scott Cairns, a good poem functions like an icon: it assists the process of our becoming aware of what is real, and it is generative in the ways it keeps opening up new understandings. This happens as we “lean in” to the presence of the poem (or icon), engaging with its questions, its allusions, its world — and experience the birth of something new from that encounter. Cairns calls this “sacramental poetics.” In this Conversation, he argues that words have substance and agency, and he explains how he helps his students to become attentive to language and to engage with the historical and ongoing literary conversation. As proof of the stand-alone power of words, he argues that the meaning of the poem can transcend the original scope of its author. Cairns also shares why writing some poems in the voice of a fictional persona helps him to deal with the darker, more troubling parts of Scripture. Cairns is the author of many collections, including the volume that was the occasion for this conversation, Compass of Affection: Poems New and Selected (Paraclete, 2006). A portion of this interview was originally featured on Volume 87 of the Journal.
56 minutes
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