Poet Scott Cairns, author of Compass of Affection: Poems New and Selected (Paraclete Press, 2006), reflects on the beauty of language and the power of words. He says languages can “haunt” one another, and describes the manner in which one word can lead to another. Poetry is not so much about saying something definite as about discovering the artistic potential of the word as a medium. Cairns describes the relationship the poet has with his work as a means of that discovery. 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. To hear a much longer Conversation of this interview, see “Sacramental Poetics” below.
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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. 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).
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