Open Book Toronto interviews Gary Barwin

Gary Barwin recently sat down with Alessandro Porco, the June Writer-in-Residence for Open Book Toronto, to talk about poetry, small press publishing, and his upcoming book The Porcupinity of the Stars.

'I ... have poems in [The Porcupinity of the Stars] about the feet that washed up in B.C., Descartes, the letter H, death, a psalm translation incorporating the Partridge Family and the Brady Bunch, inverted deer, Coleman Hawkins, grief, jazz, hairstyles, and dualism.

Perception and the perception of perception is, as far as I’m concerned, big fun. And then, when one incorporates the many ways that we can frame our experience (science, mythology, language theory, philosophy, psychology, media), well, we’d need some kind of pan-dimensional Brian Wilson to sing in a hyperspace falsetto to express the thrill of it all.

'it’s not so much that Polly wants a cracker
but that the lark wants its small supper of sky
its late dinner of twilight among the blue leaves''

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