Ask the Author: Michael Jurkovic
[Roxane Gay / January 2nd, 2010 / Interviews ]In the December issue, Michael Jurkovic waxes poetic on the Pacific Trash Vortex. In today’s interview with Guy, Michael keeps it short, but oh so sweet.
1. Have you ever been the victim of a crime? What was the crime, and was justice done?
Though I have never been victimized by crime, (lest one considers the theft of taxpayer money for corporate subsidies and bailouts) I believe that it is in our nature to thwart justice. We can only forgive.
2. Is there some fundamental difference between the poetic impulse and the storytelling impulse?
No. It’s all about capturing a moment, be it for our own retention or that world’s.
3. What is the best book by a living author you have read?
Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine. It had the same profound effect on me as Orwell’s 1984.
Though it’s authors have all passed, its words live – The Bible.
4. Can you recommend a specific poem?
Besides my own? Hmmmmm. . .Robert Creeley’s The Rain. ee cumming’s not even the rain has such small hands. Keroauc’s 211 Chorus. Any of Mary Oliver’s nature poems. Dylan’s Mr. Tambourine Man.
5. Is poetry in crisis?
The whole world is.
[...] called The Pacific Trash Vortex, delivered to us by Pank. (And uhhhhh, I guess they also have an interview up). But this poem… I’ve been scouring looking for stuff to buy, poems to consume. [...]