Mark Strand reads, discusses poetry

One of the benefits of living in Iowa City is that you get to hear a lot of your favorite authors read and discuss their work. Such was the case last night and today as I heard my favorite poet, Mark Strand, read from his work and then sit for an intimate Q&A about writing.

Strand is a graduate of the University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop, so he visits from time to time. It has been several years, however, since his last visit (in support of Blizzard of One, if I recall), so it was good to see him again.

The former poet laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner began with a poem he wrote while a UI student in the early 1960s, “Sleeping with One Eye Open.” From there, he jumped around, concentrating mainly on his most recent collection, Man and Camel. He pulled out a few older gems, such as “The Story of Our Lives” from the collection of the same name, and “Two De Chiricos: 1. The Philosopher’s Conquest and 2. The Disquieting Muses” from Blizzard of One.

He was witty as always. After reading a handful of poems, he said he wished he had more to say about them, such as that they were true and autobiographical. They are not, he added, before saying that some were true, but were not autobiographical. He then read, “I Had Been a Polar Explorer” from Man and Camel. “I don’t want to give you the wrong idea,” he said. He obviously had never been a polar explorer, but rather read the title line in something by Kafka followed by ellipses, something that begged for completion, he said.

Discussing the poems about De Chirico’s work, he said “The Disquieting Muses” was the better poem because it was the better of the two paintings.

He read two new poems, one, “Black Fly,” so new that he hadn’t settled on a title. The other, “The Golden Frogs of Panama,” appeared just two months ago in the New York Review of Books. It was written in response to an article in the New Yorker about the disappearance of golden frogs due to climate change. Strand said he doesn’t typically write in response to things going on in the world, and hasn’t since Vietnam. After reading the poem, he shared that it is a sonnet, the first one he has saved after throwing several others away.

Today, Strand answered questions from a small group gathered at the Writer’s Workshop building. The questioners seemed timid at times, and Strand filled the silences with thoughts that were as engaging as the responses to the original questions. Asked who he reads, he said he hasn’t seriously read new poetry since editing the 1991 Best American Poetry anthology. “I don’t look back to see who is catching up,” he said. adding that he looks ahead at the generation before him. He then acknowledged that he is among the last of the generation that younger poets are looking ahead to see.

He is working on two books. One is a memoir about his parents, mainly about his father, that delves into the false story his father told about his upbringing. His father told a young Strand that both of his grandparents had already died, but they hadn’t, for example. His tales were told to cover the fact that he had spent time at San Quentin Penitentiary. His second is to be called 100 Autobiographies, which he said will include 100 short “autobiographies” of “me and the me i wish I was.”