The American Modernist poet, Marianne Moore, once wrote about poetry: “I too, dislike it: there are things that are important beyond/ all this fiddle.” Admitting that writing poetry is often a vain and fruitless pursuit, she continues, “Reading it, however, with a perfect contempt for it, /one discovers that there is in/it after all, a place for the genuine.”
Three Toronto poets discuss poetry’s place in the wider world, and make a case for why they think it is (or isn’t) important today. Featuring Michael Lista, Richard Sanger, and Sachiko Murakami.