A Goldsboro Narrative: An Interview with Forrest Hamer

Forrest Hamer. Photo by KwanLam Wong.

This interview was conducted on, May 28, 2004, at Texas A&M University (College Station), where Forrest Hamer taught in the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop.

ROWELL: I am beginning to wonder whether what we today conceptualize as literary poetry isn't something almost anachronistic. I am convinced that modern and contemporary poetry is arcane to most American general readers—that is, at this time in the United States poetry is, has become, or is perceived as a form of expressive culture created for an elite group of readers. Since the rise of modernism—with its complexities in art forms and its reconceptualization of art as expressive culture—poetry has garnered only a very small group of readers. In fact, legions of general readers think of modern and contemporary poetry as complex inscriptions far removed from their lives. And yet you and I know that poetry is not. We, in fact, wish the national vision were the contrary. (Even as we critique the aesthetic ideology of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and early 1970s, we must note that the poetry, following the dicta of its architects, did attract "the people" to poetry. In fact, the poets—never mind what we perceive as the shortcomings of some of their art and its imperatives—were "the people, and "the people" were the poets.) Where do you see yourself in this dilemma—you, the maker of poems that expect or request an audience? I assume that you would want to engage the legions of readers I spoke of earlier. I assume that you, like any literary writer, want to engage them—and rightly so—but on your own terms, rather than on those someone else might imagine, desire to propose, or attempt to impose.

HAMER: One of the primary values of poetry is the opportunity it provides for a conversation, not only among poets but also between the poet and a reader or listener. And it's a conversation that is more private than many others, and I think that's important, especially with regard to the opportunity poetry is to create, hold, and maintain culture. Poetry relies so much on language, on voice, and the music within voice that it literally holds the voices of many others who have in turn contributed to a single poem. I think it also provides the opportunity for many others in the future to engage in some way with the present. It would be unfortunate if poetry were to be replaced by other forms of public conversation because I really believe in the power of poetry as process not only to educate and illuminate, but also to spur creation—to change ways of thinking, ways of perceiving, and ways of experiencing such that people literally have new experiences and are able from there to be creative in whatever way they will be in their lives. I think it just enhances living. And while it may be true that fewer people read poetry, I think the need for poetry and the arts is not only unchanged by current times but also made more urgent, even if it seems that we are reaching fewer people. I'm not sure if it turns out to be true that few people are reached; I certainly hope that is not the case. But I think the opportunity again to enhance the life and lives of people are inherent to what we do as poets and artists.

ROWELL: You say that poetry is "private." What does that mean?

HAMER: Well, often on the page the reader is in fact engaging the poet's voice with his or her own such that the conversation is very particular and specific to the poet and that individual. I certainly value poetry performed on the stage if you will, but I think there is something very important about a very private experience of a poem that makes it...