CoCoPoPro: Michael Boughn Takes on the Great White North

Michael Boughn loves titles and this poetry collection has a great one: Great Canadian Poems for the Aged, Vol. 1 Illus. Ed. (BookThug, 2012). Boughn takes us on a tour of Canadian culture with a selection of quintessentially Canadian images and the poems to go along with them. The back cover of the book sums it up better than I ever could: “No one actually able to finish this book will remain untouched by the subtle lyric voice that weaves together disparate, irrelevant, and often offensive elements of the Canadian experience into an unforgettable poem for the aged.”

Enjoy!

Q&A with Michael Boughn  

What are you reading right now? 
Adoration: The Deconstruction of Christianity II by Jean-Luc Nancy; The Sense of Sight by John Berger; Poetry Wars by Peter Barry; The Collected Early Poems and Plays by Robert Duncan. 

If you wrote a memoir what would it be called? 
Hockey Dad! 

Where is the oddest place in which you have ever written (or been inspired to write) a poem?  
I write wherever I am – hockey arenas, bars, doctor’s waiting rooms, parked cars, occasionally moving cars, bus stop benches, by the side of the Bay, in Timmy’s, . . .          

Why should people read poetry? 
Because it’s fun . . . once you get the hang of it. 

Who are your favourite poets? 
O jeez … Charles Olson … No, wait, Dante … no wait, Keats … no, wait, William Carlos Williams, no , H.D., … no, wait … Victor Coleman … no, wait … Jack Spicer … no, Emily Dickinson, no, wait … 

What’s one poem everyone should read? 
The Cantos by Ezra Pound.

What’s your guilty pleasure (when it comes to reading)? 
Elmore Leonard … except it`s not particularly guilty . . . the man can write . . . 

When did your interest in reading/writing poetry start?  
In Grade 10 when I figured it would be useful for seducing girls . . . or at least trying . . 

*****

Michael Boughn has taught literature courses at the University of Toronto for 19 years. His own writing includes poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and essays. His recent book of poetry, Cosmographia – A Post-Lucretian Faux Micro-Epic, (BookThug, 2011) was shortlisted for the 2011 Governor General’s Award for Poetry. His mystery novel, Business As Usual, was published in 2011 by NeWest Press.

Read a review of Great Canadian Poems for the Aged at The Altered Scale Blog.

_______Edited from the original post, published on the LPG blog