Poetry Primer #2: Phil Hall & Sandy Pool

For the second entry in our Poetry Primer series we turn to senior poet Phil Hall. Currently the poetry editor at Toronto indie press BookThug, Hall’s own poetry has been decorated with such awards as the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry and the Trillium Book Award (for his 2011 collection from BookThug, Killdeer). Based in Perth, Ontario, Hall has done writer-in-residence stints at the University of Ottawa, Queen’s University, and the University of Windsor, in addition to teaching at the Banff Centre.Based on this varied poetic career, Phil Hall was the kind of tapped in, established poet we were searching for for our Poetry Primer series. When asked to select an emerging Canadian poet he chose Sandy Pool. She made a mark on the Canadian poetry scene with her debut collection, Exploding into Night (Guernica Editions, 2009), which was nominated for the 2010 Governor General’s Award for Poetry. A multidisciplinary artist, Pool has a background in theatre and vocal work, and now works as an editor for Dandelion magazine. Her second collection of poetry, Undark, was published by Nightwood Editions in 2012.* * *Phil Hall on why he selected Sandy Pool:I wanted to pick a woman, experimental, not someone I have publishing associations with… I interviewed Sandy (& Susan Musgrave) at the Kingston Writers Festival last fall, and found her & her book, Undark, terrific. She has championed a group of working class women, but has found a form in which to do so, making an oratorio that has populist politics but is not mired there. It is fairly common in books of poems to take up a history and tell it; what is uncommon is innovative form.

Sandy Pool on why she writes poetry & who her influences are:When asked why I write poetry, I always think of Dean Young. He says: “If you want to learn how to cook a lobster, it’s probably best not to look to poetry. But if you want to see the word lobster in all its reactant oddity, its pied beauty, as if for the first time, go to poetry. And if you want to know what it’s like to be that lobster in the pot, that’s in poetry too.”  I think I have always loved poetry, and it’s hard to pin point when the love affair started. For me, poems are the perfect way to shed a fuzzy, problematic light on the world.So much of what I love about poetry isn’t about practicality. My fascination lies in the incredible potential of voice—the particular eccentricities of the human voice. There are so many poets with incredible voices. I am particularly indebted to poets like Anne Carson, Sarah Manguso, Matthew Zapruder, Rae Armantrout, Claudia Rankine, Robert Hass, Suzanne Buffam, Phil Hall, Gwendolyn MacEwan, Mary Ruefle, and many others. I think these poets know what it’s like to be the lobster in the pot; they know how to face disaster—eyes open, and unafraid.* * *Like Sandy’s poem? It is available, as well as a poem from Phil Hall, in our special National Poetry Month anthology, ibid., available in both print and electronic formats. You can even get the electronic version for free if you buy a book of poetry from All Lit Up any time in April!Don’t forget to follow along with our Poetry Primer series throughout April!