William Rowe and Helen Dimos: October 26, 2017

Steve Dickison introduces William Rowe. Rowe reads new poems in manuscript: "I have come to a wall of names...," "The wound in the trees...," "I see a tree...," "Shadow of leaves...," "Shadow in the groves of willows...," "Leaves in leaves," "Cladding," "Most of poetics is shit...," "The invisible is also compromised...," "Erotic rapture in thought," "In Raul Zurita's Purgatory," "Keston," "Pomegranate matter," "Up your sleeve," "Each with her tendrils," "The heart travels," "You, to which," "Obviously the pain," "The fold is disordered..." He then reads his translations and alternate translations via his interpretative "glosses" on Trilce by Cesar Vallejo: "Trilce 20" and "Gloss," and "Trilce 41" and "Gloss." Rowe ends by reading from his own Collected Poems: "Wakehurst August 2015," "I look at the dark leaves," "My always time meadow," "Pickled," "Ideology = phenomenology," "Skull on my bone," "Rough work," "Beyond desire another day," "After Rimbaud," "Love," and "Roar."

After Steve Dickison introduces Helen Dimos, she reads "Dear Nobody / Aug 2015-Dec 2015" and "Dear Nobody / July 23 2016" from No Realtor was Compensated for this Sale, followed by three poems in manuscript form: "Intermission," "Thing 4," and "Intermission." Dimos then reads excerpts from a longer poem titled "The Wall." William Rowe and Dimos then take the stage together: he reading his translation of a poem by Cesar Vallejo, "No one lives in the house alone...," and she a poem from her manuscript, titled "This House."

William Rowe and Helen Dimos answer questions from the audience. They are asked if it is easier or more difficult to translate works from a living artist. Dimos says there are difficulties in both cases, as the collaboration with the poet present can either be helpful or destructive. She says it is important to remember that poetry is fluid, even if the writer is deceased. Rowe answers questions about his work translating Spanish-language poetry. He says that teaching in Peru had him immersed in the Spanish language and he realized that sometimes you can only convey something in a poem via its original language. Rowe and Dimos answer questions about architecture and how it appears in their writing, noting that spaces have their own history. Rowe adds that like architecture poetry absorbs and reflects sound. Asked about addressing bleak topics, Rowe states that he allows the melancholy and sadness to run its course before it's possible to create something. They close by each responding to a question on the nature of poetry and the political, with comments from the audience.