The Story Behind the Poems (Plus Audio)

the sunfish, around whom / jellyfish revolve like planetsEvery poem begins somewhere. Compose Journal asked me to write a few words about the three poems that appeared in their Autumn issue.

It was fun to recall where they first took shape–from a Belgian Inn in the Cotswolds to a train platform in London, drawing on figures as different as Neruda, Proust, and Feynman.

Modern science is showing us that reading poems, unlike reading an instruction manual, lights up the parts of our brain that deal with music, memory, and introspection. I suppose you could say it is from those places in particular that these three poems emerged. (more…)

Read the full story here.

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<a href="https://soundcloud.com/tags/compose%20literary%20journal" target="_blank">Listen to audio recordings of the poems here</a>

Read the text of the poems here