Every week, the editors of The Paris Review lift the paywall on a selection of interviews, stories, poems, and more from the magazine’s archive. You can have these unlocked pieces delivered straight to your inbox every Sunday by signing up for the Redux newsletter.
It’s National Poetry Month, so this week, we bring you … poetry: our 2008 Art of Poetry interview with Kay Ryan; Simon Worrall’s feature on literary forgery, “Emily Dickinson Goes to Las Vegas”; and Caroline Knox’s poem “Sleepers Wake.”
Kay Ryan, The Art of Poetry No. 94 Issue no. 187 (Winter 2008)
INTERVIEWER What did you mean when you said that a poem should act like an empty suitcase? KAY RYAN It’s a clown suitcase: the clown flips open the suitcase and pulls out a ton of stuff. A poem is an empty suitcase that you can never quit emptying.
INTERVIEWER
What did you mean when you said that a poem should act like an empty suitcase?
KAY RYAN
It’s a clown suitcase: the clown flips open the suitcase and pulls out a ton of stuff. A poem is an empty suitcase that you can never quit emptying.
Emily Dickinson Goes to Las Vegas By Simon Worrall Issue no. 154 (Spring 2000)
On May 31, 1997, Daniel Lombardo drove from his home, in West Hampton, Massachusetts—a small hill town above the Connecticut River—to the Jones Library, in Amherst, where he has worked as the curator of special collections since 1983. The Jones Library has a privately endowed collection of local historical and literary documents, and Lombardo has devoted much of his professional life to Amherst’s most famous resident, Emily Dickinson. He is the author of a recent study, “A Hedge Away: The Other Side of Emily Dickinson’s Amherst.” He is also a member of the Emily Dickinson International Society, and he was on his way to its annual meeting, with an announcement to make.
Sleepers Wake By Caroline Knox Issue no. 125 (Winter 1992)
Karen made a poem walking to rehearsal about children making angels seeing angels in the chimney flames Karen is the tall one with braids down her back She’s old enough to be like a lady and have the braids on her head like a princess …
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