{"id":134945,"date":"2019-03-26T13:00:44","date_gmt":"2019-03-26T17:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=134945"},"modified":"2019-03-26T11:37:16","modified_gmt":"2019-03-26T15:37:16","slug":"redux-desire-is-curled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/03\/26\/redux-desire-is-curled\/","title":{"rendered":"Redux: Desire Is Curled"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every week, the editors of\u00a0<\/i>The Paris Review\u00a0lift the paywall on a selection of interviews, stories, poems, and more from the magazine\u2019s archive. You can have these unlocked pieces delivered straight to your inbox every Sunday by\u00a0signing up for the Redux newsletter<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In this week\u2019s Redux, we\u2019re remembering the work of the late W.\u2009S. Merwin and Linda Gregg with Merwin\u2019s 1987 Art of Poetry interview<\/a> and Gregg\u2019s 1986 poem \u201cAfter the Beginning<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you enjoy these free interviews, stories, and poems, why not\u00a0subscribe to read the entire archive<\/a>? You\u2019ll also get four new issues of the quarterly delivered straight to your door.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

W.\u2009S. Merwin, The Art of Poetry No. 38<\/a>
\nIssue no. 102 (Spring 1987)<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

INTERVIEWER<\/p>\n

Do you see a connection between poetry and prayer?<\/p>\n

MERWIN<\/p>\n

I guess the simple answer is yes, if only because I think of poetry as an attempt to use language as completely as possible. And if you want to do that, obviously you\u2019re not concerned with language as decoration, or language as amusement, although you certainly want language to be pleasurable. Pleasure is part of the completeness. I think of poetry as having to do with the completeness of life, and the completeness of relation with one\u2019s experience, completing one\u2019s experience, articulating it, making sense of it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After the Beginning<\/a>
\nBy Linda Gregg
\nIssue no. 101 (Winter 1986)<\/em><\/p>\n

The woman is preparing her body for sleep.
\nShe hangs the hair forward
\nand it almost touches her feet.
\nAfter brushing, she throws it up and back
\non to her shoulders. Then splashes water
\non her face twenty times.
\nThere is someone inside her happier
\nthan she is, waking as she goes to sleep \u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you like what you read,\u00a0get a year of<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>The Paris Review\u2014four new issues, plus instant access to everything we\u2019ve ever published.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every week, the editors of\u00a0The Paris Review\u00a0lift the paywall on a selection of interviews, stories, poems, and more from the magazine\u2019s archive. You can have these unlocked pieces delivered straight to your inbox every Sunday by\u00a0signing up for the Redux newsletter. In this week\u2019s Redux, we\u2019re remembering the work of the late W.\u2009S. Merwin and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31006],"tags":[16304,9205,35131,2854,20537,241,51537,504,11675,1447,165,12192,31384,349,10113],"class_list":["post-134945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-redux","tag-archive","tag-art-of-poetry","tag-free","tag-hawaii","tag-in-memoriam","tag-interview","tag-linda-gregg","tag-literature","tag-memoriam","tag-poet","tag-poetry","tag-prayer","tag-redux","tag-w-s-merwin","tag-writers-at-work"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRedux: Desire Is Curled by The Paris Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"March 26, 2019 \u2013 Every week, the editors of\u00a0The Paris Review\u00a0lift the paywall on a selection of interviews, stories, poems, and more from the magazine\u2019s archive. 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