Carolyn Forché talks about the poetry of witness

Carolyn Forché is best known for The Country Between Us (1981), the stunning poems from her work in El Salvador for Amnesty International.
In this talk with Roland Flint, Forché describes Against Forgetting, the 800-page anthology she published in 1993. The volume brings together 145 poets whose work attests to the harrowing conditions -- exile, repression, deprivation, prison -- they endured. Forché reads poems by Anna Akhmatova, Bertolt, Günter Eich, Antonio Machado, and Greog Trakl, ending with Nelly Sash's haunting whiff of the death camps "O The Chimneys." Against Forgetting is, indeed, what Forché subtitle calls it: "the poetry of witness."
For more information about "The Writing Life" and HoCoPoLitSo (the Howard County Poetry and Literature Society), visit www.hocopolitso.org.

[@surfrunnerd8457]

A poet of beauty that transcends life itself.

[@TrpleAgnt2011]

So happy I happened upon the book review of her memoir (2019), and consequently see her here, so grateful.

[@hocopolitso]

So glad you were able to watch, and appreciate. We have a second program, featuring Ms. Forché more recently, that will offer more insight into the poetics of witness.

[@jasminejade5023]

Thanks so so much for this!

[@jonathandoering6499]

Absolutely brilliant - Carolyn Forche is a brilliant poet & writer on creative writing and the connections between that discipline and spiritual faith.

[@hocopolitso]

Thank you, Jonathan, we agree on her brilliance! I'm glad you enjoyed. If you'd like to watch another interview with her, a more recent conversation happens here: th-cam.com/video/GpI498pkoRk/w-d-xo.html

[@BUKCOLLECTOR]

Enjoyed your poems. And your unique word choices enhanced the poems emotional impact and kept me engaged throughout.
I’m a poet specializing in Japanese forms: haiku, tanka, haibun, kyoka, senryu. I hope you don’t mind me sharing a tanka and my haiku, a tribute poem to Bashō’s frog with commentary by the late AHA founder and poet Jane Reichhold who considered my Basho haiku among her top 10 haiku of all time. What an honor.
Here’s the Bashō poem and commentary:
Bashō’s frog
four hundred years
of ripples
At first the idea of picking only 10 of my favorite haiku seemed a rather daunting task. How could I review all the haiku I have read in my life and decide that there were only 10 that were outstanding? Then realized I was already getting a steady stream of excellent haiku day by day through the AHA
forum.
The puns and write-offs based on Basho's most famous haiku are so
numerous I would have said that nothing new could be said with this
method, but here Al Fogel proved me wrong. Perhaps part of my delight in this haiku lies in the fact that I agree with him. Here he is saying one thing
about realism-ripples are on a pond after a frog jumps in, but because it refers back to Basho and his famous haiku, he is also saying something about the haiku and authors who have followed him. We, and our work, are just ripples while Basho holds the honor of inventing the idea of the
sound of a frog leaping is the sound of water
As haiku spreads around the world, making ripples in more and larger ponds, its ripples are wider-including us all. But his last word reminds us all that we are ripples and our lives ephemeral. It will be the frogs that will remain.
~~
And my tanka:
returning home
from a Jackson Pollock
exhibition
I smear my face with paint
and morph into art
~~
-All love in isolation
from Miami Beach,
Florida,
Al

[@martamatray2744]

thank you!

[@hocopolitso]

Marta Matray You are more than welcome. I'm glad you enjoyed it. She is an amazing advocate for poetry and poets.

[@963ag]

I have been a poet and educator for 40+ years. The book " Against Forgetting" edited by Caroyln Forche is a classic. I am drawn to poetry of witness, poetry in translation, poetry written by those incarcerated. Incidentally, Fanni Radnoti lived to be 102 years old! Despite my last name, through my marriage, both of my parents were Hungarian refugees. I have read Radnoti's poetry in the original Hungarian, and recommend the English translation - " Foamy Sky" translated by Zsuzsanna Osvath.

[@hocopolitso]

Thank you Annette, for your thoughtful comment. "Against Forgetting" was and is a cutting edge book that really saw what was necessary in the world. WE so appreciate your watching, and hope you view more of our poetry videos. Thank you for 40 years of writing and educating!

[@alastairashford7919]

Inspiring!

[@christopherenglish5213]

I really enjoyed watching this

[@hocopolitso]

Christopher English Thanks so much for watching, and commenting. Ms. Forché is truly brilliant, as a translator and poet.

[@rievans57]

fascinating....