Poetry Koan

Today in the Poetry Pharmacy, we had a visit from MARY JEAN CHAN.

Mary Jean’s work has appeared in The Poetry Review, Ambit, The Rialto, The London Magazine, Callaloo and elsewhere. She is also a Co-Editor at Oxford Poetry.

Her poem “//” is currently shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem. She also recently won the Poetry Society Members’ Competition, as well as the Poetry and Psychoanalysis Competition.

Mary Jean brought in Adrienne Rich’s poem DEDICATIONS to read and discuss. We also talked about our love for the poet Chen Chen and read his poem WINTER, followed by a reading of Mary Jean’s own SELF-PORTRAIT, a poem I’ve recently been by-heart dosing myself on.

If you’ve enjoyed the episode, please (pretty please) could you leave us a nice review on iTunes,

Also, in the next year, I’m trying to raise funds for the S.H.E College Fund initiative in Kenya by learning 52 poems in 52 weeks. Here is my 52 Poems in 52 Weeks Donations Page: https://chuffed.org/project/52-poems-in-52-weeks 

If you’re feeling some poetry-love after listening, a donation, no matter how small (or large) would be greatly appreciated.

Don’t forget, the Poetry Pharmacy is open every day on Twitter, dispensing poems for whatever ails body and soul. Feel free to @/DM us there, or email us here (thepoetrypharmacy AT gmail.com) with your requests for a poem prescription.

[Theme music for the podcast is from Vladimir Martynov’s The Beatitudes played by the wonderful coversart on YouTube]

RYAN VAN WINKLE is a poet, live artist, podcaster and critic living in Edinburgh.

His second collection, The Good Dark, won the Saltire Society’s 2015 Poetry Book of the Year award.

His poems have appeared in New Writing Scotland, The Prairie Schooner, The American Poetry Review, AGNI and Best Scottish Poems 2015.

As a member of Highlight Arts he has organized festivals and translation workshops in Syria, Pakistan and Iraq.

He is always happy to hear from you, you can contact Ryan here.

RACHEL KELLY is a mental health campaigner, public speaker, and writer.

In her early thirties, Rachel was diagnosed with serious depression and subsequently suffered two major depressive episodes. These two episodes have become the defining events of her life. Since then, she has written about the condition, and how she has recovered, in books that have been read by tens of thousands of people. Her memoir about her experience of serious depression Black Rainbow  was a Sunday Times bestseller in 2014.

Rachel now speaks publicly about her experience of depression and recovery, and regularly writes for press and gives TV and radio interviews to help educate and break stigma. She also runs workshops for mental health charities to share what she has learnt about how to stay calm and well. She is an official ambassador for Rethink Mental Illness, Young Minds, Sane and The Counselling Foundation. Her latest book “The Happy Kitchen: Good Mood” food was published in January 2017.

ALEXANDER MACLEOD was born in Inverness, Nova Scotia and raised in Windsor Ontario. His first book, a collection of short stories called Light Lifting won the Margaret and John Savage First Book Award and was named a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Commonwealth Book Award, the Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award, and the Danuta Gleed Award. Alexander teaches at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax.

After the leaves have fallen, we return

It is difficult even to choose the adjective

The greenhouse never so badly needed paint.

Yet the absence of the imagination had

Of a sort, silence of a rat come out to see,

JOSH COHEN is Professor of Modern Literary Theory at Goldsmiths, University of London and a psychoanalyst in private practice. He is the author of books and articles on modern literature, cultural theory and psychoanalysis, including How to Read Freud (Granta, 2005). His latest book is The Private Life: Why We Remain in the Dark.

Read the tiny Lydia Davis story ‘What She Knew” mentioned in our discussion.

A story is like water

Very few can sit down

A feeling of fullness comes,

Beauty surrounds us,

The body itself is a screen

Water, stories, the body,

Study them,

EDWARD ESPE BROWN began cooking and practicing Zen in 1965. He was the first head resident cook at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center from 1967 to 1970. He later worked at the celebrated Greens Restaurant in San Francisco, serving as busboy, waiter, floor manager, wine buyer, cashier, host, and manager.

Ordained a priest by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, he has taught meditation retreats and vegetarian cooking classes throughout North America and Europe. He is the author of several cookbooks and the editor of Not Always So, a book of lectures by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi.

He is also the subject of the critically acclaimed 2007 film How to Cook Your Life.

SARAH SALWAY is a British poet, novelist, short story writer, journalist and creative writing tutor.

She has written six books: three novels, Something Beginning With, Tell Me Everything and Getting the Picture, a book of short stories, Leading the Dance, and two collections of poetry, You Do Not Need Another Self-Help Book and Digging Up Paradise.

LAURA BARBER is the editor of four popular poetry anthologies – including the hugely successful Penguin’s Poems for Life – and former ‘Poetry Doctor’ at The School of Life. She is also Editorial Director at Granta Books where her interests range from literary fiction to memoir, reportage, travel, narrative history and nature writing,

NIALL O’SULLIVAN hosts Poetry Unplugged, London’s longest running poetry open mic. He teaches poetry at London Metropolitan University, his main module being Poetry and Performance. He is currently working on a series of online posts that critically explore Spoken Word.

He has published three books of poetry with flipped eye . He also edit other poets for the press.

MARCUS SLEASE  (JJ Mars) is a visionary writer from Portadown, N. Ireland and Utah in the U.S.

​Some influences include:  Buddhist practice, surrealism, collage art, low-fi graffiti,  Brian Eno, Spacemen 3, Leonora Carrington, Richard Brautigan, Ariel Pink, bill bissett, Tim Atkins, Susumu Yokota,  Ron Padgett, Chika Sagawa, & Guy Maddin.

He is a graduate of the MFA creative writing program at University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the author of ten books from micro presses. Such as Rides from Bart Books and Mu (dream) So (window) from Poor Claudia.

His latest book, Play Yr Kardz Right, is now available from Dostoyevsky Wannabe:

His writing has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, featured in the Best British Poetry series, translated into Polish and Danish, and has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Tin House, Poetry, and Fence.