A Chat With Dennis Lee - Page 2
© Paula E. Kirman
Dennis: Occasionally I'll write something that has a literal point of kick off . . . I first wrote the poem a while ago, some decades ago, and then it was revised and reworked recently to make a separate book out of it. I probably can't tell you any single thing that got it started. Some people, they go out on the street and see a car accident and run back into the house and write a story or a poem about seeing a car accident. Sometimes the results are great or sometimes they're bad. There are other writes for whom that's not their pattern, and I'm one of the one that that's not my pattern.
Paula: Did it come to you as a poem in the first place?
Dennis: It did, and the surprising thing in a way is that it came as a story-poem because I actually, this may sound a little bit odd to say, but I don't very often find that my imagination is coming up with narrative things, story things. I love reading stories and when I edit - I'm a literary editor at times too - and I find I can edit fiction but it's not just one of my talents most of the time, so it's fairly rare that a poem that I start becomes a story-poem. This is one of the exceptions. I think it is probably my favourite among the story-poems that I've written.
Paula: In what way?
Dennis: The story is so simple, that in a way you could ask, "Well, why should it be satisfying." And I suppose I am going to praise the story now, which really wasn't my intention and I can dispraise others that I've written but I don't find as satisfying, but the simple story is that there's one character whose a bit of an outsider; she's got all this hospitality to offer but nobody wants it and then the other character is a bit of an outsider and there's all these slightly tatty around the edges tricks to perform that nobody wants anything to do with and then finding they can be friends after one evening of delight. As I was writing it I think I kept wondering, "Well, is there was going to be some kind of a dramatic thing that happens," but it seems it is the sheer sense of being able to play together of the two little characters turned into the story itself, so I'm not even sure why that is as satisfying as I found it, but it seemed to be all that wanted to be there and felt as if it had its own resonance.
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