Alison Benis White: Light on the Page

"Chaos--confusion, bewilderment--these are things I'm always working against and within as a writer. Frost famously argued that a poem is a "temporary stay against confusion"--and by "stay," within the context of 'The Figure a Poem Makes,' he means clarification--a temporary clarification of life. This resonates with me, although I don't know if I agree with the certainty of his claim. I think poems are definitely an attempt at a stay, a reach toward clarity or revelation. My experience is that these brief moments of (almost) order and light on the page dissolve fairly quickly into bewilderment again, which brings me back to the page to try (and fail) again. I like the idea, as you put it, of poets of chaos--I'm certainly a child of chaos, since my mother disappeared when I was so young, so I can't imagine being any other kind of poet." Alison Benis White's body of work explores with precision and delicacy the enigmatic terrain of memory, grief, language and identity. This insightful interview shares more.

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