The Post-Standard – Syracuse.com
April 25 2010

Balakian says poetry should be ‘part of our society every day’

By Kristen Rajczak
April 25, 2010, 6:00AM

April may be National Poetry Month, but poet Peter Balakian thinks
it’s "odd."

"Poetry should be part of the consciousness, knowledge and culture of
our society every day," said Balakian, who has written five books of
poetry, including 2001’s "June-tree: New and Selected Poems
1974-2000." He also is director of the creative writing program at
Colgate University, where he has taught since 1980.

As a nonfiction writer, Balakian has an unusual critic: the Turkish
government.

Balakian advocates for recognition of the 1915 Armenian genocide, a
mass deportation and killing of Armenians by the Turks, then the
Ottoman Empire. When Balakian speaks publicly on the topic, protesters
often come to represent the Turkish point of view that the deaths were
a result of World War II and Turkish lives were lost, too.

But that hasn’t stopped him from being heard.

"The Black Dog of Fate," Balakian’s chronicle of his family’s survival
after the genocide, won the PEN/Albrand Prize for memoir. He also
wrote "The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s
Response."

Here, Balakian answers a few questions about poetry and more.

Who are your favorite poets?

One has many different poets for different domains of the art. It’s
hard to say ‘favorite.’ Poets who remain important to me would
certainly include Whitman and Yeats and Dickinson.

Who have you been reading recently?

Cavafy _ the great Greek poet from the first half of the 20th century
and there’s a new translation of Cavafy out by Daniel Mendelsohn.

What advice do you give young people who aspire to be poets?

In my workshop, I always try to impart to my students the notion that
poetry demands extraordinary precision and compression of language.
It’s the most difficult of arts for its demands on precision and
compression. I think that any young person who wants to go on to be a
poet needs to read seriously in the tradition and in the art. My
students read a great deal. They also come to learn the rigorousness
of the craft and if they are going to be writers, they learn that they
have to be immersed in poetry and become good at revising their poems.
Revision is crucial for any art, of course.

You’ve done a lot of writing about the Armenian genocide that your
grandmother experienced. How did you start writing about this topic?

I tell this story best in my memoir "Black Dog of Fate." I would say
my way into the history of the Armenian genocide came through the
imagination and through the writing of poems. I’m a poet who finds the
imagination is often most alive when it is engaging history, and
history, of course, encompasses culture, art, politics, and more.

Where else do you get your inspiration besides family history?

As a poet I’m interested in the many layers of contemporary life here
and around the globe. I have a new long poem that deals with the
remains of the Bosnian National Library in the aftermath of the
Serbian assault on Sarajevo. I’m interested in how the self struggles
with the contradictory forces of our 21st century imperial American
culture. My new book, "Ziggurat," which will be out in the fall,
engages these issues and visits various spots on the planet.

kian_says_poetry_should_be_part_of_our_society_eve ry_day.html