Garth Martens was a featured reader for Swoon in April, when he read from his debut collection of poetry, Prologue for the Age of Consequence. I recently caught up with Garth to find out a little bit more about how the book came to be and to discover more about his passion for flamenco. He’s written the libretto for an international flamenco production, Pasajes, slated for July 12 in the Royal Theatre in Victoria–if you’re on Vancouver Island, I highly encourage you to go! Anything that Garth is involved in is sure to be of the highest quality. Garth was incredibly generous with his answers in our interview, and I am so excited to share his thoughts with you! Check out the interview on the Swoon blog. There are so many quotable sentences from the interview it’s hard to choose just one to entice you, but here goes! When I asked Garth how aware he is of how a poem “should” sound when he’s writing, he treated me with this image of a poem in composition:
There’s an aural support I work toward. The poem becomes, line after line, a parapet or a deck. I’d like to think I could walk on it. When editing I reinforce that music, button it down, batten the form so the wind won’t rip it apart. I like the feeling very much.
I love the idea of walking on a poem, like a bridge. I’m sure you do, too, and there’s lots more to love on the Swoon website! Read the whole interview here, for more of Garth’s thoughts on poetry and dance–and to discover what kind of ingredients Garth would use if he could design his own chocolate truffle!
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Ruth Daniell 