Boise State’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (MFA) reading series brought back Canadian poet, Lisa Robertson, on Monday, March 4.
Robertson read her poetry aloud in the Student Union Building’s Lookout Room, which features some of the most scenic views on campus with its outspread windows and spacious quarters.
This set the stage for audience member Julie Strand, an MFA poetry student, to ask Robertson about the relationship between the body and architecture in her writing.
“(The) primary relationship is tactile,” Robertson said. “I looked around at which matter had formed.”
This displayed a connection between all tactile things in general, but there does lie a deeper meaning as well.
“I think that the relationship between the space and the skin and the consciousness is extremely strong,” Robertson said.
Robertson is known to bring forth a relationship between concepts as well, creating a merger. The elements she emphasizes range from language, history, gender and politics, to name a few. She generates an internal and external awareness with her unique style, alternating from stream of consciousness to narrative to essay form.
Chelsea Jordan, sophomore English major, said Robertson brings “new ideas, new ways of thinking about the world.”
With lines like, “I think poetry is nice because of my body,” Robertson’s work instills titillating observations within spectators.
“It’s super bold and authoritative. She’s just really authoritative and has themes I’m interested in,” Strand said. “The work is wonderful.”
For some, just reading a book of poetry is a completely different experience than hearing the author read it aloud.
Robertson said she can “sense the relationship between rhythm and content of work” when she is in the writing process.
“Writing for the most part, is pretty solitary as an activity,” Strand said. “So, to have the opportunity to bring this language into a group of people and see and experience their reception of it and to enter into a conversation is
very uplifting.”
