Five Questions with J. D. McClatchy

Under the headline “Five Questions with J. D. McClatchy,” today’s New London Day actually has six questions with Mr. McClatchy:

Q: You use several traditional techniques in this collection that have fallen out of favor: narrative, for example, and rhyme. Do you see yourself as a traditionalist or as reclaiming the tools that make poetry poetry?

A: To call yourself a traditionalist these days is to risk the scorn of those who think art is merely self-expression. Poetry, like the other arts, is a craft that can only be mastered by a long apprenticeship and a steady eye on the possibilities that those before us discovered or didn’t. So, yes, you’re right to think that I care about poetry’s traditional tasks and tools. But any tradition is useful only insofar as it helps us see things in a new way.

March 15, 2009, 2:59pm ·