Scottish Writers' Centre Ten Poems (Possibly) Impossible to Write with Richard Robbins

A beginning poet will direct a lot of energy toward finding a comfort zone - a stable place, a fixed position from which to write a piece that feels like the right size, draws from a familiar well, bears one's unique vocal stamp, embodies a comfortable level of cynicism or hope, follows a familiar trajectory in the direction of epiphany.

For those who are no longer beginning, though, for those who expect to write over the long haul, reaching a point of competent self-imitation is not good enough. To quote John Berryman, as remembered by Philip Levine: "You should always be trying to write a poem you are unable to write, a poem you lack the technique, the language, the courage to achieve. Otherwise you're merely imitating yourself."

Richard Robbins will discuss how important Berryman’s idea has been to his own writing development. Robbins will share ten poems by other poets - Stafford, Bogan, Olds, Ryan, Hoagland, Perillo, Levis, Larkin, and Meehan - imagining how each work might have rested comfortably before its author committed to writing the poem that was impossible to write. It is presumptuous, of course, to imagine the decisions that lay behind the making of a superb poem, but the exercise can be instructive. Robbins will offer up at least one of his own poems for examination.

Richard Robbins was raised in California and Montana but has lived continuously in Minnesota since 1984. He has published six books of poems, most recently Body Turn to Rain: New & Selected Poems (2017). He has received awards from The Loft Literary Center, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Poetry Society of America. From 1986-2014, Robbins directed the Good Thunder Reading Series at Minnesota State University Mankato, where he continues to direct the creative writing program.