MPR’s Marlana Benzie-Lourey interviews Duluth poet Louis Jenkins about his book "Nice Fish." Jenkins reads title poem of book.

Transcript:

(00:00:00) Fish out of water when he finally landed the fish. It seemed so strange. So unlike other fishes, he'd caught so much bigger more silvery more important that he half expected it to talk to Grant his wishes if he returned it to the water, but the fish said nothing made no, please gave no promises. His fishing partner said nice fish. You ought to have it mounted. Other people who saw it said the same thing same thing nice fish. So he took it to the taxidermy shop, but when it came back, it didn't look quite the same still it was an impressive trophy. Mounted on a big board the way it was it was too big to fit into the car. In those days he could fit everything. He owned into the back of his Volkswagen, but the fish changed all that after he married a year or so later. Nothing would fit in the car. He got a bigger car then a new job children the fish moved with him from house to house state to state all that moving around took its toll on the fish it began to look worn. A fin was broken off. It went into the attic of the new house. Just before the divorce became final when he was moving to an apartment. His wife said take your goddamn fish. He hung the fish on the wall before he'd unpacked anything else the fish seemed huge too big for his little apartment boy. It was big. He couldn't imagine he'd ever caught a fish that big.

(00:01:46) That's one of my favorite poems. And of course, that's where the title of your new book Louis Jenkins came from nice fish. Can you can you tell me about that poem in a lot of your work you use the imagery of fish? Of course, it's a northern image one. We're familiar with here, but we talked about that poem in particular. It's a quite a bitter sweet sweet

(00:02:09) story. Well, thank you. Yeah, it was put together out of Some different things that happened to me and and two friends. For instance. I once had a friend who claimed that he could get everything. He owned into the back of his Volkswagen not the same guy who owned a fish that was very large and on a board and became a problem moving around but I sort of put these ideas together and invented this character who catches the fish and moves around with it and eventually really winds up in an apartment with a fish

(00:02:50) it almost seems as if and of course this is my interpretation of it, but the fish kind of all symbolizing his own life in a way the way it starts out as being this potentially magical experience and kind of degenerating to the mounted fish on the wall. I

(00:03:10) think there's some of that in there's something that something that was magical that he reached for that was something that was out there that like that we all do you know something Beyond us somehow and Often it is not fail fail to find fail to realize right

(00:03:30) right, of course, that's the title of your book nice fish taken from from Fish Out of Water and I understand you like the title, but perhaps some some people advise you against

(00:03:42) it. Yeah, some of some of my friends and advisers said no way that's a terrible title, but I insisted and I don't know maybe they're right. Maybe it is a terrible title, but I Get

(00:03:55) how long have you written in the the prose poem form. These are these are poems that look like a tiny story rather than what we think of as having having versus and that kind of thing.

(00:04:10) Yeah. That was the thing that attracted me to the prose poem. I started probably sometime in the early 70s writing prose poems and I I have written since then other poems in. Other verse forms and still do but the prose poem is a form that I that I like very much and precisely for those reasons that it is casual. It, dates a story very well and doesn't have the the trappings that make it look like a poem which is something I like. Hmm.

(00:04:48) So you like the idea of it being a little bit more informal in a way is almost

(00:04:55) what it is. Yeah, so that the I went sometimes when you read a poem you the writer of the poem The Poet makes you very aware that this is a poem I am writing a poem and you know take it seriously. This is a poem and I would prefer to downplay that you know, that that not not to think. Ink about the idea that you're reading upon but that to just enjoy what happens with the language, you know without thinking about whether it's a poem or a story or whatever. I mean, nobody really knows what a poem is or so, I don't see why there should be any problem with a prose poem. I don't think there are any definite rules for for either.

(00:05:44) I have another another favorite. I'd like to have you read I believe it's called how to tell a wolf from a dog. Oh,

(00:05:51) yeah, I spent a at an artist residency at I'll Royal through the National Park Service for a couple of weeks. a year ago this summer and I thought I'd actually kind of had the idea for this poem before I got there but it seemed like the poem to work on while I was there. So I did that. I did some others too. But this is one of them that I wrote finished while I was on aisle Royal because it has a lot of wolves or did have I guess there are not so many anymore. But anyway, it's a place you think of when you when you think of wolves how to tell a rule from a dog. Wolf carries his head down tail down. He has a look of preoccupation or worried. You might think he has a family to support. He probably has a couple of broken ribs from trying to bring down a moose. He's not getting workman's comp either and no praise for his efforts the wolf looks unemployed flat broke. On the other hand a dog of similar features a husky or mal moot has his head up ears up looks attentive self-confident cheerful and obedient. He is fully employed with an eye toward promotion. He carries his tail high like a banner. He's part of a big organization and has the title of man's best friend

(00:07:27) those Jenkins. Thank you.

(00:07:29) Thank you.