Fulton on poetry:

I’m reading a draft of a colleague’s paper, and she quotes Alice Fulton from an interview. I thought it was pretty cool, so I’m quoting it here. Fulton is discussing her use the of the double equals sign (= =):

I also think it’s a turbulent sign. To make up your own sign is probably in some ways not a good idea. It could cause some anxiety and hostility. I was aware of that, but I think poetry should be a bit turbulent and should raise arguments. It should have people saying “Why are you making me notice this?” Those are valid things for poetry to do that it hasn’t been doing. It’s been disappearing and being decorous. It’s been behaving itself. In making that sign I wanted to take a bit of a risk, the risk of being called gimmicky and contrived and all that. That’s part of the turbulence for me, that’s the risk of it.

Citation:

Marsh, Alex. “A Conversation with Alice Fulton.” TriQuarterly 98 (Winter 1996-97): 22-39. 5 May 2003 http://people.cornell.edu/pages/af89/interview/tq.html.

The URL no longer works, though.