From Syllables to Songs: Rowan Ricardo Phillips Shares Insights into Poetry and Process

Distinguished Professor Rowan Ricardo Phillips read his work and answered questions about poetry and writing at an event hosted by the Department of English and the Humanities Institute. Photos by John Griffin.

Last month, Stony Brook University Distinguished Professor Rowan Ricardo Phillips was recognized for his most recent volume of poetry, Silver, which made the longlist for both the National Book Award and for the Laurel Prize.

On November 14, the Department of English and the Humanities Institute hosted a poetry reading in whichPhillips read poems from Silveras well as his previous works, and conducted an engaging discussion with attendees that covered his life, career and work process.

Stony Brook's Executive Vice President and Provost Carl Lejuez offered opening remarks, highlighting Phillips' gift of inspiring self-reflection in his readers.

"I'm not the provost today, I'm a fan," said Lejuez. "When I read Rowan's poetry, it makes me think about myself at my worst, and me at my highest potential. He talks about things we get wrong and the idea of swallowing up time to try to get things right. I care about those same things, and there are so many moments where I feel like I can't express to people what it feels like to care so deeply about something and to not always live up to that or to meet the moment in the way you wanted."

Lejuez also cited Phillips' unique way of blending different intersectionalities and seeing the world and different mediums.

"He's a special person and the humanities are so precious to this university and to society," he said. "When we think about who we want to be and what is important to us, it is about how we see the world, how we keep a North Star at a time where it can be very hard to do that, where our values and our principles and our ability to communicate them to be humane."

Phillips then addressed a packed Poetry Center, reading selections from his first three books of poems - The Ground, Heaven, and Living Weapon - giving attendees a glimpse into his poetic process.

"I typically don't say anything about my poems, and you'll never find a note in any of my books," began Phillips. "What I'll do tonight is try to lift up the hood and talk to you a little bit about what's going on in the poems."

Phillips read selections from his earlier work and then treated attendees to readings from Silver, including "Atahualpa Yupanqui," "Key West,"and "Fantasia In a Time of Plague." The connection to music came up several times in the lecture.

"'Atahualpa Yupanqui' is the name of a tremendous Argentine folk singer and guitarist," said Phillips. "He took his name from two indigenous gods and young musicians would come to visit. This poem is made up of some of the songs."

Phillips also spoke about how "Key West" was inspired by an experience he had with fellow poet Billy Collins, a faculty member in the MFA in Creative Writing & Literature program at Stony Brook Southampton.

An attendee asked Phillips how he gets in a state where he can be honest with his emotions knowing that others are going to see.

"When you're writing, you can't think about other people," he said. "The most important thing I find is to live by the syllable. When I'm writing, I don't think about sentences, lines or words, I'm totally living by the syllable."

Another attendee asked, "How do you know when you're done? And do you ever go too far?"

"There's an age-old saying that no poems are ever finished, they're just abandoned," said Phillips. "I find myself finished when I'm saying the same thing over and over and over. When I'm working on a poem, it gets in my head, and when it starts coming out the same way I know it's done. When you're in it, there's a point where you realize that the work of art has completed itself and his poem is done. It's like the poem says 'you can leave now.'"

When asked to offer advice to aspiring poets, Phillips said writing is how he understands the world, and that the "spirit of poetry compels me to write."

"I have yet to meet a great writer who's not a voracious reader, and all writing is reading," he continued. "I think it's as simple as that. You can write a poem without reading, but you can't write poetrywithout reading. There's a qualitative difference between the two. A poem is a thing. You can make a thing. 'Poetry' is something different. There are very different ways to get into art and to be an artist and make art. It's kind of a study of your endocrine system and your survival, and kind of like a great sea of language. For me, it has to come with reading. Think of people in prison…what do they ask for? Not food, books."

The discussion closed with a question about what Phillips gets from teaching.

"I get everything from it, I love teaching," he said. "I don't find myself writing as much when I'm teaching, but I'm certainly filling the tank. I love the questions that I get. I love the readiness. And there's something about Stony Brook that's really kind of special. And I really love that I've also been able to meet students in different ways, through creative ways and academic ways, and also to encourage them. I can tell you I would be a much worse writer if it wasn't for my students."

- Robert Emproto

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