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To launch the Spring 2007 issue of The Magazine, I interview poet and critic Dennis Lee (audio) about his new book Yesno. Besides being the first poet laureate of Toronto, Dennis is something like the cool uncle for an entire generation of youngish poets. He’s also the author of some of the greatest children’s books ever written, including Alligator Pie and Jelly Belly. Lee’s last two books of verse, however, have probably left as many people perplexed as they have exhilerated, and those two conditions aren’t necessarily exclusive. Jamming sounds and words together in a kind of invented dialect, Un, and its successor, Yesno, work towards building a language of disbelief and outrage at the state of the world, while also looking for the right words to heal it. People who have come to think of Lee as a children’s poet might be surprised. But those familiar with those very same poems might not. I met with Dennis in Ninja K’s dining room in April to chat about it all.
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May 17th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Nice. Oh, oh–and I thank him every day for fraggle rock!
May 17th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
Me too – not to mention Nicholas Knock…
“Nicholas Knock went noodling
through summer & winter & spring.
His mind had funny edges
And the ice cream truck went ching.”
May 17th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
We have seasons 1 and 2 of Fraggle Rock on DVD for Ninja Boy… They can be a little…intense for the average four-year-old. But you can always tell the episodes written by the poets (David Young, bpNichol), because of the extra mythopoetic layers.
May 17th, 2007 at 7:19 pm
It took me a while to get it… about 1/2 of the book actually. When I started reading the poems aloud in my head, I understood. This is word/idea music.
May 18th, 2007 at 9:45 am
This wonderful, George. These interviews you’ve been doing are a great service.
May 18th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
Thanks, all. Keep an eye (ear) out for the next one — it’s Guy Gavriel Kay.
May 18th, 2007 at 1:58 pm
I loved, loved, loved this interview. I didn’t know Dennis Lee’s work outside of children’s literature until Un, which completely rocked my world. It’s in the way form so closely follows content in that book, the way the language itself is unraveling in the poem as is the world he’s describing. yesno, too–I deeply admire the way that he dug in and invented new language when he found the language at hand lacking. These are brilliant poems, favourites on my shelf. Very much enjoyed listening to Lee talk about them.
May 18th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
Yes, thanks for the interviews, George.
My daughter just likes the music/score so far; so true, you can tell there is a poet
behind the cool weird-o-ness of certain episodes.
July 6th, 2007 at 7:31 am
I haven’t been able to download the interview yet, getting a forbidden error.
…Dennis Lee is the greatest Canadian Poet ever. In my opinion, if you can master the art of Children’s poetry, you are a master of poetry period! There is some horrible stuff that I read to my 3 year old, Dennis Lee is the only stuff he truly laughs out loud at (possibly because I am too!)
Anyway, I have a recording project on the go with Dennis Lee poetry as the base for the songs. I know this isn’t a new idea, but a new take on it, placing indie rock with his poetry sounds a little more natural, more Kensington Markety than the traditional SharonLoisBram silliness.
July 6th, 2007 at 7:36 am
Thanks for pointing this out. It’s fixed now.