Arthur Attwell recently published his first collection of poetry, a product of the University of Cape Town’s creative writing programme. Killing Time (Snailpress/UCT) has been described as “combining the elegance and precision of an American master like Richard Wilbur”. Diane Awerbuck says he “looks like Chet Baker and writes like an angel”. Attwell, says his website, Arthurattwell.com, “displays an unhealthy devotion to ice hockey, and has worked in publishing for over seven years”.
Describe yourself in a sentence.
I am an incredibly fortunate young person, hoping that’ll last if I just keep feeding the world good things.
Describe your book in a sentence.
This is a collection of poems about the ghosts of our childhood, relationships and social history.
Describe your ideal reader.
I suppose someone who is happy to find what they did not expect to find.
What was the originating idea for the book?
It has to be my earliest memory of being astonished by a poem: reading Robert Frost’s Mending Wall at the age of 15. That was the moment I first understood what a great poem could achieve, and knew that I would try to do the same. The earliest poems in Killing Time were written at the University of Cape Town’s creative writing courses 10 years ago, so I suppose the collection began to form then.
Name some writers who have inspired you.
Robert Frost remains in my top five. Story-telling songwriters like Paul Simon and Emily Saliers [of the Indigo Girls] influence me as much as any poet. The others in my top five would probably be Robert Graves and Douglas Livingstone.
What are you reading at the moment?
Geoffrey Haresnape’s The Living and the Dead and Rustum Kozain’s This Carting Life. I’m working my way through Karl Jung’s Synchronicity and I hope to start the new Harry Potter shortly.
Do you write by hand, or use a typewriter or computer?
A poem might begin as a phrase scribbled in a notebook and then take shape on screen, but the real work happens on endless hand-written revisions to endless computer printouts.
What is the purpose of poetry?
Poetry is like those metal flowers made from old cold drink cans. Prose is the can: it’s practical and serves a purpose. Poetry is the flower: the most intense parts of the can used in a particular combination, distilling the essence of the can’s design and presenting it in a form carefully chosen for maximum effect. It shows that it’s possible to carve something beautiful from the ordinary.
Is there anything you wish to add?
Like music, poetry is incredibly diverse. When people say “I don’t like poetry”, I wonder what on earth they’ve been reading. Find a poet you enjoy. Reading poetry should never feel like hard work. And most of it comes bite-sized for fast living, the convenience food of serious literature.