“Flown,” “Interstellar,” “Stuck,” and “As If” by Joan Baranow appeared in Issue 40 and can be found here.
We’d love to hear more about “Flown.”
At the time I wrote “Flown” I was trying my best to read Brian Greene and Neil deGrasse Tyson. The idea of entanglement was especially fascinating—it seemed a natural image that captured the simultaneous separation and connection I was feeling about my sons growing up and leaving home. Regarding the other poems, I’m now nearly the age my mother was when she passed away, so mortality—both growth and death— has been much on my mind lately. Using science as a backdrop gives me emotional distance while providing some kickass imagery.
What was the most difficult part of that poem?
I’m a huge admirer of Dean Young’s poetry and strive to embody his energy without being overtly derivative.
Recommend a book for us which was published within the last decade.
One of the best academic satires I’ve read is Dear Committee Members, by Julie Schumacher—sooo funny!
If you could have a drink with any living author, who would it be? Why?
Peter Orner. I recently read his memoir Am I Alone Here? and am thrilled by his shoutout to the great Eudora Welty. Welty fans are a special breed.
What are you working on now? What’s next?
I finished a chapbook of centos during the pandemic, titled a possible otherworld, (from Lucille Clifton’s poem “11/10 again”). Now I’m back to writing poems as the muse moves me.
Our thanks to Joan for taking the time to answer a few questions and share these poems. Read “Flown,” “Interstellar,” “Stuck,” and “As If” Spoke” here: https://www.sequestrum.org/poetry-from-joan-baranow.
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Joan Baranow is the author of six poetry books, including Reading Szymborska in a Time of Plague, winner of the 2021 Brick Road Poetry Book Contest. Her poems have appeared in The Paris Review, The Gettysburg Review, Blackbird, JAMA, and elsewhere. A member of the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Community of Writers, she founded and teaches in the Low-Residency MFA program in Creative Writing at Dominican University of CA.