“The Shadow Maker” and “War in Eurasia” by M.B. McLatchey appeared in Issue 32 and can be read here.
We’d love to hear more about this pair of poems.
“The Shadow Maker” and “War in Eurasia” were inspired by Orwell’s 1984, which details an unholy alliance between media, government, and history shapers. Both poems were originally produced with an eye on American society and its policy makers, but it is clear now that both poems eerily foreshadowed the inhumanity that was soon to descend upon Eurasia, and in particular, the Ukrainian people. The poems warn us of what to look out for so that we may know when our spirits have been numbed and we have unwittingly surrendered to an observance of what we are allowed or not allowed to say, think, and feel. A fresh reread of Orwell’s classic seems in order.
What was the most difficult part in writing these pieces?
Langston Hughes observed that politics can be the graveyard of the poet and only poetry can grant the resurrection. The most difficult part in crafting these poems was navigating the tension between protest and poetry, between megaphone and metaphor. I am convinced that most political poems fail because they are polemic in verse lines. Transcendence, through poetic craft, has to happen – otherwise there is no art. In crafting these poems, I relied upon poetic form rather than rhetorical patterns in order to shed speech and let in poetry.
Recommend a book for us which was published within the last decade.
Incarnadine by Mary Szybist (Graywolf Press). This is a beautifully-crafted collection that is a series of annunciations, a series of attempts we make as human beings to know our God – and to let our God know us
If you could have a drink with any living author, who would it be? Why?
Probably Cynthia Cruz. Her recent collection, How the End Begins is a haunting (ghosts everywhere) recapturing of poetic influences. She’s a poet who powerfully employs craft, and I love talking craft. She clearly attends to the poet’s edict: Know the masters in your trade, so you can master your own work.
What are you working on now? What’s next?
I am working on a collection of persona poems that track the fall of the Roman Empire – in particular, the marriage of Roman Emperor Justinian and his prostitute wife, Theodora. The fall of Rome parallels many conditions present in America today. Persona poems allow me to carve out a theater for voices from the past that speak for voices today – and to explore human questions that are timeless.
Our thanks to McLatchey for taking the time to answer a few questions and share these poems. Read “The Shadow Maker” and “War in Eurasia” here: https://www.sequestrum.org/new-poetry-by-m-b-mclatchey.
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M.B. McLatchey is a poet and writer living, writing, and teaching in Florida. Author of five books, including the award-winning titles Beginner’s Mind (Regal House Publishing, 2021) and The Lame God (2013 May Swenson Award, Utah State University Press), she is recipient of the American Poet Prize from American Poetry Journal, the Annie Finch Prize from National Poetry Review, and was recently nominated for the 2020 Pushcart and Best of the Net awards. McLatchey is Professor of Humanities at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Poet Laureate of Florida’s Volusia County, Arts Ambassador for Atlantic Center for the Arts, and U.S. Ambassador to the HundrED global foundation for education. She received her graduate degree in Comparative Literature from Harvard University, Master of Arts in Teaching from Brown University, MFA in Poetry from Goddard College, and her B.A. from Williams College. Visit her at www.mbmclatchey.com.