Rowan Evans on A Method, A Path
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
I think this can be changeable depending on where and when you find yourself, but it can often be very simple: recently, the sense of complete bodily and mental calm during and after swimming in the sea, as the sun is going down (somewhere warm), with a cup of something hot, good company and a perfect snack.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
I’ve noticed in A Method, A Path and other places I often use the word ‘light’, either its presence or absence as a literal, cognitive or even spiritual substance (in the most pluralistic sense of that word!) Kayo, who edited the book, also pointed out how often I used the word ‘poem’, as many of those poems are interested in the material of language and the act of writing itself.
What is the quality you most like in a person?
A sense of humour and boundless silliness, closely followed by warmth, empathy and curiosity about the world.
“Formally inventive, rich in aslant borrowings, unafraid of visual and textual experiment, it is an exhilarating debut” GUARDIAN
If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
I think cats have a pretty good ride all things considered, or at least a well-fed, well-cuddled cat with a leafy garden kingdom in the summer and a warm lap in the winter. My cat sometimes gets multiple breakfasts. She is winning.
What is your favourite line of poetry?
I don’t know if I have an all-time consistent favourite; more often there will be a line or lines that surface and stick with me for a while, and these usually end up in – or just adjacent to – my own poetry when that happens. The earliest in my teens were from Dylan Thomas, ‘the force that through the green fuse drives the flower’ … ‘night-geared man’ … ‘heron-priested shore’. At the moment it’s single words of Greek in Sappho, ‘struthoi’ (sparrows), ‘chérados’ (stones). I also love George Oppen’s ‘I think there is no light in the world / but the world / And I think there is light.’
