Hardy:
These three poems are part of a larger
series I've been working on...for awhile. The inspiration for this
collection comes from an incomplete set of The World Book Encyclopedias
published in 1947.
I randomly grab an Encyclopedia volume from the shelf (where they,
unlike my other books, are not alphabetized) and open to a random page.
Faced with disparate entries, I figure out how to fit them together. Is
there a link? Or does the vibration happen in the variance: English
Sparrows and Engraving, Dinwiddie and Diphtheria—like sewing machines
and umbrellas?
I like to supplement the 1947 Encyclopedia entries with research I do
on the (infinite and sometimes erroneous) Internet. I’m fascinated by
facts and trivia—the more outrageous and outdated, the better. I was
once told you shouldn’t include information in a poem. I still don’t
know what that means.