Miriam Sagan held the following interview with Jennifer Bartlett on her book, DERIVATIVE OF THE MOVING IMAGE (UNM).

Miriam : Do you feel that you are part of a generation of poets? Can you define it? Or a poet of a particular generation, if that makes sense.

Jennifer Bartlett : This is actually a question I consider a lot. Of course, my age and success thus far place me chronologically along other poets. But, I feel as though my generation has corrupted themselves by mistranslated ideas of the Language Poets. They have become allergic to any sense of the “I” or lyric. Many poets of my age are purposefully experimental and oblique just to follow a trend and be included within a certain society. It feels as if you are a bit of an outsider, you are banished to the land of the ‘narrative’ which, in many circles, is a dirty word. Writing poetry is not a conscious act. People write whatever comes from the well. That said, I wonder if many young poets have been forced into a situation where they feel they have to write for academia or to be included in a certain journal.

This is not to say that there aren’t many, many poets of my generation doing fabulous work. I like to call us the new lyricists, although I don’t think I invented that term. Many poets are taking the best of the lyric and the ‘experimental’ and making something new.

Miriam : Many of the poems in the book are elegiac, but they aren't wildly
confessional. Were you looking for a particular tone in terms of elegy,
mourning, remembrance? Anything you want to add about this particularly
strain of poetry in the book?

Jennifer: Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how one looks at it, lost has been a major narrative throughout my life: loss through death, through transitioning relationships, and through the body as metaphor. It finds its way into my work because I tend to write about what is in front of me. Now, my husband and son are in front of me, so I’m writing about them. I hope to take some years off from sadness.

Miriam : Images of birds abound! Is this on purpose, or do they just kind of crop up?

Jennifer: You should see my second manuscript! Any explaination I might give for my attachment to birds as a metaphor might seem too obvious, so I’ll leave it at that!

Miriam : Influences? I know this is a usual type question, but still of
interest.The poems have an experimental streak, but frankly they seem
very lyric--in a pleasing and traditional way. Comments?

Jennifer: I think the brokenness in my poems derives from my non-prejudicial attitude toward poetry. I’m just as likely to read Ron Silliman as I am to read Robert Pinsky or the Beats or Plath and Lowell. I think that openness goes in my work. I don’t reject poetry based on pre-fabricated ideas about style.

When I was young Ginsberg was my favorite poet simply because he was all I knew. Much of Derivative has signs of Jorie Graham; the title poem, in particular, is based on Graham’s structure. When I read my teacher, Bill Olsen, I see his imprint throughout my work. He was actually heavily involved the final manuscript, as was my father, Lee Bartlett. Other than my father, Nathaniel Tarn has played the biggest role in my life as a poet. He is my spiritual connection to art and my mentor in the deepest sense of the word. Without my father and Nathaniel, I would not be able to write in this way.

Miriam : Do you have a favorire poem in the book?

Jennifer: "Orthinology."

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