June 23, 2024
Mikko Harvey
Mikko Harvey is the author of Let the World Have You (House of Anansi, 2022) and Unstable Neighbourhood Rabbit (House of Anansi, 2018). He lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.
Wherever you are is a country. Touch it softlyto make it stand still. Your hair getting caughtin my mouth all the time, like a tiny pieceof you calling—like a tree trying to speakto a rock by dropping a pinecone on it.
I think poetry and humor are siblings. They are both ways of saying: hey, here is a new and possibly strange way of looking at things. They are both about surprise. They succeed by cutting against the grain of expectation, and part of their art is getting the audience to take that journey with you. For me, the closest art form to poetry is probably stand-up comedy…