Matthew Dickman talks to The Beacon about poetry, Catholic school and the silver screen
By Lauren Seynhaeve
Matthew Dickman, a well-known Portland poet, will do a reading at UP on Feb. 8 in BC 163 at 7:30 p.m. Dickman's poetry is emotionally driven and often focuses on his life growing up in Lents, a rough neighborhood in southeast Portland.
Dickman and his identical twin brother Michael, also an acclaimed poet, have won numerous prizes and held a number of fellowships. Matthew's first manuscript was published by the American Poetry Review as a reward for winning first prize in the A.P.P/Honickman competition. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Poets and Writers and Tin House, among other publications.
The Dickman twins have also done a bit of acting - they were the male precogs in "Minority Report." Matthew provides a little insight into his work.
What sparked your intense interest in writing and reading poetry? Several of your family members are poets, but was there a specific poet or time in your life that got you truly interested in writing yourself?
I first became interested in poetry when I was a sophomore in high school. I think it was a perfect storm. I was in love with a girl who read poetry, I liked the rap music coming from the East Coast, and a mentor of mine, Ernie Casciato, gave me a notebook and told me to write in it. Anne Sexton was my first poetry crush. But equally influential was Philip Levine and The Beats; Ginsberg, Kerouac, Burroughs. I came from a neighborhood where men didn't write, they didn't share their feelings. So imagining Levine getting off work and instead of hitting his wife, going home to write his magical work poems or The Beats - these men being together, huddled on a corner, instead of jumping someone they were writing poems and getting high. I thought this was otherworldly and special.
Having attended several private Catholic schools, do you feel any attachment to them? How do you think your primary education has influenced your life/your work?
I was lucky to attend private schools. Though even in Catholic schools students have to attend to certain kinds of violence and indignities, it would have been a rougher path if I went to the public school in my district. I was also lucky to have teachers who were interested in inquiry and thoughtfulness beyond strict dogma. They were brave enough to explore their faith, even question the laws sent from Rome, and because of that they were deeply spiritual and great examples of the universality that Catholicism can be. This primary education taught me to be interested in, as well as to celebrate, the mystery of life if not simply the mystery of Christ.
The style in which you and your brother write poetry is vastly different, and you have called each other your best critics. Do you think that you influence each other much while writing, or do you tend to work as independently of one another as you can?
We certainly influence each other. Any one would if they wrote poetry, played guitar, made art, together for over 15 years. I think our work shows how independent we are of each other, but we are each other's best readers and supporters. And, because we aren't the same person, everything from how we begin a poem to how we re-draft and finish a poem is different.
How do you best write poetry? Do you require a certain mood or setting to do your best work?
I think any poet's best work is almost done without their knowing it. That is to say they were able to open up enough to let some of the subconscious out, to let some truth come through the beauty of metaphor, simile, image, what have you. I'm happiest when I'm surprised by something I've written. I can write anywhere as long as it's quiet. My brain is too easily distracted to write in bars or cafes. There all I want to do is look at people like a weirdo or read Vanity Fair.
What was your experience in "Minority Report" like? How cool is it to say that you were in that movie? What influence did it have on your career choice?
The experience of "Minority Report" was amazing. It had already been a few years since I had thought of myself as an actor. My artistic life was poetry. So it was a surprise in the most surreal way. And everyone was so kind. Maybe because they sensed Michael and I were not hustlers or desperate. We would bring poetry on the set and read between takes. Spielberg was incredible to us. And in our turn we were mesmerized by the sets, from the electricians to the makeup artists, the cameras and actors and actresses, everything was so full of life! Because I had already fallen completely for poetry the experience of the film didn't influence my choice in the art (you can hardly call it a career!) I wanted to make in my life. There are no private drivers or a door with your name above a star, but poetry is how I want to celebrate the world, how I better understand myself.
What do you plan on reading from or talking about when you visit UP? Why those pieces?
I plan on reading love poems and elegies. In the end I think that's were all art comes from. I'm interested in the way ecstatic joy and deep suffering both destroy language and how poetry is a way to repair that damage. Besides, there's nothing like being in love or the food that's served at funerals!
