Earlier this year, I had the good fortune to snag a copy of Accidental Devotions (Copper Canyon Press) at AWP and to have Kelli Russell Agodon sign it. She wrote: "May my poems inspire yours." A generous message, a good harbinger. After all, don't your favorite books inspire you to write? Mine do. That's what happened with Accidental Devotions—I would pick it up, read a few poems, then write one.
Russell Agodon's poems want to be savored, lingered over. In discussing the origin of the collection, she wrote: "It ended up becoming a kind of love letter to this strange, beautiful, heartbreaking world we’re all trying to survive, but also a love letter to poetry and to the reader. I think of this book as being for the quiet rebels, the tenderhearted, the overthinkers, the people who feel deeply and keep showing up anyway.”
These are also poems that contemplate spirituality as the creep of technology sculpts us. Often the intersection evokes humor as in "Accidental Devotion to a Smart Phone," where we overhear a man's dialogue into his phone—an apology to a loved one. The speaker longs for the man to toss his phone “into the water” and “find a shell” to give to the person he fears will leave him forever.
“I wanted to write poems where everything felt connected, where the weird and the holy could sit at the same table with sensuality and modern life/mental health, and maybe even share an appetizer,” Russell Agodon shared. “So there are poems about Alexa trying to help someone who’s falling apart, Rilke being summoned by a Ouija board, God in a convertible heading for the coast, women kissing in cemeteries and still believing in joy.”
One of the small delights of this book waits at the end: “Necessary Prayer” is a perforated poem intended for the reader to pull out and share with a friend, keep someplace sacred, or wander off. We hope to stumble upon this poem, and copies of Accidental Devotions for decades to come. You can find your copy at The Poetry Shop.
Welcome to the Poetry Shop 5, Kelli Russell Agodon! We always start by asking: who was your "gateway poet," or poem that first sparked your interest in poetry?
I’d say my gateway poem was “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T. S. Eliot—which says a lot about my early attraction to anxious men concerned with mortality and possibly wearing rolled trousers. I think what struck me was the realization that I could write in my own voice about my own concerns—I could be funny and tender and anxious and and and. . . These days, my understanding of Eliot himself is more complicated, but it was the first poem that made me think, Wait, poetry can do this?
I think what Eliot did for me was give me permission to be myself and write in my own voice. I learned there were poets writing in accessible and interesting ways, that lines and images can make poem work on several levels. Like that line “Do I dare eat a peach?” After Eliot, I started reading William Carlos Williams, Langston Hughes, Sylvia Plath, Allen Ginsberg, Anne Sexton, Denise Levertov, Lucille Clifton—and well, it hasn’t ended…
Which poetry books are you currently reading?
It's never "book" but "books" -- I always have more than one poetry book around me. I’m currently reading Monster Galaxy by Cindy Veach, Is Is Enough by Lauren Camp, The Intentions of Thunder by Patricia Smith, The Visible Field by Zoë Ryder White, An Authentic Life by Jennifer Chang, Midlife Abecedarian by Melissa Fite Johnson, Don't Ask Me How I Know by Michele Bombardier, Taylor Byas’ Resting Bitch Face, A Suit or a Suitcase by Maggie Smith, Blowdown by Jessica Walsh, and I just received two galleys of Tina Chang’s next book, Lion, and Kathy Fagan’s The Unbecoming that I’m loving. And, Birdbrains: A Lyrical Guide to Washington State Birds by Susan Rich.
Is there a book on the craft of writing that you recommend to poets?
I really love Paisley Rekdal’s Real Toads, Imaginary Gardens: On Reading and Writing Poetry Forensically—just everything she writes is written well, but she’s also so engaging and understandable, which is important for craft.
Of course, I have to mention in putting together a manuscript of poems, the book Susan Rich and I edited Demystifying the Manuscript: Essays and Interviews on Creating a Book of Poems, has some good advice from many wonderful poets.
Who is a new voice in poetry that we need to check out–someone with a debut book or recent release?
Leigh Lucas, her debut book Splashed Things. Lucas’ voice in these poems just pulled me under in the best way. This is a powerful and gorgeous book, and from the first pages you realize the poems aren’t behaving like “regular poems”—no neat little name tags, unconventional spacing, forms that feel slightly shattered and alive. But it’s exactly the point—the form is grief-shaped. It’s not decorative, it’s doing work.
I don’t want to give too much away, because honestly this book just appeared in my mailbox like a literary ghost delivery. Did I preorder it? Was it sent to me? Did the poetry gods slide it through the mail slot? Unclear. But I opened it, started reading, and immediately thought: WHO IS THIS AMAZING POET?! Where did this come from?
I read the whole book in one sitting and it’s still sitting beside me as I type this.
Finally, what’s a poetry book that others may not know about but deserves a shout out?
Hopefully, others have seen these two books, but there are a lot of books out in the world! So I want to give a shoutout to Asa Drake's Maybe the Body and Brooke Sahni's In This Distance.
I loved both of these books and I definitely think Brooke Sahni and Asa Drake are two poets we’ll be hearing much more from.
Brooke Sahni’s In This Distance is just gorgeous and unafraid. The book is full of desire, sensuality, the erotic, and what it means to long for something or someone while also trying to understand yourself. I loved the way these poems hold the body as a place of knowledge, not just feeling, and how a poem can include God and the word orgasm. There’s a sensual sacredness in this book, intimacy as a kind of holiness. Brooke’s writing is always so engaging, but also tender and smart; her poems hit me in the very best way. I honestly can’t get enough of her work.
Asa Drake’s Maybe the Body first has one of the most stunning covers, but then inside there’s a beautiful tension in the book between the larger world and the private self. And there’s this braided series of poems each with the same title, “To Someone Whose Heart I Love You Too Many Times,” her playfulness and inventiveness is all through this book and like Sahni, she’s also smart and fearless. And this is her debut collection!
Both books stayed with me. And one of the most important things I’m looking for in a book of poems is an engaging voice by the speaker and both of these books have that. They are so enjoyable to read—that’s what I love about them, you WANT to read the next poem. Both books feel as if they feel written by poets who are paying close attention, not just to language, but to living a life. They are human books—which sounds strange to say, but they deal with real emotions, thoughts, life. I guess I’m just so tired of a world where everything is fake or filtered—these books are written with soul, heart, the messiness of being alive right now. I just adore them both! So yeah, read them now so you can say, “I knew their work when…”
About Kelli Russell Agodon
Kelli Russell Agodon is a poet, human, editor, book cover designer, educator, paddleboarder, napper, snacker, birder, typewriter collector, animal lover, shoreline wanderer, and an enthusiastic accumulator of books who lives in a small sleepy seaside community in the Pacific Northwest where there are more blue herons than parking lots and only one restaurant open on Mondays. You can learn about her here. You can sign up for her every-so-often free newsletter, Postcards from a Poet on Substack. You can read some poems here.
Books referenced in this article.
Accidental Devotions (Copper Canyon Press) Kelli Russell Agodon
The Wasteland and Other Poems (Vintage) by T.S. Eliot
Monster Galaxy (Moonpath Press) by Cindy Veach
Is Is Enough (Trp: The University Press of Shsu) by Lauren Camp
The Visible Field: Poems (River River Books) by Zoë Ryder White
An Authentic Life (Copper Canyon Press) by Jennifer Chang
Midlife Abecedarian (Riot in Your Throat) by Melissa Fite Johnson
Blowdown (Small Harbor Publishing) by Jessica L Walsh
Lion: Poems (W.W. Norton & Company) by Tina Chang
Real Toads, Imaginary Gardens: On Reading and Writing Poetry Forensically by Paisley Rekdal
Demystifying the Manuscript: Essays and Interviews on Creating a Book of Poems (Twy Sylvia’s Press) Kelli Russell Agodon & Susan Rich
Splashed Things (BOA Editions) by Leigh Lucas
Maybe the Body (Tin House) by Asa Drake
In This Distance (Trp: The University Press of Shsu) by Brooke Sahni
