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Rowan Ricardo Phillips is a multi-award-winning poet, nonfiction writer, scholar, screenwriter and translator. He is the author of The Ground, Heaven, Living Weapon, Silver, When Blackness Rhymeswith Blackness and The Circuit: A Tennis Odyssey.

Phillips has been the recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Nicolás Guillén Outstanding Book Award, the PEN/Osterweil Prize for Poetry, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the GLCA New Writers Award and the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing. He lives in New York City and Barcelona. On Friday, April 5, he will read for the Brooklyn Poets Reading Series along with Cindy Juyoung Ok and Monica Youn.

Atahualpa Yupanqui

 

I

Blue Papa of the cosmic canticles

That the moistened plums sing to throbbing stars,

Stay awhile.

It’s only morning. The larks

Are still asleep inside your old guitars.

They dream the double dream of free harvests

From a free land far, so far, out of view.

Can you see it?

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Guitarra, dímelo tú.

II

Once I rode my horse into the center

Of the city and a great silence grew

Deep inside of me—a burning ember

Dwindling down to cinder, but I knew

This silence was not a yes or a no;

And as I’m no poet (there are so few),

Did I dream you?

Guitarra, dímelo tú.

III

Come stitch the night back together again,

Don Ata, double god, with your single

String of bass, the one all the quiet pain

Comes easily to, or so it seems in

The wide spectrum of your six silver strings:

Five for what’s truthful and one for what’s true.

And which am I?

Guitarra, dímelo tú.

 

—From Silver, Farrar, Straus and Giroux,

Brooklyn Poets · Rowan Ricardo Phillips, "Atahualpa Yupanqui"

Tell us about the making of this poem.

Atahualpa Yupanqui was a supreme maker. I’ve listened to him for hours and days at a time.

Confer songs such as “Guitarra, Dímelo Tú,” “Me Está Sobrando Guitarra,” “El Poeta” and “Yo Quiero un Caballo Negro” for the roots of the poem, which is written in rhyme royal.

What are you working on right now?

A nonfiction book called I Just Want Them to Remember Me: Black Baseball in America.

Farrar, Straus and Giroux will be publishing it in

What’s a good day for you?

Seeing the sun rise and spending quality time with my family.

Where’s home for you? How long have you lived there?

Rowan ricardo phillips biography of abraham Rowan Ricardo Phillips (born in New York City) is an American poet, writer, editor, and translator. He is a Distinguished Professor of English at Stony Brook University, [1] the poetry editor of The New Republic, [2] and the editor of Princeton University Press ' Princeton Series of Contemporary Poetry. [3].

What do you like about it? How is it changing? How does it compare to other places you’ve lived?

New York City. I was born here and have lived here for most of my life. I went away for school and have lived in Barcelona, my home away from home, for a while. But I’m New York born and raised since

I like that I was born here as I find it important to try to love the place that welcomed you into the world.

We all have a literal point of entry into existence, and although we have no memory of that moment, the place itself is there and I honor that, I think it's worth honoring.

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I like that so much culture flows through the city. And I like that it's surrounded by rivers and close to the ocean. I've never lived more than a few feet from water and I don't see that changing.

Spent any time in Brooklyn? If so, when and where? Share with us your experiences, impressions, etc.

Of course. I’ve been through just about every corner of it since the s, for better or worse.

Once upon a time, Brooklyn was a cluster of acutely identifiable neighborhoods; now Brooklyn is a kaleidoscope of obtusely identifiable neighborhoods. My Brooklyn habits have changed over the years. These days, I like spending a morning in Greenpoint or an afternoon in Red Hook when I can.

Tell us about some Brooklyn poets who have been important to you.

Big Daddy Kane, Raekwon, RZA, GZA, Yasiin Bey, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, MC Lyte, Nas, El-P.

Describe your reading process.

Do you read one book at a time, cover to cover, or dip in and out of multiple books?

Rowan ricardo phillips biography of abraham maslow: Biography: Biography. Rowan Ricardo Phillips is a Distinguished Professor of English at Stony Brook University. A highly acclaimed, multi-award-winning poet, author, screenwriter, academic, journalist and translator, Phillips is the author of several books.

Do you plan out your reading in advance or discover your next read at random? Do you prefer physical books or digital texts? Are you a note-taker?

I almost always read with a pen in my hand, and I prefer physical books. My reading doesn’t follow a chain of command; after finishing a book, I hope I feel changed in some way that alters a pre-existing idea, and this includes what I feel like reading next.

I’m never thinking about what’s next when I’m reading a book; I want to feel as though there’s nothing next, there’s only what I’m reading. This is the feeling I have when immersed in an excellent poem.

That said, I’m always reading multiple books at one time.

Where are some places you like to read and write (besides home, assuming you like to be there)?

I was reading Russian novels on the subway as a kid: I can read anywhere. Same with writing. I don't romanticize the writing process: it’s just the biomechanical part of the art.

I make sure to get it down and then make sure to get back to it. I’ve written standing up, lying on my back, on someone else’s back, poolside, seaside, in my car at a red light, on a plane, sprawled on a staircase, it really doesn’t matter to me. The only place I can’t write is in a café—never have, never will.

Why Brooklyn?

Because of Weeksville.