I thoroughly enjoyed these short interviews, part of the NewsHour Poetry Series. (via Rockslinga)

GHASSAN ZAQTAN: But you have to start from the details.

JEFFREY BROWN: So, where do the details come from in — for your poetry?

GHASSAN ZAQTAN: Memory.

JEFFREY BROWN: Memory?

GHASSAN ZAQTAN: Memory is very important.

JEFFREY BROWN: As always on our trip, we were offered coffee. Here, it turned out to be a good way into talking about poetry.

GHASSAN ZAQTAN: For this uncertain place, for uncertain life, which we have in this area, we have to — to protect our personal history.

and

TAHA MUHAMMAD ALI: I thought that, if I want to express myself, I have to know what is poetry and what is good poetry. And this went together, reading and trying to write.

JEFFREY BROWN: In one short poem translated as “Where,” he writes that poetry hides.

So, poetry hides. How do you find it?

TAHA MUHAMMAD ALI: You have to take the pen and to take a paper, and to be ready to wait for him. Otherwise, he will come and you are not there. As a writer, you have to train yourself to write. Write anything, but every day.