The transformation of poetry by Dan Hogan

Dan Hogan reflects on their relationship to poetry and language as part of his 30in30 commission for Poetry Month 2021.

Poetry, for me, has been a place to disappear into language and reappear in images or in witness to the image. Poetry is where language goes to be reinvented and where ideas and concerns and concepts go to find their shape. The poem, I believe, remains one of the most potent transmissions of proletariat struggle. I don’t think poetry can save the world but from what I’ve read poetry is very good at sending dispatches from new worlds and uncancelled futures. Also, poems are very short, which totally suits the worker’s poverty of time.