an interview with Karen Solie

CV2: Among the many amazing attributes one could accord your poetry, I would say you are a very sensual writer. By this I mean there is a momentum in your work that has a sexual edge, a physical tension, could you talk about this aspect of your writing?

KS: I would say that the gap between looking and knowing, its inherent tension and the physical responses it generates, is a kind of sexual tension in that it's an inclination of one body and mind to another—the allure of unknowable otherness. I'm not sure if "sexual" is the right word, but it's close. We live through our bodies, after all; they're what we know best, though even they are often a mystery to us. But there is something about the unknown and inaccessible that is sexy. The elemental force of it. A different animal from the drive-thru instant gratification plugged by car commercials and Temptation Island. I'm interested in the act of looking, considering, describing, the reach toward, as an act of desire. The desire propelling language itself. The language of desire and sexuality permeates work ranging from ancient religious mysticism to contemporary quantum mechanics. And it's far from solely a cerebral impulse. It pulls the body too. Anyone who has ever loved anything knows this. It can juice you up and it can lay you low.