Poet Trish Hopkinson at the Provo Pioneer Book Store for Utah Life Magazine, photograph by Savanna Richardson
“Poetry is about trying to re-create an experience that, technically, can never happen again,” Trish Hopkinson said in our profile of the poet, blogger and literary arts advocate in April, 2019. “It’s specific to the poet or the character they’re writing through.”
You can find Hopkinson’s work online at SelfishPoet.com and provisionally in Utah, where she runs the regional poetry group Rock Canyon Poets and folds poems to fill Poemball machines for Provo Poetry. In response to the current circumstances — an experience we all hope will never happen again — Hopkinson has written the epistolary poem “Letter to Covid-19,” which she shares with our audience in honor of National Poetry Month:
We also asked Hopkinson to choose a poet she admires and read from her work:
It was a pleasure to look back over my bookshelves and select a poet whose work I admire to share with 15 Bytes. I selected “Psalm for July” by Meg Day from the collection Last Psalm at Sea Level. Day is not only an exemplary poet, but an incredible and generous person and educator. Day has some roots in Utah, having lived here while studying for a Ph.D. from the University of Utah. I won’t pretend that I can do this poem justice, in the way Day does when reading the work. I encourage everyone to find some of Day’s readings on YouTube. You can watch Day read the title poem from the same collection here.
Trish Hopkinson’s poetry has been published in several lit mags and journals, including Tinderbox, Glass Poetry Press, and The Penn Review; her third chapbook Footnote was published by Lithic Press in 2017, and her most recent e-chapbook, Almost Famous ,was published by Yavanika Press in 2019, and is available as a free download. Hopkinson will happily answer to labels such as atheist, feminist, and empty nester; and enjoys traveling, live music, and craft beer.
UTAH’S ART MAGAZINE SINCE 2001, 15 Bytes is published by Artists of Utah, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Categories: Literary Arts | Poets in Pajamas
