An Interview with Lauren K. Carlson (Poetry ’21)

Your poems often reference and examine the concept/phenomenon of time. They deploy clocks and other time tools. What is time, to you? How does it lend itself to a poetic exploration?

There are many directions I could go with this question. I think of time as a fourth dimension, both crucial for perception and poetry. Rhythm and meter, sound, and rhyme. These need time in order to exist. I can’t remember where I read it, but it stuck me when I came across the concept that there is no music without time. That resonates with me, applied to poetry. There is no poetry without time.