On April 30th, Acacemy-Award winning actor Ellen Burstyn, author of the new book Poetry Says It Better, will visit The Westport Library in honor of National Poetry Month. Ellen will discuss her book, and poetry writ large, with fellow actor Pamela Anderson. Westport Lifestyle sat down with Ellen ahead of this exciting event to discuss Poetry Says It Better, her Westport appearance, and why poetry is more relevant than ever.
Westport Lifestyle: Your book is called Poetry Says It Better, and in it you wrote that your love of poetry came from the discovery through poems that “words knew how to play,” as well as that poems “nourish our spirits.” Why do poems “say it better,” in your estimation?
Ellen Burstyn: Well, I can give you an example. The first poem that called my attention to poetry was ‘Invictus’ by William Ernest Henley. The last line is ‘I am the master of my fate/I am the captain of my soul.’ When I read that, as a teenager in unhappy circumstances, I just went, yes! I can change my life. I am the captain of my soul. You just couldn't say that in a more impactful way. Poetry will say something that, if it were said in plain English, wouldn't have the same impact.
WL: You spoke in the introduction of wanting to connect with people who don't think of themselves as poetry readers or lovers. What do you hope they take away from the book?
EB: I hope they get the enjoyment that I get from poetry: the wisdom, but also the way they express [thoughts] that speak to your soul.
WL: The book is in such a unique format: part anthology, part academic analysis, part memoir. How did you arrive at that structure for the storytelling?
EB: You know, I didn't think about it ahead of time. I started writing, and that's the way it formed itself. [I just knew]: I'm gonna write about my love of poetry, and it's going to reveal itself to me as I write it.
WL: Tell me about the event at the Westport Library. You and Pamela Anderson are something of an unlikely pairing to talk about poetry! How did it come about?
EB: [My publisher] asked about doing an event in Connecticut and who I would like to interview me, and I suggested Pamela. We just did a picture together [the upcoming Kornél Mundruczó film Place to Be], and when I heard she wanted to play the part of my daughter, I thought, why? It's only 2 scenes. Her career is on such a high now, she could play almost anything she wants. So once we were working together. I asked: what made you be interested in this? And she said: because I wanted to work with you. We've really gotten to know each other and she's a wonderful woman. She's so smart and creative. I really love knowing her. So it looks unusual on the surface, but in fact, it's not at all.
WL: You two will be discussing “why poetry matters.” How do you answer that question for yourself?
EB: It's an art, and art matters. There's a beautiful quote that I have in the book by Kaveh Akbar, the Iranian poet, where he says “art is where what we survive survives”. And that is, to me, so beautiful and so meaningful, and it's true. Certainly, in poetry, people do tend to write about what they've survived. The knowledge that we gain from poetry is expressed in a beautiful way. So, that's why.
”Poetry will say something that, if it were said in plain English, wouldn't have the same impact. It speaks to your soul.”