Jay Ponteri muses on marriage for Chicago’s WBEZ
From WBEZ 91.5:
If we are always changing, how do we enter into relation with another person? How do we evolve with someone else, instead of away from them? Jay Ponteri, author of the lyrical book, Wedlocked, lets us in on the truth of his life and marriage. He admits to a brokenness, which on the surface could seem to be an unraveling, but ultimately comes from a willingness to see what is real in all of its flawed confusion. Jay reminds us that a deeper relationship is always possible if we do not become fixed or believe ourselves to be whole in a way that is final. To overtly resist change is to deny life. And to will change, constantly, is to live.
Jay Ponteri is the author of the new, acclaimed book, Wedlocked (Hawthorne Books, 2013). He directs the undergraduate creative writing program at Marylhurst University and Show: Tell, The Workshop for Teen Writers & Artists. He is the founding editor of both the online literary magazine M Review and HABIT Books. His work has appeared in Tin House, Puerto Del Sol, Seattle Review. His essay “Listen to This” was chosen as a Notable Essay in The Best American Essays 2010. Jay lives in Portland, Oregon, with his wife and son.
To listen to the interview go to WBEZ 91.5.
First launched in April 2013 to celebrate National Poetry Month, WBEZ now continues our weekly series, The Gift – produced by Stanzi Vaubel and curated by Rachel Jamison Webster, author ofSeptember: Poems. This project is a collaboration with UniVerse of Poetry, a station partner that aims to celebrate poets from every nation in the world. Each piece drops us into a poets’ inner life, reminding us of the gift of being human among others.