In which Edwin Torres welcomes the end of Facebook

This Thursday, February 24, the poet Edwin Torres will read in an event co-sponsored by the Poetry Foundation, Poetry magazine, the Columbia College English department, and the college's Center for Book & Paper Arts. A reception immediately follows the reading. Here, Torres talks briefly about a few figures—Velemir Khlebnikov, David Bowie, and Wallace Stevens—who have inspired him.

What line or poem do you find yourself sharing again and again?

Room, my friends...to roam

-from "Zangezi" by Velemir Khlebnikov.

On your bookshelf but unread:

The Warm Animals by Mike Tyler.

Can you remember the first poem you read and really liked?

“The Man Whose Pharynx Was Bad” by Wallace Stevens.

A cause you would attach your name to:

The end of Facebook.

The picture that comes to mind when you hear the word “poetry”:

A crystallized fur puppy whose mouth conjures fire while listening ice.

If forced to quote your own writing, what line or poem would you provide?

What mantle of man matter might make man...matter?
"Oh Water Man"

Closely followed by:

I am professional
"Motor Priest"

Expression you greatly dislike:

What does poetry mean to you?

The longest amount of time you’ve gone without writing [creatively]?

6 months.

Favorite public figure:

David Bowie.

Favorite literary device:

The line break.

When I think of Chicago, I think of ___________.

Those two towers by the river on a winter day.