[encore] 915: Who Among You Knows the Essence of Garlic? by Garrett Hongo

Summary

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily - Episode 915: "Who Among You Knows the Essence of Garlic?" by Garrett Hongo

Release Date: April 16, 2025
Host: Major Jackson
Produced by: American Public Media in partnership with The Poetry Foundation
Supported by: National Endowment for the Arts

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Introduction and Context

In this encore episode of The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily, host Major Jackson revisits the archives to present "Who Among You Knows the Essence of Garlic?" by Garrett Hongo. As Jackson transitions from his role as the host, he reflects on the evolving landscape of poetry and the creative processes that fuel it.

Challenging Traditional Notions of Artistic Creation

At 00:31, Major Jackson delves into a thought-provoking discussion sparked by a conversation with a visual artist friend. She posits that contemporary poets are overly professionalized and lack the tortured genius traditionally associated with profound artistic expression. Jackson offers a counterargument:

"For too long we've promulgated a notion that writers whose lives are unstable bring the fire. I do not believe in suffering as a prerequisite for great art." (01:10)

He advocates for redefining creative education, suggesting a shift away from conventional graduate MFA programs towards more immersive, experiential learning opportunities. These would include travel expeditions, cooking lessons, plein air painting, and museum visits—activities designed to cultivate a deep sensory and historical awareness.

"Great writing emerges out of the writer's intense experiential relationship to their world as well as emotional and spiritual stability." (02:15)

Jackson emphasizes that such experiences foster a profound connection with the environment and inner life, which he believes are crucial for producing meaningful and enduring poetry.

Presentation of Garrett Hongo’s Poem

Following his insightful discourse, Major Jackson introduces Garrett Hongo's evocative poem, "Who Among You Knows the Essence of Garlic?" The poem is a tapestry of vivid sensory imagery, intertwining culinary elements with cultural and familial memories.

Sensory and Cultural Imagery

Hongo's poem immerses listeners in a rich landscape of flavors, smells, and sounds:

"Can your foreigner's nose smell mullets roasting in a glaze of brown bean paste and sprinkled with novas of sea salt?" (03:20)

"Can you hear my grandmother chant the Mushroom Sutra?" (03:45)

These lines evoke a deep sense of place and heritage, blending the personal with the universal. The recurring theme of food serves as a metaphor for memory, identity, and tradition.

Vivid Descriptions and Emotional Resonance

The poet's mastery in using detailed descriptions brings the scenes to life:

"The marbled skin of the blue mackerel works good for men. The purple oils from its flesh perfume the tongues of women." (04:30)

"Soft, ripe pears blushing on the kitchen windowsill kneel like plump women taking a long, luxurious shampoo and invite you to bite their hips." (05:10)

These evocative images create a multisensory experience, inviting listeners to engage deeply with the poem's layers of meaning.

Insights and Reflections

Through Hongo's poem, Major Jackson underscores the importance of sensory experiences in crafting poetry that resonates on multiple levels. The poem exemplifies how everyday elements—like cooking and ingredients—can be transformed into profound artistic expressions when viewed through a lens of deep historical and sensory awareness.

Jackson reflects on the poem's ability to capture the essence of cultural heritage and personal memory without relying on narratives of suffering or turmoil. This aligns with his earlier assertion that emotional and spiritual stability, combined with rich experiential backgrounds, are fertile grounds for exceptional poetry.

"Today's poem exemplifies the kind of deep historical and sensory awareness only possible when one has turned their senses into a laboratory of feeling and wondering." (05:50)

Conclusion

Episode 915 of The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily offers a compelling exploration of the relationship between sensory experiences and poetic creation. Major Jackson's thoughtful analysis, combined with Garrett Hongo's vivid poem, invites listeners to reconsider traditional narratives around artistic inspiration. By highlighting the beauty in stable, sensory-rich environments, the episode broadens the understanding of what fuels great art.

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Produced by APM Studios in partnership with The Poetry Foundation and supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Transcript

[A]

If you've been having your McDonald's sausage McMuffin with an iced coffee from somewhere else, now is a great time to reconsider. In the Pacific Northwest, it's never too cold for an iced coffee in the morning. Grab yourself a medium caramel, French vanilla or classic iced coffee for just $2.29. Beverage may cause craving for McMuffin or hash browns. Prices and participation may vary. Cannot be combined with any other offer or combo meal.

[B]

Hi there, it's me, Major Jackson. As I transition from my role as host of the Slowdown, we're taking a look through our archive of episodes. With such a deep well of poetry and reflection, it's a pleasure to revisit these moments together. Here's an episode from my time on the show. I'm Major Jackson and this is the Slowdown. Some years ago, a visual artist friend asked me who of my generation most quieted their own terrors through their poetry? Who best turned their suffering into art? She stated her belief that poets today are too professionalized, too tamed by their quest for acceptance, and that only tortured geniuses are worth paying attention to. I disagreed. For too long we've promulgated a notion that writers whose lives are unstable bring the fire. I do not believe in suffering as a prerequisite for great art. So I have this wacky idea. What if we de centered the classroom and workshop? What if instead of two years in graduate MFA programs, we proffered two or three years worth of travel expeditions, cooking lessons, plein air, painting, museum going? I wish graduate creative writing programs reimagined themselves as an intense education of the senses alongside a mastery of literary craft. I'm talking a series of full on immersive experiences that encourage a radical attention to our inner lives and forgotten histories, to natural spaces and their inhabitants. Great writing emerges out of the writer's intense experiential relationship to their world as well as emotional and spiritual stability. Today's poem exemplifies the kind of deep historical and sensory awareness only possible when one has turned their senses into a laboratory of feeling and wondering. And yet, here's a confession today's poet taught me in a workshop who among you knows the Essence of Garlic? By Garret Hungel can your foreigner's nose smell mullets roasting in a glaze of brown bean paste and sprinkled with novas of sea salt? Can you hear my grandmother chant the Mushroom Sutra? Can you hear papayas crying as they bleed in porcelain plates? I'm telling you that the bamboo slips long pliant shoots of its myriad soft tongues into your mouth that is full of oranges. I'm saying that silver waterfalls of bean threads will burst in hot oil and stain your lips like zinc. The marbled skin of the blue mackerel works good for men. The purple oils from its flesh perfume the tongues of women. If you swallow them whole. Rice cakes soaking in a broth of coconut milk and brown sugar will never leave the bottom of your stomach. Flukes of giant black mushrooms leap from their murky tubs and strangle the toes of young carrots. Broiling chickens ooze grease. Yellow tears of fat collect and spatter in the smoking pot. Soft, ripe pears blushing on the kitchen windowsill kneel like plump women taking a long, luxurious shampoo and invite you to bite their hips. Why not grab basketfuls of steaming noodles, lush and slick as the hair of a fine lady, and squeeze the shrimps big as Portuguese thumbs? Stew among cut guavas, red onions, ginger root and rosemary and lemon juice, the palm oil bubbling to the top, breaking through layers and layers of shredded coconut and sliced cashews? Who among you knows the essence of garlic and black lotus root, of red and green peppers sizzling among squads of oysters in the skillet of crushed ginger, fresh green onions and pale blue rice wine simmering in the stomach a big red fish? The Slowdown is a production of American Public Media in partnership with the Poetry Foundation. This project is also supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. On the [e-mail] to get a poem delivered to you daily, go to slowdownshow.org and sign up for our newsletter and find us on Instagram @downdownshow. Foreign.

[C]

Listeners of the Slowdown are invited to celebrate with a special offer from Poetry Magazine All April. You can get $5 off a subscription to Poetry, plus a free download to 25 Poems for 2025, a selection of the magazine's 25 most read poems of the century, with exclusive commentary from the editors and staff. Subscribe [e-mail] slow to receive this special offer.