Dr. Brian Glaser

Dr. Brian Glaser (English) is the author of six books of poetry. His latest publication, Unnamed Canyon (Shanti Arts, 2024), meditates on teachers and teachings, his educational paths, and significant themes of his personal life in the nineteen-nineties.

The Voice of Wilkinson sat down with Dr. Glaser to talk about Unnamed Canyon.

The Voice of Wilkinson: Congratulations on your sixth publication. Tell us about the title, Unnamed Canyon, and how it came to be. 

Brian Glaser: The title comes from one of the poems in the book, “Documentary.” It’s about a team of naturalists in Orange County. A friend asked me what the unnamed canyon is. In the context of the poem “Documentary,” it’s poetry. But thinking of the whole book as an unnamed canyon, I wouldn’t want to give that canyon another name.

“I write poems because that’s my nature” – Dr. Brian Glaser 

 

VoW: The poetry in this book is described as ‘meditation on teaching and teachers.’ Can you explain that? 

BG: For years I have encountered a quote from Albert Schweitzer in a building where I teach: “I always think that we live, spiritually, by what others have given us in the significant hours of our life.” We don’t always know when those moments of significance are happening. Now that I’m over fifty, looking back on most of my life—so many times, those moments were created by my teachers.

VoW: I love how you go into your personal experiences from the nineties. Tell me about going back to those memories and wanting to share them with the reader. 

BG: The nineties were a great decade to be in school. So much germinal thinking about globalization was taking shape, and the breakthroughs in social justice of the preceding decades had opened up deep, challenging conversations about poetry. In my own work at the time, I approached those conversations from an oblique angle, as is my nature. But it was a vital decade for the humanities, and I am still carried forward by that energy.

VoW: Tell me about one of the more memorable nineties moments you reflected.

BG: Being chased by a column of stray dogs as I was jogging through my new neighborhood as a visiting professor in Ciudad del Carmen, Mexico.

VoW: What is one of your favorite poems in Unnamed Canyon? Can you give me a snippet?

 BG: This one is quite short. A haiku written while reading The Invention of the White Race.

 The oak at night—

             not quite

  the oak at sunset—

VoW: What do you hope readers will gain from reading your latest publication?

BG: I hope they’ll witness a person devoting himself to making art authentically, with all the inner resources he has.