Ron Padgett's Four Original Poems for Jim Jarmusch's Paterson

Ron Padgett discusses the poems he composed for inclusion in Jim Jarmusch's film Paterson, starring Adam Driver, for PBS NewsHour. They've also printed one of the four poems, titled "Another One." "When Jarmusch asked Padgett, a friend, to write original poetry for the film, Padgett initially said no. But after talking it over with Jarmusch, Padgett told the PBS NewsHour, 'I thought … why do I have to be such a chicken? Why can’t I just really accept this challenge?'” More:

After the poet read the script, he said he began to form an idea about who the character of Paterson was, and “found myself falling into what I kind of temporarily fantasized to be his world.”

Paterson’s world is full of routines: he drives his bus, writes poetry at lunch, sees his wife at home at night and then goes to have a beer at the local bar. So goes the poetry Padgett has written for him in the film: “I knock off work, / have a beer / at the bar. I look down at the glass / and feel glad.”

Padgett, known for this kind of plain, observational writing, said young people too often have a narrow or inflated view of what poetry has to look like. For Padgett, poetry can simply come, as it does in the film, from the familiar — or the imagined. “Maybe a film like Paterson will help some people say, huh, maybe I could write something like this too,” Padgett said.

Watch the video with Padgett at PBS NewsHour. And today you can get the story right from Mr. Padgett on "Poetry Off the Shelf."