01/12/2025
We've just published a deep-dive interview with poet John Elkin, the creator of Anthropoetry, a poetic language where “words become stones, symbols and spells” and cities exist on both the physical and metaphysical plane.
In the interview, Elkin takes us inside the making of Cairn City/Cairn Ville, his bilingual, richly imaginative anthology where each poem becomes a cairn — a stone marker on a shared human path. The bilingual edition of the book was translated by Alix Daniel and will be published by Cybirdy Publishing.
We talked about:
🪨 how a “stone” becomes a metaphor for a concept, a memory, a philosophy
🏙️ building a city that’s part myth, part dream, part anthropology
🧭 the wanderers who guide readers through this imaginative landscape
🌙 poetry as magic — a bridge between the seen and unseen
🌐 how translation opens new dimensions in the work
🌄 and how rituals, culture, and human connection shape his writing
If you’re curious about poetry that blends myth, anthropology, spirituality and storytelling — this one is for you.
Read the full interview now, live on the blog.
🔗 https://themadridreview.com/f/building-cairn-city-john-elkin-on-magic-myth-and-antropoetry
