Yvor Winters’ Easy Ride ft. E. L. Brooks

The 1969 film Easy Rider and the late poetry of Yvor Winters offer a striking double vision of California and its place in both the American landscape and culture. The film stars Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper as two motorcyclists struggling to take it easy in a hostile America, traveling east from California. Earlier, Winters traveled west to California, finding it conducive to his poetic imagination. Writer E. L. Brooks (PoetRegressive) joins me to discuss Winters' poetic theories and the dangers of unbound passion presented in Easy Rider.