THE POET'S INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

what is the first poem you ever loved? Why?

i know there were poems before GUNGA DIN
but my father went through a rather long period
where GUNGA DIN (rudyard kipling) was what we got if we got
anything before going to sleep

then he went through an EDGAR ALLAN POE phase

but GUNGA DIN rings in my memory
of an early fascination with the power of words

something i read that may surprise people?

i can't think of anything

how important is philosophy to my writing? why?

i read in any given year a rather wide array of philosophical works
mostly focusing on the thought of thomas aquinas...yet keeping an awareness of
trends and interests of the modern day
i read philosophy because i believe that
thinking is the highest freedom known to mankind

who are some of your favorite non-angloamerican writers? why

john berger and claudio magris are my two favorite
european writers
i love borges
i recently became entranced in writings of
roberto bolan(y)o

do you read a lot of poetry?
how important is that to the writing?

i guess i read at least one pome a day
maybe more
i write poetry when i write
prose is a challenge


what is something people may assume you've read but haven't?
why haven't you?

i've been in numerous conversations
where the book THEORY OF THE LEISURE CLASS
has come up and i've at least nodded
in familiarity but actually have never read
the classic american text on economics
so there it's out
i've said it
ah what a burden has been lifted

there's a lot of philosophy
i've never read

my eyes are failing

how would you explain what a poem is to a 7 yr old child?

OK while you eat your cookie
i'm going to read this poem OK
and i want you to tell me what you
hear

"I think that i shall never see
a poem as lovely as a tree"

' a tree is not a poem'

yeah i know but just listen
you're spilling milk everywhere
let me wipe that up

why do you suppose someone
calls the tree a poem?

'can i have another cookie?'

sure

why does someone write about a tree as a poem?

'maybe...maybe...slurp slurp...maybe he thinks
it's like music and the birds are in the trees
singing their poems'

i bet you can write a poem
yep
here's a piece of paper and a pencil
why don't you write a poem?

'i want to finish this cookie"

OK

tap tap tap tap tap tita tita tap tapity tap

OK
let's see if you can write a poem

'D o g Shit'

who taught you how to write shit?

'you did'

OK

that's a good poetry lesson for today
you're great

'can i have another cookie?'

sure

this method has been patented

do you believe in the ROLE for the POET?
if so, how does it differ from the ROLE of the CITIZEN?

the role of the poet is to live out a cruel fate
the cruel fate of learning to be a citizen
under the worst possible circumstances
the poet does the world a favor
when he/she refuses to take poetry seriously
and when she/he does as well engage in it
with the utmost seriousness
for it is at once the most silly
and the most necessary of actions
wrapped up in a matrix of
guttural presentations

word associations?

lemon: ade
chiseled: the other l
I: doubt it
Of: nothing comes to mind
Form: Substance

what is the relationship between the text and the body
in your writing?

i think that this has been exhausted
there's no point in writing about
the human body anymore
it's all been said
from the swollen toenail
to the braintumor
now the women have told us
just how the menses smells
now the men have described
their squalid bodies
it's over
let's speak of these things no longer

the body is irrelevant
i'm all for the rhetoric of
disembodied thought
a complete ignorance of the body
a complete naivte about the physical
human phlesh

only thoughts exist
only plato exists

although
aristotle would argue