Leonard Gontarek - An Interview
Leonard Gontarek is the author of St. Genevieve Watching Over Paris, Van Morrison Can’t Find His Feet, Zen For Beginners and Déjà Vu Diner (Autumn House Press, 2006). He is the editor of This Is Forever The Room, The Balloonists Are Coming Back From The Clouds, and Rain Of The Haunted Trees, anthologies of children’s poetry.
His poetry has appeared in numerous magazines. including American Poetry Review,
New England Review, Poetry Northwest, The Best American Poetry 2005.
His poetry has been awarded prizes by the Atlanta Review, Poet’s Attic, Mad Poet’s Review and Mudfish Magazine. His work is included in Joyful Noise: An Anthology of American Spiritual Poetry. He has been nominated for four Pushcart Prizes, and twice received poetry fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. He is a poet in the Philadelphia Arts in Education Partnership. You can learn more about the works of Gontarek at:
www.leafscape.org/LeonardGontarek
THE INTERVIEW:
Q. You have conducted and are in the process of conducting several poetry workshops in the Philadelphia area to include The Philadelphia Writers Conference in June. What can an attendee expect at your workshop and what do you believe they will glean from a Gontarek workshop?
A. I use assignments vigorously. The workshop poets are asked to go outside their own work - exploration. The development of their style and voice is enriched by this process. They consider possibilities that would not have occurred to them before. My intention is to open as many avenues as possible to make their work stronger. They return to their town work and see it through new eyes. They have new respect for their poems and treat it as the sacred material it is. Additionally, in the case of The Philadelphia Writers Conference, there will be discussion of how to manage the poet’s life and real life. How do we “find time” to write, how do we stop feeling terrible if we can’t find the time to write. Spiritual crisis. At the very least, we can find solace and understanding in our shared difficulties. All poets go through it.
Q. The poetry included in Déjà vu Diner has been described by reviewers as “Unique in its precision”, “meticulous use of language and startling juxtapositions of imagery”. How would you describe the works included in Déjà vu Diner?
A. First of all, the reviews have been so wildly effervescent, we had to tone them down (ha). I would say the material in Déjà Vu Diner is equal parts political, erotic, and meditations on the world. It is as simple as that. My views on these things are complicated, hence the overlay texture of the poems. After twenty-five-plus years of writing, it I how I look at things through poetry. I don’t think there are many answers within, but the poems maintain the purity and keep current our big questions (who are we, where are we going? …).
Q. You are currently hosting the Mad Poets Society reading at The Last Word Bookshop on the Penn Campus. Two readings remain on Sept. 14th and Oct. 12th. What can those who attend expect at these Friday evening readings?
A. Greg Djanikian, Jim Mancinelli and Kathy Volk Miller on September 14th – three accomplished poets at different stages in their career. Robin Alter-Bielawa, Amy Ouzooian and Ish Klein on October 12th – three of the best young poets anywhere.The Last Word is comfortable and poet-friendly. It’s on one of the coolest blocks in West Philly: five terrific restaurants, a used CD and comic store, a few doors from the famous Smoky Joe’s.
Q. What was your inspiration for the poem “063”? http://www.shadowtrain.com/id151.html
A. I’m happy you single this poem out, it is very important to me. It came between one stage of poems and the next. I very much believe Roberto Juarroz’s statement that to write a poem in these times is a political act. It is a political poem. Political poems can be oratorical, and they can exist soft-spoken. Both, I believe, can hold power. This poem is obviously closer to the latter. Brutal political events can cause the poet’s voice to become hoarse from shouting, but it must always be articulate. As to the inspiration … Who lead Germany during the Second World War? The poem is a direct response to the “innocent” questions posed to children studying History. My child as well. At the same time, I know full well that schoolchildren today are light years ahead of other generations when it comes to political sophistication. They know History is the present.
Q. As a poet, workshop leader and host you come into contact with established and emerging poets. What direction do you see poetry in the Philadelphia area moving?
A. Poets in Philadelphia are committed and original as can be in voice and style. This is not a movement, but it is a direction one can be thrilled to view. There are small factions which more or less subscribe to certain schools of poetry, which should be expected in a city as distinctive as Philadelphia. The sum of the parts is big and inclusive and Whitmanesque. If you look at the diverse venues and literary groups publishing and presenting poetry, you can see poetry is important here and poets can feel at home.
Q. Have any poets influenced your work and when you are not writing what poets do you read?
A. There are books that have been influential – License To Carry a Gun, Andrei Codrescu, Lovers In The Used World, Gillian Conoley. Those two span thirty years.I could name fifty poets easily who have influenced me. I know, you want a few names:Lowell, Merwin, Ashbery, Oppen, Levertov, Snyder, Lawrence Raab, John Koethe, Charles Wright, Stephen Dobyns. What poets do I read when I’m not reading? Can a poet separate in that way? Maybe there are a couple poets I can read for pleasure solely.Yves Bonnefoy, who has had the luck of interesting translators, so you get good variations of the same poems, and Wallace Stevens, who I read the most regularly of any poet. I think I read fiction that is somewhere between poetry and fiction for delight.All of Julio Cortazar. All of Evan S. Connell, who has a book-length poem unlike any other: Points For A Compass Rose. Ava by Carol Maso falls into this category, and Reader’s Block by David Markson.
Q. There are many new poets emerging in the Philadelphia area. What advice would you give them as they begin to share their works?
A. I think it takes a good ten to twenty years to establish one’s own style. Not that we don’t write good poems along the way. I note this, in particular, to suggest not worrying about things too much. Enjoy all aspects of the process. It is likely true that the process is all we have at times. I read somewhere that in two hundred years probably only five or six poets writing at this time will be remembered. If this is the case, I would definitely advise enjoying the ride. Not to worry about things that are out of our hands.
Q. If you weren’t a poet what would you be?
A. I would be wandering a beach, with my pants rolled to my ankles, looking for myself. I’m serious. Of course, I do that as a poet, but poetry lends me more dignity and grace and occasional glimpses of wisdom. For that, I am grateful.
Next Interview: Amy E. Laub- Madpoets Poetry Critique Circle
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