The Mad Poets Blog

Michele Belluomini’s work has appeared in journals such as American Writing, “NOW! (then)”: The Eternal Now Poetry Anthology, APR: Philly Edition ’99, The Mad Poet’s Review, Sinister Wisdom, the Helen Review , and The Mulberry Poets&Writers Daybook; as well as in the collection – The Dreambook: An Anthology of Writings by Italian American Women. Michele reads her poetry at a number of venues throughout the Philadelphia area. She has been a recipient of a Leeway Foundation “Window of Opportunity” award for travel to Mexico to collect Huichol Indian mythology and folklore. She is a Literature librarian at the Free Library of Philadelphia where she helps coordinate the “Monday Poets” poetry series. In 2000, she won the Giovanni’s Room Bookstore International Poetry Competition Award. Her previous book, Translations from the Dark, was published by Blue Deer Editions in 1993. 

Q. You have studied with the Huichol People of Northern Mexico for a number of decades. What impact has the experience had on your writing and your view of life? 

This question is a difficult one to answer because my studies with the Huichol Indians of Mexico have had such an enormous impact on my life, but my studies with them “make no sense” to most people.  For example, I’m not an ethnographer, but I have been learning about their perception of the world, their complex mythology and art work, and something of their yearly ritual cycle.  I am also a storyteller:  I know many of those stories, and I love talking to people about the Huichols.  On one level they have helped me “get out of my head” and learn to rely on my intuition much more than I ever thought possible.  I think what affects me most is their joyousness and their balance.  I have also begun putting together poems based on my experiences with the Huichols and am attempting to write more of them – I would like to honor them and so I’m taking my time on this particular project.

Q. Plan B press published your last book, “Crazy Mary and Others” in 2004, in fact the collection won their chapbook contest for 2004. Many of the poems are about Crazy Mary an eccentric lady traveling around Philadelphia. Where did the inspiration come for this collection? 

The Crazy Mary poems stem from actual encounters I have had with various people on the streets of the city, and some people I’ve known, situations I’ve observed.  I also wanted to write these in an empathetic way.  I also had the idea at some point that I wanted to place more of my poems in
Philadelphia – sort of a “Walker in the City” in poetry rather than in prose.  And looking over poems that I had been writing for awhile, I realized that I had something I could call the “Crazy Marys” that  expressed some things that were difficult to express in other ways.

Q. The Philadelphia Main Library sponsors the “Monday Poets” series that you have coordinated for a number of years. What are the challenges one faces when coordinating a poetry series? 

I co-coordinated the series with Michele Gendron for around 10 years.  She was the Head of the Literature Dept. until her retirement last year.  Initially the Monday Poets was a poetry writing workshop which she asked me to run.  That lasted about 4 years with an end-of-the-year reading by workshop participants.  We branched off from there because there was no on-going poetry reading series at the library.  One of the challenges was initially convincing the administration that such a program was needed at the library and that we could bring in a fair-sized audience.  Over the years we have been able to attract between 45-50 people to each reading which seems to speak well for the level of artistry we present as well as the level of interest in poetry that can be found in the city.  Another one of the challenges has been in putting together a line-up of fairly well-known local poets with newer poets in such a way that a wide variety of voices and poets of divergent styles can be heard. 

Q. In addition to writing poetry and your full time job, you have read at many venues in the
Philadelphia area. Do you have any favorite venues and how would you describe the interaction with the audience?  

Two of my favorite places to read are Robin’s Books and Voice & Visions Bookstore, both independently owned.  Robin’s of course is an institution in the city and V&V is a fairly new enterprise located in the Bourse Building.  Audiences are funny creatures – the interaction at both of these places is sort of loose and welcoming, but also critically aware.  I should also mention the Big Blue Marble bookstore in the Germantown/Mt. Airy area where I have also read – a very poetry-friendly place which also has a reading series.

 Q. The Fairmount Arts Crawl recently sponsored street performances throughout the Fairmount area of Philadelphia to include poets. You were one of the poets to perform in this atmosphere. Could you describe the experience and how it differs or not from reading in an indoor venue?  

I have participated in 2 Fairmount Arts Crawls and reading outdoors for passersby who, for the most part, are not a “poetry audience” is an interesting challenge, so each time I chose poems that might be considered more “accessible.”   People just happened by and if we were lucky, became interested in the sounds of what they were hearing.  They weren’t really concentrating on the big meaning of the poem (if there ever is one), but maybe were caught by the “story” of the poem.  Both times have been really good experiences and I hope the organizers for the Arts Crawl continue with the Poetry/Spoken Word Corner next year.

Q. The Leeway Foundation sponsored your last visit to Mexico. How valuable are foundations such as Leeway and the Pew Fellowship to artists and poets?  

There is no doubt in my mind that Foundations are very valuable to artists.  Of course, if one is serious about the work, you go on writing or painting, etc. with or without the benefit of grants.  But they can give an artist the space and time to really concentrate on an extended project – something like that is invaluable.  In some instances I think it can help an artist conceive of a project that they might never attempt otherwise because the resources to bring it into being just are not available otherwise.

Q. Are you working on or releasing any new works?  

I have been attempting to take “myself” out of the poetry more and more without having it become intellectualized and stiff.  I recently completed a poem in 2 voices about Maria Reiche, the German mathematician who spent 50 years on the Pampa of Peru surveying what we call the Nazca Lines – enormous petroglyphs etched into the desert there.  I am thinking to do other poems based on people who intrigue me in the way that Maria Reiche does – exploring that obsession that takes one over and compels one’s entire life.  I have also continued writing “dream poems” – something I have been doing for years –  and as I mentioned earlier, I have been putting together poems based on my experiences with the Huichol Indians of Mexico.