The Mad Poets Blog

Dear Poets,

As Eileen D’Angelo likes to say, COME OUT AND PLAY!  Laugh, beam, giggle, grin, titter, roar, smile, smirk, and let it all hang out at another fun meeting of the Mad Poets Society Critique Circle THIS Wednesday September 5, 2007 at 7:00 pm.

Bring your sense of humor and 10 copies of an original poem in progress for positive, constructive feedback on your writing, and the company of other local poets.

   9 East State Street, Media, PA 19063 (across State Street from Trader Joe’s)
    Jim Pierson, Manager
    JPierson@Harvestbooks .com,  www.HarvestBooks.com, 610-566-3191

Come early and shop — many books are only $1 or $2 — you can’t afford to NOT shop here!

If you have any questions, please call or email me. See you there!

Adam Coben hosts the Blam reading series held in the East Falls section of Philadelphia. He has performed his work at numerous venues in Philadelphia and the United States. Adam attended the Jack Keroauc School of Disembodied Poetics and has had his work published in Spectrum Magazine, Besides Person, Young Jewish Voices, Hinge Online and N.U.T.S. journal. Adam currently has two projects in the works, Naked Howl a developing on line journal and a chapbook in progress entitled, “The Red in Black on White”. He will be reading his works on September 6^th for the Mad Poets at the Milk Boy Café in Bryn Mawr with poets Anna Mendoza and Alla Vilnyanskaya. 

The Interview:

Q.  As a performance poet who also writes do you find it difficult to put poetry that is well liked live to paper and have it appreciated by those who read it?

Wow- this is a question I have ruminated about a lot.  Early on in my writing journey I wrote a lot for myself as the listener; then transitioned to doing performance/spoken word poetry.   The change occurred after I heard a spoken word poet; I think his name was Kahlil, in this underground poetry club in
Boston.  This was around 1993 and I had been writing these short confessional poems, that all ended in ellipsis.  I saw him and was completely blown away.  I subsequently found the Beats and started writing performance pieces.  I think it took me years to realize that my pieces were for an intended listening audience.  I liked the thrill of the audience being startled, or laughing, and crying.  The older I get, as a poet, the more I look at my poems as pieces of art on the page.   I think many poets go through the transition, from writing because they have to (emotional crisis), to writing to please an audience, to writing for the sake of their own artistic voice or center.  As I work to be more and more published I realize that my voice changes due to the fact that I’m analyzing my poetry for how it moves on the page.  I want my work to transport the reader- not necessarily to the experience that I’m conveying (although that’s wonderful) but beyond to a new internal emotional, psychological, social, or spiritual shift.  I want them to have their own poetic revolution every time they hear a piece of mine.  I’m also not overly concerned about what people like- I want to challenge them to go beyond their self when they listen to my work; if this happens in performance or on the page than I’m lucky.  I have to stay true to my ever evolving voice- if an audience gets it I’m even more blissed out.

 Q. The “Blam” reading series in East Falls is getting a lot of “buzz”. Please describe an evening at the series. 

 I’m very excited about Blam!!!  A perspiring earth shaking evening starts with our guests/poets/writers/performers arriving around 7pm and we all eat, drink (The Set Table is BYO), communicate for about a half hour, so the libations of conversation, food and drink fuel us.  Many artists contact me to sign up for the reading/open mic in advance, for those who did not sign up in advance,  I pass around a sheet for all to set their slot.  I usually give a short intro for each poet/performer.  We have an eclectic mixture of performers- newbies, lyricists, spoken word artists, story tellers, emo-poets, comedic gut busters, hip hop heads, surrealist realist imagists and the list could go on; but I’m not good at categorizing.  Then we let the night roll- each performer gets 7 minutes.  We have had folks like Tamara Oakman, Peter Baroth, Michael Kennedy, Mel Brake, Michael Cohen, J-knivez, and Courtney Bambrick.  People have told me, after two separate readings that they have been “the best open mics they have been to.”  Shit, I hope that continues. For me, I threw it together because poetry, art..etc…is about community/revolution and fun.  I have too much fun.  We are also now highlighting a different community/charitable organization at each open mic.  They get time to speak, recruit volunteers and raise awareness.  I believe poetry - in order to be relevant- must stay connected to its service roots.  To be a poet is to serve the community; so it’s our duty to help social causes. 

Q.  You are currently developing an on line journal tentatively entitled “Naked Howl”, will the journal be monthly or quarterly and what is the targeted audience?

NakedHowl is still in its first stage of conception right now.  I intend to have it be quarterly- and will have space for poetry, fiction, non-fiction, small films, political rants, and music.  I am working with Ms. Arlene Ang, who resides in Italy, and we are just beginning to piece it together.  NakedHowl’s title is gleamed from two aspects of Ginsberg.  “Naked”comes from a story in his Biography, Dharma Lion, by Michael Schumacher.  Ginsberg was heckled on stage by some asshole and Ginsberg proceeded to strip his clothes off and scare the heckler out and shouted, “The poet is always naked on stage.”  The story leads me to adopt the poetic name Naked, for several years due to the frank quality of my work, and join it to Ginsberg’s masterpiece for the Web journal’s name.  The target audience needs to still be formulated, but will probably service the edgy- off beat mind altering work I know and love; from such a text as the Outlaw Bible of American Poetry.

Q. Your attendance at the Jack Keroauc School of Disembodied Poetics had a major impact on your view of poetics. Please describe the impact and the resulting transformation. 

The strangest impact the school had on me was being anti-poetic for a while afterwards.  I wanted poetry to strip down consciousness when I was at the Kerouac School.  I wanted an all out revolution. I wanted the poets I was hanging with to tear up money and use poetry as a means of commerce.  I was definitely an anomaly at the time at the school.  I was very much full of fire at the time and the place was too watery- too emotional and less actualized. I actually threw out everything that I owned- including my poetry- I was a monk on fire- I got burned out due to my own flame. I was probably just a lost ego maniac, who was suffering with samasara.  Finding my ground in what I was taught- which essentially was traditional workshopping, along with mind bending/calming conscience techniques (meditation/chanting/tai chi), made me crave a balance for my work.  I think it has only really begun to materialize in the last year.  I am balancing the written poem, the performance, with creating community and expanding it.  So in a sense- poetry has become commerce for better or worse- a definite marriage made in balance.

Q.  Your poem “A cold blush in four parts” was published at the Hinge (http://www.hingeonline.com/works_literary.php?contribID=202&vi=7:4 ). The poem is trim yet the images stunning. Is this poem reflective of your work overall?

This piece is probably reflective of my work in its purist form; but to say overall would not be fair to the rest of my pieces.  I have gone through a recent phase where a lot of my work was structured in about 4-7 stanzas; but I have written monster pieces and even shorter pieces.  I have now come to a place where I am using stanzas with four lines a lot, and the imagery is mixing with wry humor or philosophical emotional charges.  More and more I’m seeing the poems in my head as I drive, walk, meditate or shit.  I guess I do have a tendency to want a poem to be bare bones and to catch the reader off guard in its brevity.  I want the reader to read the piece and elongate the poem in their heart’s eye; if they have to.

Q. Music currently dominates a new generation as it develops; as a ninth grade English teacher do you see an increased awareness of poetry and a desire to write poetry with your students?

I’m not sure that an increased awareness for the poetry that comes off the page is occurring, but my students are so inundated with music lyrics they are definitely closet poets.  For the majority of students- poetry evokes fear and vulnerability and I teach at Dobbins; where these two qualities are hidden with a false state of bravado.  Many of my students love rap, and R&B.  They are tantalized by the creativity of certain lyricists- Young Jeezy, Kanye West, Jay Z, to name a few.  I do force my students to write poetry and place almost no restrictions on the content.  They get to write sonnets, haiku, stream of consciousness poems, list poems, and more.  It becomes a good outlet for the frustrations that my teenagers have. 

Q. You are currently working on a chapbook entitled “The Red in Black on White” when should we anticipate completion and what direction is the work moving in?

I’m targeting late October, but I’m taking a wait and see attitude right now.  I just got word three of my pieces will be published in pipebombmagazine.org and I have pieces pending in several other publications.  I’m curious which pieces will be accepted and that may effect how I proceed with the chapbook.  I have been working (gratefully) with Leonard Gontarek- one on one for the last two months- as a sounding board/poetic mentor- to see what pieces will work best together in a book of about 25 pieces.  I also have written so frequently that I tend to look at the poems I have produced today, rather than two months ago.  The pieces that will probably be in my chapbook will be erotic pieces focused on my wife, political pieces and short narrative pieces; actually all of the pieces are 18 lines or less.

Q. On September 6^th you will be reading at the Milk Boy Café in Bryn Mawr with poets Anna Mendoza and Alla Vilnyanshkaya. I have seen the three of you read your works before and anticipate a dynamic evening of po from the three of you. What can folks expect from Adam Coben on the 6^th?

Laughter, laughter, laughter, gratitude, drooling, drooling, water drinking, exhibitionist behavior, blowing kisses to my wife as long as she is there, laughter, ah poetry.

THURS., SEPTEMBER 6^TH, AT 7 PM

MAD POETS present A SMATTERING OF NEW VOICES, featuring ANNA MENDOZA, ADAM COBEN & ALLA VILNYANSKAYA (See bio notes below!) at MILK BOY COFFEE /ACOUSTIC CAFE, 824 W. Lancaster Ave., in the Bryn Mawr Film Institute (Bryn Mawr, PA 19010); Tel: 610-527-0690, hosted by AUTUMN KONOPKA! Check out our newest venue and find out what everyone is talking about! AND HANG AROUND AFTERWARDS! At 9 pm, there will be music at Milk Boy !! Our reading will run from 7-9 pm, then MUSIC. Stay tuned for other upcoming mad events, some mentioned below - For info, see www.madpoetssociety.com (Also, at the bottom - a little appeal from your “mad” editor.)

(Continued)

Poet Dee Rimbaud has recently added a new feature to his website. He has links and photographs of over 800 poets and writers, past and present. It is worth a look and the link is

http://www.rimbaud.org.uk/links3.html

If you have a website you would like  Dee to consider adding you can contact him at

dee.rimbaud@googlemail.com

 Nathalie F. Anderson’s first book, Following Fred Astaire, won the 1998 Washington Prize from The Word Works. Her poems have been singled out for prizes and special recognition from the Joseph Campbell Society, The Cumberland Poetry Review, Inkwell Magazine, The Madison Review, New Millennium Writings, Nimrod, North American Review, and Southern Anthology, and have also appeared in APR’s Philly Edition, Cimarron Review, Cross Connect, Denver Quarterly, DoubleTake, The Louisville Review, Natural Bridge, The Paris Review, Prairie Schooner, The Recorder, Southern Poetry Review, Spazio Humano, and in the Ulster Museum’s collection of visual art and poetry, A Conversation Piece. A 1993 Pew Fellow, Anderson currently serves as Poet in Residence at the Rosenbach Museum and Library, and she teaches at Swarthmore College, where she is a Professor in the Department of English Literature and directs the Program in Creative Writing.

What others say about Nathalie Anderson: 

          “Nathalie Anderson’s poetry brings to my mind what John Logan’s called “a ballet of the ear.” She appreciates rich, textured language, and has a consciousness of sound as well as movement, elements more rare that you might think in contemporary poets. Her investigations of phobias, in particular, are smart, witty, and—haunting’  –Louis McKee

“Philadelphia poets owe Nathalie Anderson endless thanks for her tireless dedication to all that we do here in our city. No one has ever stepped forward with such indivisible scope in such a divisible environment as the poetry of Philadelphia. Her support and sincerity are the lessons for all poets to shift and widen the world view as much and as often as possible. Nothing but the best of thanks to Nathalie Anderson.” – CAConrad

The Interview:

Q. You have written that “anxiety — especially sexual anxiety — is my most frequent subject”. Is there a cause and effect? 

I’m not certain what you mean by “cause and effect” here, but I do believe that anxiety inexorably turns a person self-conscious, and a self-conscious person inevitably becomes a more obsessed observer, so *maybe* the more anxious we are, the more likely we are to be able to perceive the structures supporting our anxieties, analyze them, display them.  When I wrote this statement, almost 15 years ago, I was especially conscious of the double bind society imposes on women, punishing either pliancy or self-reliance, beauty or plainness, intelligence or air-headedness: as John Berger writes so chillingly, “a woman must continually watch herself.”  I still try to write through my own anxieties, but my poems these days – in the wake of my father’s death from Alzheimer’s — probably focus more on anxious aging than on anxious sexuality or sexual politics. 

Q. In the poem “The Miser” the male subject requests you not write about him, yet you do in images that could make the heart race a bit. Do you often refer to life events in your poetry? 

 I guess my poems nearly always arise from something I’ve experienced or observed, but – nearly always – I twist and intensify the inciting incident or perception until someone who’d been with me at the time might well not recognize it anymore.  I like the force, the immediacy, that comes with the pronoun “I” – though, maybe ironically, that intensity sometimes leads me to write in the second or third person to soften the insistence of apparent confession.  If “she” did it, after all, we’re all detached observers; and if “you” did it, then we’re all equally culpable!  But I like what happens when an “I” enters a poem: I think the reader pays attention in a more engaged way. 

 Q. Your book “Following Fred Astaire” has been described as fine writing, wry humor, and relevant. Released in 1999 by Word Works; could you tell us how the book was developed? 

Well, one answer would be that I wrote a bunch of poems, arranged them and re-arranged them and added to them obsessively over several years, realized finally that the conglomeration had become unwieldy, broke it in two, rearranged the poems again, and finally got lucky with a publisher!    But a better answer is that the poems in this book do focus on anxiety – especially the sequence about peculiar phobias, the dream poems that punctuate the four sections, and the many poems where longing and apprehensiveness intertwine (like “Red Sea,” maybe about junior high school crushes; or “Gossip,” maybe about friends so intimate they’re perceived as – might as well be – adulterers).  I think the book finally came together for me when I decided it was going to be about anxious desire, and so dropped from the manuscript most of the poems, however effective, that stood to the side of that topic.  I like arranging poems in different arrays, to see what happens when they rub against new neighbors, and this book must have gone through at least 30 permutations before The Word Works chose it for their Washington Prize.

 Q. My favorite lines from the poem, “The Troll” is “Dunk her or drown her, she pops right back up with her havoc and hoodoo. She’s the mange in your manger, iceberg in your bath.”  What was the inspiration for this poem? 

Thanks!  I’ll mention for people who may not know that this poem appears in the Endicott Studio’s on-line Journal of Mythic Arts, one of several poems of mine that they’ve kindly picked up during the last couple of years: here’s the URL: http://www.endicott-studio.com/cofhs/chTroll.html  I got the idea for the poem during a bout of extreme end-of-semester grouchiness when I appalled myself by responding with fury when a couple of people asked very small favors of me – I guess my own minor version of road rage.  I felt like a troll, and started playing with the idea of a creature that would relish that rage rather than feeling shamed by it.  There’s a lot of word-play in the poem, which I hope both softens its nastiness and also makes it more disturbing, moving from the familiar “thorn in the flesh” and “skeleton at the feast” towards more peculiar associations, like the mange and the iceberg. 

Q. Ashland Poetry Press released “Crawlers” in 2006. Could you describe the book for us?   

Here’s a version of what I’ve been saying to introduce the book at readings:  Crawlers found its shape in the last years of my father’s life, and, as he lost himself to Alzheimer’s – as he forgot how to speak, how to eat, how to walk, how to stand – it made me think about what a struggle it is to learn how to do those things in the first place.  So Crawlers poses poems about a child’s coming into consciousness with the complications surrounding the father’s loss of consciousness, drawing connections between a child’s ways of coping with bereavement – my mother died when I was three – and the father’s disappearance as he ages.   In this book, too, I’m interested in the subtleties of domestic atrocity, the daily stinging cruelties hidden behind the wall of family.  All our fairy tales – with their disregarded younger brothers, their murderous stepmothers, their Cinderellas – map this terrain, and the book plays with those archetypes – but it also skitters with arthropods: bugs, insects, crawlers. We share the earth with insects.  They own our yards, our houses.  Rather like our families, we can’t evade them.  

 Dee Rimbaud is an artist, writer and new-age gypsy. His travels have taken him along the highways and byways of Europe and Asia. His favourite country is India, which he has visited several times; and where he met his partner, Su (on a bus to the ancient kingdom of Hampi). Su and Dee have one daughter, Rosie Sunshine, who was born on the Autumn Equinox, 2001. They spent several months travelling round Portugal, Spain and France in a small camper van the following year, and decided that they would sell up and live a life of no fixed abode before Rosie turned five. Dee’s first poetry collection, The Bad Seed was published in 1998 by Stride. His second collection, Dropping Ecstasy With The Angels was published in 2004 by Bluechrome who also published his novel, Stealing Heaven From The Lips Of God Dee’s website, which features his art and writing and various writers’ resources, is at www.thunderburst.co.uk.

The Interview

Q. The Book of Hopes and Dreams was recently published by Bluechrome Press http://www.bluechrome.co.uk/store/shop/item.asp?itemid=126&catid=72 . The anthology was created to raise funds for a special cause and you were the editor. Could you tell us how the anthology came together and about the cause it was created to support?    

When I was young I was very concerned about the state of the world and actively political.  I went on demonstrations and even briefly enjoyed the privilege of standing outside 10 Downing Street with a group of activists, shouting “Maggie Maggie Maggie, Out Out Out!”  Of course, our shouting had no effect.  Nor, in fact, did any of our demonstrations.  This was back in 1980.  Soon after that the USA fell under the spell of Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr and thus began the nastiest, most retrograde two decades of the 20^th Century.  I watched from the sidelines, feeling powerless and horrified, as everything that previous generations had fought for gradually went to hell.  I guess, like many people, I believed there was nothing I could actually do to stop this process.  Then on the 11^th September 2001 (whilst in hospital, after suffering a brain haemorrhage) I watched the world have its own brain haemorrhage.  There are many people who believe this atrocity was orchestrated by neo-con conspirators; and I have certainly come across much evidence that supports this viewpoint.  Whether or not it was a conspiracy, it was certainly a catalyst for the USA and the UK to begin a campaign of illegal wars, the first of which was against Afghanistan.  It was also a catalyst for me to shake off the dust of decades of political apathy.  I remember hearing on the radio that the USA had bombed a series of caves where Osama Bin Laden was supposed to have been hiding and they’d killed a bunch of goat-herders and their children.  Having recently become a father, this news hit me with particular poignancy.  I felt it in my guts like I’ve never felt anything before.  And this feeling made me want to do something… but what?  What the fuck could I do? About a year or two later I heard about the Glasgow charity, Spirit Aid (http://www.spiritaid.org.uk) and their brave endeavour to help the people of the far flung, mountainous province of Baglan in N.E. Afghanistan (a region particularly badly hit, not just by the Americans, but also by the Russians and the Taliban).  Spirit Aid managed to raise enough money to buy a mobile clinic and bring medical personnel and supplies to people who had suffered for twenty-five years with no medical facilities whatsoever.  It isn’t possible to calculate how many lives were saved because of this, but tens of thousands of people have had the quality of their lives improved.  Spirit Aid are working tirelessly to raise money to provide more of these mobile clinics, with the eventual aim of serving the entire population of this region.   

Inspired by Spirit Aid, I decided I would try to put together an anthology of poetry to help raise funds for them.  I contacted my publisher, Bluechrome (http://www.bluechrome.co.uk) to see if they would be interested, and they were very supportive.  So, I put out a call for submissions.  I also wrote to as many big name poets as I could find details for, in the hope that I might be able to elicit a few contributions that would help raise the profile of the anthology. I was very pleasantly surprised and delighted by the response.  Not just the response, but the support, and especially that of Michael Burch, Michael Horovitz and Roger Garfitt who deserve honourable mention for helping me elicit further contributions. 

The Book Of Hopes And Dreams (http://www.rimbaud.org.uk/bookofhope1.html) has turned out to be bigger, better, brighter and bolder than even the wildest of my wild dreams, with contributions from some of the finest poets of our generation, including Simon Armitage, Margaret Atwood, Moniza Alvi, Alan Brownjohn, David Constantine, Cyril Dabydeen, Carol Anne Duffy, Ian Duhig, Ruth Fainlight, Vicki Feaver, Elaine Feinstein, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Charles Ades Fishman, Magi Gibson, Alasdair Gray, Tony Harrison, John Heath-Stubbs, Michael Horovitz, Mimi Khalvati, Tom Leonard, Robert Mezey, Edwin Morgan, Lawrence Sail, Myra Schneider, Penelope Shuttle, Jon Stallworthy and Anne Stevenson.  There are also many outstanding contributions from a whole host of up-and-coming younger poets who you may not have heard of yet, but I guarantee you, one day you will!

The message of The Book Of Hopes And Dreams is quite simply this: that hopes and dreams will prevail, even in the bleakest of times… and as long as there are hopes and dreams there will people who work to put them into action.

Q. ‘’Stealing Heaven From The Lips Of God’’ http://www.bluechrome.co.uk/store/shop/item.asp?itemid=52&catid=3  brings the reader into the reality of the internet in our world today. The use of the blog format was quite interesting. What inspired the creation of this work?  

I love the internet.  It’s the best thing to have come out of the 20^th Century.  It’s an encyclopaedia of humanity in all its forms and functions; it’s a terrific meeting place; and it’s the perfect medium for shooting your mouth off.  Most important of all, it’s truly democratic: everyone is allowed a voice (although there’s no guarantee anyone is going to listen).  No-where do you see this demonstrated more than in the blogging phenomenon.  There are hundreds of millions of bloggers out there; many of them bearing their souls to the cyber-universe; and probably just as many lying their bollocks off.   

It was this very duality that attracted me to blogging as a possible medium for a novel.  So, I created a persona for myself and joined Live Journal, where I wrote a fictionalised and confessional blog in real time.  My alter-ego, Robbie, began his blog as an outlet for the turmoil he was feeling after a one-night stand that he knew was going to be more than just a one-night stand.  He had a pre-cognitive feeling that his life was going to be turned upside down… and that is exactly what happened.  Against his will, he began the agonising process of falling in love, and the course of that love was never destined to be smooth.  You see, Robbie had a past - a very bad past - which he had run away from.  He had just about managed to escape from it (mainly by seeking chemical oblivion), when along came love and forced him to face up to it.  It put him through a terrible turmoil, but he found solace by confessing his sins in his blog. 

It was a very interesting experience using a blog to write a piece of fiction, because everyone who read it assumed that it was genuine; and it generated many comments and even a few debates.  At one point it attracted the attention of a few Born Again Christian nut jobs, one of whom told me I was going to fry in Hell for my sins.  It also attracted the attention of some truly sympathetic people who felt real pain for Robbie as he did indeed fry in his own personal hell; and I’ve got to say, I felt pretty bad, deluding them for the sake of my art.  However, once I had completed Robbie’s story I atoned for that particular sin by confessing that my blog had indeed been fiction; and I’m glad to report that most of those who followed it forgave me for my deception.  I’m not sure whether the Born Again Christians forgave me, but I’m pretty sure they enjoyed themselves at the time, venting their righteous indignation.    

Q. Who were and are your inspirations as an author/poet and do these influences still affect your work?  

 The poets that turned me on the most were Sylvia Plath, Edwin Morgan, T.S. Eliot and James Joyce (read Finniegan’s Wake and tell me Joyce wasn’t a poet!).  I was also affected greatly by musicians who had a poetic sensibility, like Nick Cave, Syd Barrett, Jim Morrison and Patti Smith.  I think, to this day, I can detect traces of all these influences in my poetry.  I’ve been told that my work is neo-Beat (whatever that is), but I’ve never been a big fan of Ginsberg and his clan.  The only “Beat” I had any real respect for was the novelist William Burroughs, who certainly influenced the way that I wrote prose.  The writer who perhaps inspired me the most was Hermann Hesse, who I discovered when I was 16 or 17.  His novels, “Steppenwolf” and “Siddhartha” particularly impressed me.  I loved “Siddhartha” for its poetic sensibilities and also for its blend of Buddhist-Taoist wisdom.  I could think of nothing better than to end my days, sitting at the bank of a river, listening to what it has to say.  As for “Steppenwolf”, what can I say?  I was so blown away by it that it became the skeleton upon which I hung the flesh of my first (still unfinished) novel, “Red Dreams And Razorblades”.  If I ever do finish it, I’m sure critics will say it is like “Steppenwolf” on acid.  They may also detect traces of Alasdair Gray’s “Lanark” there too. 

  Q. Do you see any dramatic differences in poetry produced in Scotland, England and
Ireland as opposed to the United States?

In the main, I don’t think there is that much difference between American, Scottish, Irish or English poetry.  Our cultures are much more similar than they are different, and the poetry tends to reflect that, especially given that poetry has been hijacked by academia.  Most literary magazines are run by university English departments or by ex English literature students and almost every literary critic comes from that background too.  The magazine editors and critics are the ultimate arbiters of taste when it comes to poetry.  They have the power to decide who shall rise and who shall fall; and sadly, their tastebuds have been tarnished by too many years of carving up and analysing poems.  They are like vivisectionists: jaded to the living, breathing thing that is a poem; and only ever excited when they can cut their scalpels into it and rummage around inside its guts.  So, the poems they prefer are intellectual, complex and feelingless.  I would add, they are by and large meaningless.  Really, it strikes me that most of the “poets” that rise to the top of the food chain don’t really write poetry at all: what they do is more like a form of cerebral masturbation; and the truth of it is that most people think it’s a pile of wank. 

Q. The AA Independent Press Guide http://www.rimbaud.org.uk/ is an excellent resource for writers/poets and those looking for quality writing and contacts. How did this project come about and how do you find the time to keep updating the site?   

Well, it all started off with me collating the names and addresses of poetry magazines that I wanted to submit my work to.  The list gradually grew and grew.  Ten years ago, I launched a poetry magazine, Acid Angel.  It was a short-lived affair, as most poetry magazines are, but it was there that the “Acid Angel Small Press Listings” first saw the light of day, as an appendix to the magazine.  After Acid Angel bit the dust, I started printing-on-demand, what then became the AA Small Press Listings and then The AA Independent Press Guide, after one magazine editor complained to me “we are not small, we are independent!“  At first it was only British magazines that I listed, but then I found out that a high percentage of American magazines actually pay you for publishing your work, so I spent ages tracking down the names and addresses of American magazines.  And although it was hard work, it paid off, because every now and then I’d get a cheque for $50 or $100 in the post.  Beneficial as this was, it did create a problem.  It made The AA Independent Press Guide too large for my crappy old printer to handle.  So, briefly, I published it on CD Rom.  Then, I tried to negotiate its publication with a major
UK publisher, who I probably can’t name for legal reasons, and they shafted me.  They not only stole my concept, but much of the information too!  So, I thought, fuck them!  I decided to publish The AA Independent Press Guide on the internet; and I decided that I would make it free for everybody.  I was that pissed off by the way that I was treated by the publishers that I had a Damascus Road type conversion to Internetianity whose fundamental creed states that information should be freely available to everyone.   

I have actually become almost zealously religious about the Internet.  I can’t tell you how many hours I have put into updating, expanding and developing my website.  It started off as a mere port-folio for my art and writing and has now become (in my humble opinion) one of the best free writers’ resources websites out there.  The AA Independent Press Guide now has detailed information on more than 2,000 independent literary magazines and publishers worldwide.  There’s a links page with over 800 hotlinks to internet-zines.  There’s a links page with hotlinks to nearly 1,000 writers’ websites (and this page is currently undergoing a re-vamp to include photo-links of these writers).  There’s a section of interviews conducted with writers and artists.  There’s a page of links to other writers’ resources.  There’s even an article of Tips For Novice Writers, which outlines the Dos and Donts of magazine submission etiquette. 

I may well even have become slightly obsessive-compulsive about developing my website.  Certainly, I can’t remember the last time I wrote a poem… and my daughter just burst in there and told me “Dad, you’re so boring, you’re always working!”  So, maybe it’s getting close to the time where I should scale down this operation.  I guess, if it actually paid the bills I could justify the hours I put into it, but I don’t get paid a penny.  The last time I earned anything through it was back in February when someone kindly sent me a $5 donation toward the upkeep and maintenance of the site.   

Q. You recently completed a journey across Europe and spent quite a bit time in
Spain. I know it will be difficult but could you briefly describe this adventure? 

Briefly?  Have you seen the way I answered the last few questions?  I wouldn’t know brevity if it bit me on the arse!  It’s just not my style.  However, I can see that this interview is growing like a fungus, so I will try to keep it short. My partner and I sold our flat back in August 2006 and bought a van and headed off in the direction of Spain, with our daughter, Rosie in tow.  We had a fair few unanticipated mishaps along the way, but gradually settled into a new life on the road.  We spent the bulk of our time travelling round the South of Spain and Portugal, settling for a while in Isla Cristina and briefly in Lanjaron. 

It wasn’t the easiest of trips for our daughter, who was pretty freaked out by people speaking a different language all the time, but we eventually found a place that we thought would be near perfect for us, the village of Orgiva, near Lanjaron, where there was a sizeable community of hippie/ new age traveller Brits.  They even had a bi-lingual Steiner-type school. 

At the end of May, we returned to Scotland, for what was supposed to be a two month visit, but it very quickly became clear to us that Rosie feels much more settled and happy here in Glasgow.  So, we have decided not to return to Spain.  That’s the adventure, described as briefly as possible.  However, it is written about in considerably more detail in my travel-blog at http://aaron-aardvark.blogspot.com/  

Q. Can you tell our readers about your book ‘’Dropping Ecstasy With The Angels’’? 

“Dropping Ecstasy With The Angels” is my second collection of poetry.  It was published in 2004 in the
UK by Bluechrome.  It is very different from my first collection “The Bad Seed”, which was about as dark as you can get without burying yourself alive.  There is a lightness and a brightness to many of the poems in “Dropping Ecstasy With The Angels”, which reflects a change of head and heart that I had back in 1997, when - at the rather late age of 35 - I discovered the drug, Ecstasy.  The late 1990’s was a time of profound spiritual awakening for me: no less poignant for being chemically induced.  I regained a lost sense of innocence and an even more lost sense of optimism.  What’s more, I had a fantastic time and I danced my arse off.  That said, the collection is not all beauty and light.  Many of the poems were written before 1997 and even some of those that were written after 1997 are dark.   

Q.  On your blog there is a detailed entry entitled ‘’ No… I’m Not A Poet (honest) ‘’. I enjoyed the opening ‘’ Now, what with it being Friday the 13^th and all, it’s probably going to bring me bad luck to say this, but… poets are such a bunch of self-regarding toss-pots. This is why I don’t hang out with them, even though I write the stuff myself.’’ In all fairness the entry does go on a bit to explain that yes you are a poet. Is there anything else you would like to add here ?  

 I think I covered a lot of that in one of my previous answers.  Truth be told, I am totally disenchanted with the poetry establishment.  I find myself wondering why I bother writing the bloody stuff, considering how many other people write it and how few people actually read it.  I think poetry is one of the most stagnant, constipated art forms going, and it seems to have little to offer… and at this juncture in my life, I am not sure if I want to continue being a “poet”.  I’m sure I’ll continue to write poetry, but not because I want to, more because I have to.  Whether or not I stay in the poetry publishing game or not is another matter.   

Q. The United States has a large population descendent from the Scots-Irish and William Wallace is a popular figure here. Scotland’s independence movement seems to be gaining steam. Do you think you will see an independent Scotland in your lifetime? 

To be honest, I’m not convinced I will see an independent Scotland in my lifetime.  The latest surge of support for the Scottish Nationalist Party will probably be short-lived, if Britain’s new prime minister, Gordon Brown, plays his cards right.  Everyone in Scotland hated Tony Blair for selling the Labour Party down the river, especially after eighteen years of living under the yoke of the Conservative Party.  All Brown has to do is inject a little socialism back into The Labour Party and support for the S.N.P. will dwindle. Whether or not he has the wisdom or, indeed, the power to do so remains to be seen. 

I for one would welcome an independent Scotland.  Not out of a sense of nationalism, but because small nation states tend to have governments that are so much more democratic and accountable.  They are also generally a lot more equitable, with much narrower gaps between the rich and the poor.  In
Britain, at present, like in America, the gap between the richest and the poorest is indefensible.  There are multi-millionaires and even billionaire living in the lap of luxury at the top end and at the bottom end there are people trying to scrape by on welfare cheques of £50 ($100) a week. 

I think the wealth of our nations should be shared out a bit more, don’t you?  Certainly most Scots believe that! 

Q. As you enter middle age do you tend to see things through a different filter and is it reflected in your writing? 

I’m not sure I am entering middle age.  I don’t feel middle-aged.   

Q. Do you have any new projects in the works or other works in publications that may be of interest?

I’ve got a pile of projects in the pipeline, but I don’t want to jinx them by talking about them.  At the moment I am working on a massive re-vamp and expansion of my website  and that is all I can think about at present.  I’m also exploring some new mediums and avenues of creativity, but its early days yet and I’ve a lot of exploring and experimenting to do before I can be sure that anything will come of it. 

FROM EILEEN D’ANGELO

FRIDAY, JULY 13TH - 7 PM.

MAD POETS PRESENT:

A LITTLE SUMMER MADNESS: A SAMPLING OF MAD POETS! AT LORI COSGROVE DESIGN, 643 Chester Pike, Prospect Park, PA 19076. 6 FEATURED POETS AND GUEST MUSICIAN TOM MULLIAN !

Check ouT local talented poets: DAVID KOZINSKI, AMY E. LAUB, JOYCE MEYERS, LYNN BLUE, MEL BRAKE & DOCENA BLYDEN. Hosted by ARLENE BERNSTEIN. TOM MULLIAN is a fantastic musician/songwriter/guitarist.

All this PLUS snacks!

Wine + Cheese, etc.

Hope to see you all there! There’s a great Italian Restaurant called THE TRIESTE, right next door, fantastic, reasonable food, and that’s the dinner meeting spot for the Cosgrove readings. Let us know if you are joining us for dinner, so we get a table big enough. I love surprises, though - so if you don’t get a chance, we’re still happy to have you! Parking is ACROSS THE STREET from Cosgrove Design, DO NOT PARK BEHIND THE RESTAURANT. You will have to move your car.

There’s a big lot right across the street.

This is going to be a FUN night !

HERE’S HOPING I SEE ALL OF YOU!

COME OUT AND PLAY !! Be well, Eileen

  Vincent Quatroche has been a member of the Communication and English Department @ JCC since 1997. He has BA in English and Master of Science in Education from SUNY @ Fredonia. In addition to his adjunct position with JCC,  Vincent has been a member of the faculty in the Communication Department @ Fredonia State since the late 80s. Mr. Quatroche is also an Instructor in Adult Education for Erie-2 Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES @ the Chautauqua County Jail since 1996. He is a published author of numerous creative projects, including audio recordings and books. His poetry has been distributed widely throughout the United States and abroad. A profile of his work appeared on PBS in 1998. Mr. Quatroche’s professional credentials and accomplishments are recognized and included in the 25th edition of the International Biographic Center’s Dictionary of Who’s Who in the Field of Education, Cambridge CB2 #QP United Kingdom, England. Please visit www.rubbereden.com to see the works of Vincent Quatroche.

What others say about Vincent Quatroche:

“When Vincent Quatroche’s voice begins to scratch the groove, you realize you’ve had an itch you didn’t know about. Maybe you would rather not know that itch; but Vincent does not care. Either way he’s going to keep doing what he’s been doing these past couple decades –putting down the best writing in the United States, unassuming, cutting, hilarious. Real poems from a real poet.” - Bob Holman, Nuyorican Poet, NYC

“Quatroche is primarily an oral poet, influenced by and working in the tradition of Whitman, Sandburg, Ginseberg, Ferlinghetti, Ken Nordine, Tom Waits, Charles Bukowski and similar experimenters in the American oral tradition. His work expresses a strong element of social criticism–sometimes angry, sometimes ironic or absurd, with the element of the highly personal and lyrical. One of his greatest strengths is the effective use of telling details and powerful images and metaphors to bring us face to face with our foibles, our failures and our loves.’- David Lunde.

The Interview:

Q. You read for the Mad Poets at the old Newtown series last year. Did you enjoy your visit? 

 Very much so. Totally unique experience. Quite an intimate setting, all of us sitting around the old huge oak table in the shadows under the glower of that huge painting of William Penn hanging in the Newton Library. As I remarked at the time Newton during the Christmas season reminds me as something straight out of central casting from an old Frank Capra Movie. How could you not dig a roving Glee Club of clean cut, handsome young college boys singing Carols in the downtown streets. Strange beer laws however, seems you can only buy suds by the case, usually I embrace the volume principle, but wasn’t going to be in town that long. I would like to go back there and read again someday.     

Q. Over the last year you have read in York, Pa., Buffalo, NYC and
Newtown to name a number of cities you have visited. Is it important for a poet to read their work in public?  

   Well I think so. More a matter of opinion here. I’m an old school Oral Tradition guy (in more ways than one) from way back. Kind of depends on the poet. Some of the great ones had really lousy reading voices. I remember hearing a compilation of some really big names years ago and thinking they might have been better off sticking to the page. No sense naming names, it’s all a subjective judgment call anyway. I just think it is like you have a voice in your head that the writer invokes with their printed words from the page, that you surrender your stream of consciousness to. Sometimes upon hearing the actual voice, in real time audio they just don’t match up. A lot like the DJ effect (which I was once on Public Radio for years) you’re always getting that, “Hey….you don’t look anything like your voice” remark.      

Q. “Sleeping Giant Records” has produced your CDS. What was it like working with Dan Berggren?  

  Could never say enough good things about this rare individual  He is an extremely talented singer/song writer and performer who knows his way around the sound recording studio like few I’ve ever worked with. His 25+ year career at the State University College @ Fredonia was a revelation to thousands of students he mentored (including myself) There ought to be a statue of him somewhere on that campus. He helped everybody. I first met Dan in the early 80s when I returned to the East from the Pacific Northwest to finish my education. We hit it off immediately even though we both were coming from very different directions musically. Sort of like jazz/Ambient/Advant-Garde meets Traditional Folk/Bluegrass/gospel. I’ll let you figure out who was who. But creatively ? We spoke the same language. So almost thirty years later, after 4 cassettes, 2 CDs and countless gigs preforming with each other, we are still very much in touch. He’s retired now living in the foothills of his beloved  Adirondacks with his wife Nancy, still writing, performing and producing projects (like my last 2 CDs). He has a new release out on Sleeping Giant Records w/ Dan Duggan and Peggy Lynn entitled “Jamcrackers” Db is the man and I am Goddamn proud to be able to call him my friend.  

      Q. Jim Briggs of the NYC Sound Designer said of your work Matador From Another Planet; ‘’Quatroche can also can just spit it out, as he claims in opener Of the Aural and Visual. Taking dead aim and hitting the mark often, Quatroche simultaneously questions and embraces absurdity in his many takes on the “unfinished symphony of madness! ‘  Is this the desired effect?      

Briggs is a very astute judge of musical composition and is on his way to being very influential in his career to the development of a lot of emerging young artists. His insights and reviews of the current music scene are usually dead on. Now his kind words about my stuff while very flattering make an interesting point about the nature of my work. Actually the line he quoted was from a piece on “Matador from Another Planet” and goes the “unfinished symphony of contemporary madness”. It’s like adding more notes to the blaring cacophony of this really scary soundtrack to the “terrible now”. And we are all living/dancing to it. As for “desired effect ?” Certainly I have my creative intentions when I conceive the work to be presented in a specific way, but (and this is very important) the listener makes the final decision on just how it strikes/resonates with them based upon the world inside their heads that their ears are the doorways into.     

Q. I recently visited with you in Fredonia New York. I was amazed at the excellent interaction you have with your students. They also greatly enjoyed your work. Should we expect to see some developing poets out of Fredonia
New York?   

Well….most of my students anyway. You might get a few differences of opinion in certain college barrooms here in town. Regardless I love teaching at SUNY Fredonia as well as other education venues in Chautauqua County,(a community college and county jail). To answer your question there have been some very good poets to come out of this area over the years, most have just passed through. My old Friend, Poet & Translator David Lunde comes to mind. Perhaps one of the better known successful writers, Mark Brazill worked on ”That 70s Show”. His contributions to plot lines were based upon his experiences here during that time period attending school in area.   

Q. As many poets hit mid life it seems a continued fascination with Baseball and Jazz flourishes. A common trait you share with New Jersey Poet Dave Worrell. Why does the inspiration continue? 

   Ick. Mid-Life. Guess that means you are half over. Well guess it’s time to face the facts, I guess. Let’s start with Jazz. I was raised on it. My Dad saw to that. He was my humanities teacher in music, art, theater and general aesthetics. Charlie Parker was my first baby sitter and I had a Jackson Pollock coloring book. To this day Jazz is always on in my house. For the record ? When Dexter Gordon speaks through that tenor ? I listen to the bone.  As for Baseball ? I dunno. Something about the game. Sure aspects of it have changed over the years. The human-growth league was quite an innovation, but really the event of a ball game is still great metaphorical rich stuff. Life lessons, history, drama, really you name it. Perhaps the pastoral 18^th Century nature of the ritual endures and still attracts. Anything can happen in those nine innings, hell you might even get bonus panels, but just like life, it can be all over with one swing of the bat and the best, (as they say) fail 7 of 10 times. Sounds about like the daily odd-spread to me most days.  BTW thanks for the tip on Worrell. I’ll look him up. 

Q. You have several books published and a number of CDs. Where should folks look to find the works of Vincent Quatroche?  

  Any of my efforts can be ordered via the web. I’m all over the place. Just type my name in to any search engine and all manner of stuff will come up. Best bet is just to check out my website www.rubbereden.com  and contact me directly.  It’ll all be quicker and cheaper that way for anybody interested. Around New York  State you can find some of my work at St. Marks Books down in the East Village in NYC and at Rust Belt Books in the Allentown section of  Buffalo. 

Q. You have been around the poetry scene since the 1970’s. What direction do you see poetry moving in? 

   Poverty. Confessional reflection, really anywhere the Post-Modern muse flows here in the Rubber Eden. Never seems that Poets/ Poetry ever go away in Gridville. Sure. We get marginalized, trivialized, ignored on a daily basis and I think the worst of us are celebrated and fawned over in the mainstream media. Most popular stuff is common denominator populist drivel specifically designed to move units (slim little booklets of sheer poop) Some days I get a little concerned that the imagination gene pool is drying up. (either the capacity to create or the ability or desire to appreciate)  Me ? Stick to the underground. I belong down here. More freedom. Less hate mail. Interesting fellow disenfranchised fellow poets, cheaper beer. Look all this should be really rewarding and fun, if not ? Why in hell bother ? You aren’t ever going to make any money with it all, in fact you can count on forking over dough just to be a part of it. Why not ? You sure can pay one hell of a lot more for much, much less in life.   

Q. Your poetry has been described as unique, where does your inspiration come from and who were your major influences? 

   My poetry has been described as a lot of things. Some even repeatable Truth is? Mostly I’ve been ignored. Best quote I ever heard about my work was something like it has traveled around the country like a pen stuck in the pocket of a shirt in the washer. So far the lid hasn’t come off…..yet. The only thing I don’t want it tagged as is invisible. Inspiration ? Anything, everything. I have a special bonus card account for preferred consumers with the All for a Dollar/ 5 & 10 cent slightly damaged, dented, scratched retail “id” outlet of the 5 senses and a direct agreement with the devil for nightly shipments of the 6^th. Influences ? The usual suspects..(well my usual ones anyway) All the Beats… Bukowski, Brautigan, Weldon Kees, Hurbet Shelly, Hemmingway, Stienbeck, Hurbet Shelly, Robert Stone, Tom Waits, Brian Eno, The Residents, Vivian Stanshall, Elvis Costello, Ken Nordine, Robert Mitchum, Edward Hopper, Elia Kazan, Sammuel Beckett, Frank O’Hara, John Berrymen, e.e. cummings, Walt Whitman, Rod Serling , Thomas Wolfe, Frank Zappa, the list could go on and on and on

Q. Do you have any projects in the works you can share with us?  

  Sure. Currently working on a recent collection of Po/Prose to be printed in the late Fall of this year. Number #4. And for the record ? Yes, I am self-published. And I make no apologies. At this point of my life after writing all these years I’dl be Goddamn if I’m waiting around for some validation from a snotty book division of some corporation or local “ham & egger” local poetry publisher . I know what my stuff intends to accomplish and its place/value and worth in this world. Period. That being said if some smarmy suit showed up with a big fact contract/check tomorrow ? I’d be ass kissing all the way to the bank.    

Q. Isn’t Fredonia the country in the Marx Brothers movie ”Duck Soup”?      

Ok…..here we go. Heard this once years ago somewhere. According to sources that I can’t substantiate the story goes something like this. The Marx Bros where touring upstate NY somewhere in the 1920’s and had a gig in Buffalo. At this point they were a relatively unknown group of wild vaudevillian stage comedians. Somebody suggested they could pick up a few extra dollars in this little farm town about 35 miles southwest of the city. They decided to do it.  After performing at the local Opera House The manager refused to pay the guys explaining they weren’t funny and the crowd didn’t like them. Word was Groucho was furious and swore revenge. So years later when it came time to name a ridiculous place where everybody was a fool in a movie guess what he came up with? Yup. He remembered. Smart too. Changed the spelling to Freedonia.  No lawsuit. Just as a foot note. Groucho probably knew that the opera house would someday become a movie house and maybe some of the same people who didn’t like their act the first time would sit there actually having pay to watch the guys make fun of them. Might not be true. But never let truth stand in the way of a good story. Mark Twain didn’t. His, ”The Man who Corrupted Hattiesburg”, was based on the pious, phony citizens of Fredonia in the 1800s. Sounds like people who wouldn’t get  the Marx Brothers.       

Q. Any plans to be in the Philadelphia area? 

  Ahh…the City of  Brotherly love ? Love too. All you have to do is ask. Rent me by the hour or the pound. Call for prices.

 Ray Greenblatt has been a poetry judge, editor, and teacher. He has read his poetry from Vermont to Florida to California. He has won the John Corcoran Prize, the Mad Poets Annual Contest, and the Anthony Byrne Prize for Poetry jointly sponsored by the Irish Edition and Trinity College, Dublin. He was nominated for the Pushcart Prize also. His poetry has been translated into Polish and Japanese. Some of his recent works include Sunspots, Dvorak’s Garage and Erasing the Lines. His poems have been published widely in the small and electronic press.

The Interview:

Q. You have been involved with the Mad Poets Society for over two decades. How did you first get involved and what are the benefits?

You’re talking to someone long in the teeth. My connection has really been thirty years. Before Mad Poets was Delaware County Poets. It was one of the few places that you could publicly read your poetry. Besides, it was a beautiful setting in an eighteenth century stone house in Rose Tree Park (peering out the windows when it snowed was a thrill—who cared how you got home!); it was mysterious too because after the reading they would process outside by torchlight. Eileen D’Angelo continued that tradition but with much more energy and creativity. Look at all the venues poets in the area have a chance to participate in now! Also, Eileen’s quarterly bulletins let people know what’s going on in the entire Delaware Valley. 

Q. Incline Press in England released your book “Sunspots’, (http://www.inclinepress.com/sunspots.html ) in a limited edition hand made book. The publisher wrote, “Light illuminates the minutia of daily life in Ray Greenblatt’s poems.” What can you tell us about the book?

It took a year and a half for the SUNSPOTS manuscript to see the light in complete form, and I’m totally honored by Graham Moss’, the publisher, magnificent creation. The handmade paper is Indian, the type German, the end papers French, the logo Turkish, the silk thread Irish. It’s a true U.N. of publication! You can best see it (who can afford it!) on Incline Press’ website. 

Q. Laura Stamps reviewed “Dvorak’s Garage”, ( http://www.moonpublishprint.com/Dvoraksinfo.html ) published by Moon Publishing. Stamps noted “What holds this collection together? Music and humor. Greenblatt is a poet with an ear for the rhythm of words.” How important is the use of “rhythm” in writing poetry?

The content of DVORAK’S GARAGE is in four parts. One section has musically focused poems; I hope readers saw that motif running throughout the book. I am aware of how many beats my poetic lines have;  I also like to use incidental rhyme (It’s amazing today how one rhyme seems so strong that it can echo through an entire stanza.) I believe there must be some coherent structure, some subtle design to each poem. I’m also pleased that Laura Stamps picked up on the humor; it leavens a lot of serious bread. 

Q, Erasing The Lines (http://www.buybooksontheweb.com/description.asp?ISBN=0-7414-3020-7 ) has been described as a work that “ …takes us across all boundaries, making what we thought was familiar into the unknown.” What can you tell us about the development of this collection?

 To be very honest about ERASING THDE LINES, it was originally awaiting publication by the renowned Mellen Press. Then they abruptly decided to cut back their poetry division. I was left with a gasping MS (a poet is like an old tree in the waiting process: years, as the rings round one’s middle grow) I was going to cut it down to a more svelte size for a better chance with publishers. Then one brooding night I realized: these eighty some poems, when looked at as a whole, indeed constitute a real “life” with all the time, vicissitudes, growth built in. So I kept it intact and continued to send it out.

Q. I have asked this question of Lou McKee and Leonard Gontarek. As a poetry workshop leader, what are the benefits to established and emerging poets to attend a poetry workshop in particular one conducted by Ray Greenblatt?

When I teach a workshop, the major thing I look for is the overall focus of the poem. I don’t sweat a typo or poor word choice or awkward phrase, etc. That all comes later—if the poet cares enough to rewrite then  rewrite.  Limited poets ought to be told so; talented ones need to be encouraged—all this done kindly, no egos, please. There are not many people out there in the public who even care about poetry—hell, or even  about books themselves—there never were, but quality in the arts not quantity! Beginning poets can get a lot of stuff like this from a workshop. Also, allowing all the poets in the workshop to give their opinions about each other’s work is very insightful for all concerned, even the leader. The best thing an oldtimer gets in a workshop is observing what the younger ones are writing about and in possibly what new forms. All poets need ideas for writing and a workshop can be a seething cauldron. Writing can be lonely and hooking up with colleagues now and again is essential. To teach I use plenty of emotion, humor, and anecdote, in no special order.

Q. You have had the opportunity to read your works across the United States. Is there a difference in the appreciation of poetry in different geographic locations?

I have read in an old barn in the rain in Vermont ; I read in an elderly recreation center in
Florida (after my reading, one old guy pounded on an upright while the rest danced); I read in a bar of bikers, drunks and addicts in California . The bottom line is if a person enjoys the written word—song lyrics, stories, doggerel poems, rap—he is your “poetry” audience. Meet ‘em where you find ‘em! I take it as a challenge to try and choose poems which might reach a particular audience. The venues are different but they’re always there; some of us could never compete in a slam.

Q. What poets influenced you during your development as a poet?

I love Robert Frost’s New England subject matter (I deal a lot with nature—it’s obviously mankind’s mainstay whether actually in the wilds or urban) and the solid clarity of his lines. He philosophizes but also “paints” examples of what he is saying. There is a mystery to T.S. Eliot. You never know where he is going; his imagery is so shockingly vivid. However, caveat: I won’t follow Eliot where he has to supply footnotes. Once in a writing course a prof I respected very much said my poetry reminded him of a mixture of Walt Whitman and Marc Chagall! If he meant a certain “primitive earthiness” then I’m flattered. 

Q. As an educator do you see an interest by students in poetry and can poetry remain relevant in today’s society?

I have a pet peeve with many school teachers of poetry. They start off by admitting that they’re not sure they understand poetry; what a gross message to lay on students! Does anyone know “everything” about every piece of literature? Start with what you know and show the class what your likings are. If you reread my comments to question #6, you’ll see that some people will always be sensitive to the written (and spoken) word. Notice how many articles over the years stated that the novel was dead or that the theater was momentarily folding. Fat chance! Writing is one of heaven’s gifts.  

Q. If you were able to sit down and share a few beers with three poets from the past who would they be and why?

Boy, is this a loaded question. First of all, I drink wine—beer is liquid vomit. Secondly, you never try to talk in depth with more than one poet at a time; you’ll get either pouting or a hell of a dog fight. But seriously, past poets have spoken to me through their poems I prefer the living. I’d have the most fun—as I’ve done every month for twenty-five years—talking with poet friends at our Overbrook Poets meetings. It feels like family and you can’t get better than that.

Q. Do you have any new works slated for release or appearances scheduled where we can hear your work?

By the time this interview reaches blog position, my last scheduled reading of July 6 in Bryn Mawr will probably be over. That was sponsored by my British publisher of SUNSPOTS. Who knows, he might invite me to read in England , and I’d really be up for that (so would my wife)!

Arlene Bernstein worked first as a proofreader/editor in
Manhattan before moving on to a long career as a Philadelphia high school English teacher. In December 2004, she made her debut as a performance poet and event organizer at the Bala Cynwyd Library — presenting her “Friends of Poetry” Series through December 2005. Her poetry has been published in Freshet, Mad Poets Review, Ink, Tracks, Nature in Legends and Literature, and Schuylkill Vallery Journal of the Arts; her recent article, “Richard William Pearce, Lost Child” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Arlene is affiliated with Mad Poets Society; Freshmeadow Poets of Flushing, NY; Broadacres Poets of Narberth, PA; and Bonnie Baillis’ Poetry Circle of Havertown, PA.   

The Interview:

Q. How has your career in the public school system influenced your poetry and did your love of poetry influence students?

It seems to me that my career in the public school system galvanized my psyche, instructing me even more about the pathos and brutality of life than I knew, instinctively, from birth onward. It helped force me even more inward than I was naturally and thus, probably helped deepen my work.  Did it provide new subject matter?  While it might have to another, less internal poet, it did not to me.  It probably, in some bizarre way, aided me in compacting and refining my longing to escape from worldly and external trivia.  I sought diversion within.  Strangely enough, my love of poetry did enhance my teaching!  I tried always to teachwhat I had been taught at Girls High and the University of Pennsylvania.  I offered always what I loved, because honesty and integrity were my sole weapons against the preponderance  of apathy and hostility encountered over a period of thirty-two years at the same inner city high school.  My determination to be “in it” but not “of it” enabled me to reach whatever open minds and hearts I encountered. Poetry of love and despair throughout the ages was my forte, and those damned kids perceived, if not the nuances, the power of the  passion which I brought to unearthing the passion within the work and within them.  In my choice of  teaching material I never conceded to the modern concept of  “relevance.”  I never taught anything I would be embarrassed to claim as my own.

Q. Who were the major influences on you as you developed as a poet/writer?

The first and earliest influences on my voice were the Old Testament and the great fairy tales of Grimm and all those incredibly rich classic children’s books I devoured in the sunny library at 4^th and Shunk Streets.  In school, each morning, we heard the cadences and diction of the King James Version, a training in English forever lost to today’s school children because of a perverted sense of political correctness.This influence remains with me, as do the complex sinewy sentence structure of John Donne and Andrew Marvell.  I love the argumentativeness of Shakespeare’s soliloquies, the forcefulness of Robert Browning’s dramatic monologues, the amazingly tight/freestructure of T.S. Eliot’s Prufrock, the wrenching power and extraordinary ideation of May Sarton and Stanley Kunitz, the brash songs of Emily Dickinson, the bitterness of Robert Lowell.  I tend to look on the contemporary work so heralded by many of my peers as kind of nice but superficial ephemera….Billy Collins comes to mind. 

Q. “The Friends of Poetry” series ran into 2005. What challenges did you face as the host of the series and what were the benefits?

The first Friends of Poetry Series ran for one full year at the Bala Cynwyd Library. I may sound like a braggart when I say that it was the liveliest and best attended series I have ever encountered in my four-year little journey around the area poetry circuits. We averaged audiences of twenty-five  and had forty-five once or twice.  The biggest challenge was the head Librarian, Jean Knapp, who told me that as far as she was concerned the series was NOT a success because when I brought “my people” there on Wednesday nights she had no place to park her car!  Furthermore, everywhere she looked she saw my name and the name of the Library getting “too much” publicity!  Needless to say, I didn’t want to be beholden to such a mean-spirited “benefactor,” and so I had to scramble around for new digs.  But the benefits far outweighed the shock of Jean’s words.  I got to know Eileen D’Angelo, who helped me enormously in every way; I kind of created an audience, who kind of followed me to new settings; I learned how much work there is behind the glamour of performance.  Finally,  I met many of the wonderful people with whom I still enjoy comradeship in Poetry and Fun!

Q. You are one of the “go to” people for the Mad Poets Society. You will be hosting an open mic for First Fridays in Bryn Mawr and “A Little Summer Madness” in Prospect Park. What should one expect when attending an event hosted by Arlen Bernstein?

What a wonderfully whimsical question, Emil!  My philosophy of poetry performancemaintains that, at public events, the audience wants to be stimulated, aroused, satisfied!!!Oh, yeah, they will hear our laments and dirges in sympathetic silence….listen to our complaints about the world with rueful agreement…think about the deep thoughts we utter and nod intelligently!   But actually, I think what they crave more than anything is  pleasure…and, if not laughter, they want to be able to cry and feel and react with passion and excitement.  They do want catharsis.  They don’t want TOO  much solemnity or gravity.  They DON’T want preaching!  They want what they didn’t know they wanted!  They want novelty!  They want to be surprised, caught off guard.  They want to feel they are part of a celebration.  They want joy.  In my (possibly deluded)mind, this is what I feel inspired to convey.  Just as I was painfully honest with my huddled (and hostile) masses of students yearning to be free, I do allow my audiences to see me as I am with all my warty quirks.  

Q. Skin Radio recently held a poetry slam with poets who have read on their station reading live. How does it feel to have your poetry on the radio exposing your work to a whole new audience?

Oh, broadcasting for Skin Radio was a hoot. Of course, I have no idea who heard me or whether they found my work valuable.  I would be happy to have other stations, like WXPN, replicate the project.  They stick to established organizational patterns, however,like promulgating  Kelley’s Writers House events…which is fine…not my cup of tea, usually, because of its , to MY ears, doctrinaire and political approach to poetry.  Tom Kelley was willing to take it as it lays….recording and playing an incredibly wide variety of stuff right off the street, so to speak.  We need a lot more of that.  We need to provide distribution to the mavericks and independent cusses of the poetry world.  Don’t worry:  the good stuff will rise to the top. 

Q. Your poetry has been published widely; in fact you received a pushcart nomination for “Richard William Pearce-Lost Child”. What direction do you see your poetry, fiction and non-fiction moving in?

The Pushcart Prize nomination was for an article in Peter Krok’s Schyllkill Valley Journal, an honor which I really appreciated.  I wish the rest of your question were as simple to answer. Sometimes the direction in which my writing and I both move seems to be circular!  At other times I like to think I discern a spiral.  Seriously, however, I think I need more than anything to consolidate my work and spend the energy necessary for decent publication.  A dear friend and colleague recently and ruefully observed that most of us get lots of individual pieces published in journals that nobody - - including ourselves - -ever read or even heard of before we sent off a poem to them!  And that’s so true.   What to do about that irony? But your question wasn’t about that.  So let me return to our muttons!  I seem never to tire of examining the vicissitudes of romantic/erotic love, so I don’t foresee any changes there.  I have a memoir that cries for many more chapters and several ideas for novels,beyond the one I’ve been hacking away at for such a long time!  But the inner direction  seems to be toward simplification of discourse.  I’m annoyed with my own prolixity.  I yearn for a style ….well, more like the 23^rd Psalm, for example.  And now that I’ve moved away (finally!) from  frantic Philadelphia to the calm sweet rationally displayed structure of downtown Media, where I sit serenely in my lovely little space at my big desk before an oversized window framing a magnificent old five-pronged Silver Ash, who know?  My muses may coax me into allowing passage to all I feel and want to express.    

 Q. You have read your work at a number of venues in the Philadelphia area. Do you have a favorite venue?

I don’t have a favorite venue.  The most spectacular was at the Sculpture Gardens in Hamilton New Jersey, their glass-domed auditorium a perfect container for the electrical storm raging outdoors as I read on the anniversary of my brother’s death in Viet Nam, August 25.  Big Blue Marble Bookstore is cozy and colleagueial. The Science Institute, here in Media,  is fun with all those stuffed animals!  I especially love reading at Belmont Hills Library because Pat Rayfield is the perfect patron of the arts, regaling us with good food and encouraging us to remain well beyond ordinary library closing hours.  I definitely disdain any venue, be it EVER  so famous or hallowed,  that is so interested in closing on time that it actually kicks you out early, depriving your open mic hopefuls of their few extra minutes on stage! 

Q. In addition to the Mad Poets events you also host several open mics at The Seven Stones Café in Media, Allies Flower Basket and Tea Shop in Bala Cynwyd and a quarterly series at The Belmont Hills Library. Where do you get the time to run the series and continue to write?

Actually Emil,  several months ago I turned both those venues over to different hosts:  Bill Danks now hosts at Seven Stones, here in Media, and Lynn Blue now hosts at Tim and Allie’s.  I still do the  four seasonal-change events at Belmont Hills Library, although I had to cancel the June event featuring the wonderful John Amen because I could not do the work attendant upon publicizing and organizing as a consequence of the huge move I made from Philly to Media, selling and packing up a house occupied for almost thirty years and moving into a three-room apartment!

I also host the Lori Cosgrove Mad Poets Quarterly Series, the next of which comes up on July 13, and I’ll be hosting on July 6 for Mad Poets at the new Acoustic Milkboy Coffee in Bryn Mawr. Now listen closely while I reveal the Great Secret of Time:  If you are lucky enough to get to be as old as I, you get to “retire” from paid work,  and then you get to  “play” for  NO  pay other than   the delight and joy of being mistress of your own (remaining mortal) hours.  

Q. Are you working on any new projects or poetry series?

I am definitely in the market for more individual readings engagements!!!  Anybody  looking to engage me?   Check out a few of my poems on www.friendsofpoetry.com  or email me requesting samples.  I LOVE performing my work, solo or with other poets.