The Mad Poets Blog

 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.

Lately, I haven’t been reading much poetry. I set a goal for myself at the beginnng of the year to read something like a hundred poems a month. I was doing really well for the first four months - by the beginning of May, I’d read over 400 poems, from journals like Poetry and the American Poetry Review, as well as online journals like Wicked Alice, Stirring, 21 Stars, Diquieting Muses and Apple Valley Review. I could feel the nature of my poems changing - I moved toward a style that was more stream-of-consciousness, more fragmented. I felt it was truer to my circular way of thinking than my previous attempts at more structured narratives.

But since May, I’ve sort of given up on poetry. Well, not entirely. I just haven’t been able to put my mind to it in quite the same way. So instead I’ve been reading quite a bit of fiction, and some personal essays. And now I’m realizing that my poetry is changing again - this time, instead of changing style, I’m changing content. Prior to the shift to reading prose, I was writing a lot of poems about my life - divorce poems, love poems, poems about children. These are things that have meant a great deal to me, and so of course found their way into my writing.

But now I see my writing shifting toward subjects of greater universality - race, gender and sexual expression, politics, war, peace. I’d like to think I’m finding a way to tie these universal concepts to my own life, that I’m grounding them in tangible, believable experience. I don’t know for sure.

So how about you? How does what you’re reading affect what you’re writing?

 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)!

I’m SO happy to report that the Mad Poets Series at the Barnes & Noble in Bryn Mawr has found a new home at Milkboy Acoustic Cafe in Bryn Mawr.

Although we had a good deal of notice that B&N was closing its doors at the beginning of this month, we had a hard time finding a new venue that could take it on for the same day & time — so the series was still on the verge of homelessness.  Thankfully, Jaime & the other good folks at Milkboy have welcomed us with open arms.  We’ll be keeping the schedule & line up of readers — 1st Thursdays at 7pm.  In fact, in addition to our regular gig (which starts tonight!), they’ve also asked the Mad Poets to provide some poetry tomorrow night for Ardmore first Friday.  Yay for poetry-friendly venues!!!

Tonight we settle into our new home with poets John Timpane & Alison Hicks.  More about them after the jump…

–>John Timpane is the Associate Editor of the Editorial Board of the Philadelphia Inquirer and a publishing poet. His work has appeared in Sequoia, 5_Trope, Wild River Review, Bucks County Writer, Eight Millennial Voices, Live Oak, the Kelsey Review, and elsewhere. He is author of four books, including (with Nancy H. Packer) Writing Worth Reading (NY: St. Martin, 1994); It Could Be Verse (Berkeley: Ten Speed, 1995); (with Maureen Watts and the Poetry Center at San Francisco State) Poetry for Dummies (NY: Hungry Minds, 2000); and (with Roland Reisely) Usonia, NY: Building a Community with Frank Lloyd Wright (NY: Princeton Architectural Press). Last year he was honored to edit and write the forward for

Poetry Live is a podcast site that is designed to promote the work of poets. They are currently seeking submissions to post or may close the site down.  I do believe the site is presented in a professional and excellent manner and your work will be displayed in that manner. So if you have an mp3 file you would like to send with a bio, photo and link to your home page or other works please check out http://poetry_live.podomatic.com  The email address is on the page.

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. 

Marion Deutsche Cohen is the author of seventeen books and chapbooks, some poetry, some prose. She is also a mathematician, and her latest, just-released, book is “Crossing the Equal Sign” (Plain View Press, TX), consisting of poetry about the experience of math. Her other books have been about pregnancy loss, chronic illness and caregiving, solipsism, temper tantrums, and (completing the cycle) math. Her “loose poems” (not in books) are often about the polarity between communication and solitude, and how this plays out in more concrete situations. Her math Ph.D. is from Wesleyan (Conn.) and she has taught math at area colleges, most recently the University of PA and University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. She has four grown children and two gran’s. (Also, three or five cats, depending how you count them…) Among her non-writing non-math interests are classical piano, singing, Scrabble, and thrift-shopping.

(Continued)

The other day for some reason I needed to refer to my indispensable Oxford Book of English Verse. In the process of leafing through its pages I met a couple of old friends—poems  I enjoy so much that it was impossible for me to be reminded of their existence and not permit myself to read them. Now, while there are many poems I feel similarly passionate about, the absolute number of such poems compared to the number of poems I have ever read remains remarkably small. So I thought it might be worthwhile having a closer look at the two poems and trying to come to some conclusions as to what it is about each of them that makes them irresistible to me. (Continued)