New Release: John Yamrus BURN. Illustrated by Janne Karlsson. Svensk Apache Press, 2015 (32 pages)

The American poet John Yamrus and the Swedish artist Jan Karlsson again join forces to inflict literary mayhem on the Western world. This chapbook consists of 12 poems by Yamrus together with 12 full page illustrations by Karlsson.

As in his last four full-length Epic Rites Press books, Yamrus’ work is characteristically minimalistic, confessional, didactic, steeped in cultural allusions & is hilariously ironic.

Yamrus loves kicking the backside of the literary establishment. In this volume he condemns the uselessness of writing workshops, the seriousness to which some poets take their craft & the lack of what most ultimately have to say or actually achieve.

In the poem ‘when’ Yamrus playfully questions the very nature of what Art is:

(Reprinted with the permission of the publisher)

Karlsson’s visual representations of Yamrus’ poems add a layer of complexity and humour to Yamrus’s work. Karlsson’s world is inhabited by simple but zany ghost-like folk who shriek in pain or laughter, but who in the end, like Yamrus, just want to get on & enjoy life.

                                    
                              (Reprinted with the permission of the publisher)

This chapbook is beautifully smooth to hold & provides a brief, original take on life by two of the world's best practitioners of their art.

Find out more about John Yamrus’ poetry on his site here: http://www.johnyamrus.com/

Find the artist Janne Karlsson’s web page here: http://www.svenskapache.se/

BOOK REVIEW/ INTERVIEW: R.L. Raymond Sonofabitch Poems. PigeonBike Press, Canada, 2011 (49 pages).

This is the first poetry collection of R.L. Raymond, a Canadian writer and founder of PigeonBike Press. The book’s twenty-six poems are tightly crafted and explore a wide variety of subject matter in an open-ended and understated way. These are largely third person narrative poems which focus on ordinary incidents- a motor vehicle accident, visiting a relative in the local hospital, sitting in a pub, sending a son to the shop to buy smokes and the like. Despite the basic subject matter of many of the poems, what elevates this book is the pain-staking and strikingly original way in which the poems are conceived and constructed.

The stiff, shiny cover features an original oil painting by the writer. It has a swirl of bright colours like inside a furnace with three thin finger-like bars slashed into the foreground. The title Sonofabitch Poems is highly memorable and was coined by R.L. Raymond to mirror ‘the tough guy sonofabitches’ he writes about in his collection. As Raymond explains in the interview which follows, he had written three early poems about ‘tough guys’ and this emphasis on character drove the rest of the book:

‘I had three poems about legendary, pseudo tough guys (Skallagrim, Gambrinus and St Vitus) that worked really well together. Those became the foundation. From there I build characters and situations where sons-of-bitches acted, reacted, interacted. There are some tough guys, tough gals, and also regular folks affected by SOBs in one way or another. The tread is character driven in this collection.’

Most of the poems are characteristically 1-2 pages in length and provide brief glimpses into the lives of a variety of often unnamed people, who exist on the margins of mainstream society. The portraits are unsentimental and sometimes crushingly grim. The reader is presented with deft, nuanced figurative language, occasionally embedded with clever but opaque allusions.

In ‘L’acadien perdu’ a young man is king-hit outside a dive bar and is left to perish in the snow. ‘Lucky Luke’s car crashes into a ditch during an accident. He rolls down his window and is punched in the face by a road ragger. In ‘Phenoptosis’ a man ‘with the perfect lawn’ has shot himself with a hand gun. Outside his house,  the police, family and counsellors blare away on a megaphone not aware that he is already dead. In ‘Gambrinus’ a tough barfly sits drinking and waiting for ‘whatever else came his way.’

The portraits sometimes reveal to the reader, through dramatic irony, the false hopes people desperately cling to. In ‘A dirty bowl’ a child steals a coin from a church collection plate every Sunday and tosses it into a dry well in the hope his deceased mother will return. In ‘Crusts’ a dying man in hospital wheezes out a wish for a ribeye steak. In ‘On the grate’ a homeless woman sees her ex-husband, a doctor, approaching her hovel and futilely thinks that he has ‘finally come back for her.’ He walks on, not knowing nor caring she is there. In the powerful thirteen page ‘Gravedigger- a long poem’ the protagonist buries the old man’s dog after his neighbor blows his head partially off with a rifle.

Despite R.L. calling himself a ‘non-poet’ elsewhere and the book’s pretensions to appeal to a wider, non-academic audience, much of the pleasure for me inside these pages derives from unraveling the meaning and form of the poems. The best poems in the collection certainly ask more of its readers.

The beauty of the poems lies in the scattered, often shotgun detail that R.L. Raymond provides the reader. On first reading you understand the essence of most poems, but because the author has deliberately withheld crucial information, or has incorporated ambiguities, he denies us a precise reading. It’s up to the reader therefore to fill in the gaps based on their past experiences to make better sense of the poem. The reader therefore becomes involved in the composer’s process of creation. 

Take the first seven lines of ‘A little yellow room’ as an example:

maybe he hadn’t heard her scream ‘no!’

because her voice was young

and again

maybe he hadn’t heard her scream ‘I’m bleeding!’

because the phone lines were scratchy

she hailed a cab alone

so mom wouldn’t find out

The passage seems to raise more questions than it answers. The details of the narrative are as scratchy as the phone line. Who is the girl calling? Her boyfriend? Did he hear her screaming ‘no’, and ‘I’m bleeding’? Why would he not want to admit hearing her pleas? Was she attacked? Why is she bleeding? Why does she go to the hospital in a cab rather than by ambulance? Why doesn’t she want her mother to know?

While she sits in the back seat of the cab she is revolted by the stink of previous passengers. The poem concludes:

she closed her eyes to block it out

imagining a little yellow room

from a hallmark special around Christmas time

where girls in pigtails and boys with perfectly parted hair

were polite and beautiful

singing songs about baby jesus

The poem starts to make more sense. She has lost her virginity to her boyfriend and she has to go to the hospital because she continues to bleed. She doesn’t want her mother to know she’s had sex and her boyfriend is freaked out so she goes to the hospital alone. The yellow room symbolizes the state of childlike innocence and naivety that she would now like to return to.

‘Exhaust on the wild flames’, ‘Officer & Gentleman’, and especially ‘After the third beer and not much to eat’ also work in this style and are worthy of close detailed study. R.L. Raymond discusses his writing methods further in the interview below.

Overall, this is an intelligent, well thought out collection brimming with ideas, skilful word play and  bold experimentation. The poems creep up on you and as you draw further connections and associations, the poems will deliver their sucker punch to you when you least expect it.

Find further reviews and purchase details of Sonofabitch Poems here:

http://pigeonbike.blogspot.com.au/p/sonofabitch-poems-all-about-em.html

 INTERVIEW WITH R.L. RAYMOND 18 April 2012

 Q1: R.L., You tell stories, like bourbon and have an MA in English Literature from the University of Western Ontario. What else can you tell us about yourself?

 RL: I still tell stories, I also drink gin and tonic in summer, and I’ve forgotten a lot of what I learned those many years ago. Aside from that, I’m really just a guy writing words that I hope people enjoy reading. 

Q2: When did you first develop an interest in poetry and who are some of your present influences?

 RL: I’ve been writing for a long time, more seriously since about 2001. Not that I’d share much of that ‘juvenilia’ now, but there are some good lines here and there that sometimes find their way back into current stuff. I started getting published more consistently early last year – coincidentally when I started submitting a lot more. I am quite proud of the range of mags that accept my stuff – from literary to underground, scientific to comedic.

Influences are a hard thing to answer: are there poets and writers? Of course. But when you talk actual ‘influences,’ those things that MAKE you write, I’d probably list ambient drone music, darker beats by folks like Lustmord, Horseback, Pyramids… and I have to give props to Metal. To me, a nice loud blast of “Circle of the Tyrants” by Celtic Frost or “Snakes for the Divine” by High on Fire will get me going. Personally ‘influence’ isn’t those contemporaries I admire, or the dead that I’ve studied; ‘influence’ is what do I take in and regurgitate with, I hope, my stamp on it.

But for those writers that really touched me – Faulkner, McCarthy, Barnes, Eliot, Pound, Beckett, HD, Stevens – I tip my hat.

Q3: You’ve been publishing in small press magazines for a couple of years. Who do you rate amongst the best you’ve read and why?

RL: A few mags are stellar, either for their execution, their ‘vibe’ or a combination of both. Epic Rites always manages to capture the blood and guts. There are a lot of underground places that TRY to push that envelope, but it’s a hard thing to do right. Epic Rites Press does it. From a Canadian perspective, I think Carousel has to be one of the most fun, attractive, polished offerings I’ve seen in a long time. And the content is varied, interesting. With the small press there is SO MUCH stuff. Everyone has a niche, a schtick, and that’s cool. To me, if it’s entertaining, and well put together, I’m in. I am still a print purist, so a mag has to sound good, but FEEL good too. 

Q4: Turning to your first collection Sonofabitch Poems, apart from its head turning appeal, why did you choose this title?

RL: There is an actual genesis here. I had three poems about legendary, pseudo tough guys (Skallagrim, Gambrinus and St Vitus) that worked really well together. Those became the foundation. From there I build characters and situations where sons-of-bitches acted, reacted, interacted. There are some tough guys, tough gals, and also regular folks affected by SOBs in one way or another. The tread is character driven in this collection.

Q5: Why is your finely crafted book ‘dedicated to all the non-poets’?

RL: Poet is a label I abhor. You can’t call yourself a “poet” inasmuch as you can’t call yourself a “virtuoso.” It’s not yours to use. But, today, with social media, websites, innumerable ‘poetic’ places, everyone calls him or herself a poet. Not me. I’m a writer. I tell stories. There are line breaks, and ‘poetic’ diction / devices, but they exist only to add to the narrative. I have trouble separating my ‘poetry’ from my ‘prose’ so I just call it all writing. Someone wants to call me a poet, OK; but that’s not a compliment for this guy.

Q6: A predominant theme in the book appears to be about false or crushed hopes, yet ironically, there is an underlying sparkle of humour in the book. What are you trying to say about human nature?

RL: Well, I wouldn’t go that deep! Human nature is an ugly, ugly thing. What I try to do is take everyday situations, look at them from the outside, like an ‘alien’ as a good writer friend of mine likes to put it, and tell the ‘story’ I see. It’s a voyeuristic enterprise. Snapshots. Fill in the blanks. Here is a quick example:

Resolve

a paperclip

bent repeatedly

between thumbs

and forefingers

snapped

her hands

warming a glass

of red wine

at a table for two

in another room

What’s going on? Who? Why? I don’t care. I am writing that slice; you are filling in the blanks. Is it ugly, or beautiful? Your call. There is nothing in the above but an open-ended story. That’s my job. Here’s a snapshot – what does it say to you?

Q7: How were you able to solicit the help of the American poet John Yamrus in the editing of your book?

RL: I met John through some online interactions (we’ve actually never met in person – something we’ll change soon I hope) and through chatting, calls, emails, we figured out we are on the same page when it comes to poetry. John was helpful in paring down what didn’t need to be there. Let the story tell itself. Don’t overdo it. My favourite Yamrus collection has to be “doing cartwheels on doomsday afternoon.” It is required reading in my opinion.

We often exchange writing, comments, and practices. What I’ve learned most is the ‘business’ of writing. Submit, submit, submit. Stay true to your craft and you’ll find it a home. There is evidently a writerly connection there – check out the number of times we’ve appeared in print together (never planned!) But I’ve got a long way to go. John’s been published so much I can’t keep track. But, I’m doing OK. And I’ve got the confidence of youth on my side – HA! Just kidding John (kinda).

Q8: You are the Editor/Creator of PigeonBike Press. Can you briefly explain the events in the lead up to your decision to set up the publishing company? 

RL: PB started old-school in 1995. The whole underground thing: posters as calls for submission; the issue photocopied and stapled and passed around; contributors handing them out. It was small. It was me and a university friend just wanting to try it out. We did one issue. That was it. I resurrected PigeonBike in January 2011 for fun. Started as a blog to showcase some writers that I liked reading. Totally egotistical. If I liked it, it went up. Then I grew bored of the internet, of digital stuff – I’ve always been a book addict. So, I launched a few print issues and they were quite well received. Then I did the collections – full colour covers, perfect bound, hyper-professional looking. I have since turned off the digital part of PB, focusing on the print only. I want to practice what I preach: the permanence of ink and paper; putting out a product that contains both writing quality and physical beauty; showcasing what the small press can and should do. I think the current Print Issue “Semi Permanent Death” is the pinnacle of what I’ve been able to do with PigeonBike. It’s packed with great writing and photography. And, I humbly think it looks and feels wonderful. Pick up a copy: http://pigeonbike.blogspot.ca/2012/04/semi-permanent-death-now-available.html

Q9: What is the underlying philosophy behind PigeonBike Press?

RL: Simply put PigeonBike puts out stuff I like to read, on paper, to be shared and passed along. I want PigeonBike, however small it may be, to be a Press people respect and admire. 

Q10: What have been some of the highlights/ problems you’ve encountered so far with PigeonBike Press?

RL: As much as I love print, as much as I admire quality paper and printing methods, it’s expensive. I’ve used old-school offset presses, new-school digital presses, quality materials to ensure the longevity of PB titles. All this said, the world is changing. People want now, free, right away. ‘Likes’ and ‘re-tweets’ aren’t accepted currency at the printers. And because I don’t like e-devices and digital books, I don’t really want to play in that sandbox. But I’ve made that choice, to be old school and try my hardest to fight the death of print. So I’ll continue to fight.

Highlights? The writing. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about. I have discovered people whose work I’d never heard of. I hope that a little exposure in PigeonBike helps those writers. Maybe a reader will pick up a print issue, a collection, whatever, and decide to support that writer by buying more of his or her work.

I just want to keep telling the stories that matter.

Thanks R.L. for taking the time in answering my questions so thoroughly.

My pleasure. Keep up the good fight. It’s the interplay and cooperation like this that can only help the small press. I tip my hat to you.

BOOK REVIEW/ INTERVIEW: Lawrence Gladeview Just Ignore the Beer Stains (PigeonBike Press, London, Ontario, 2011)- 72 pages.

This is the first full-length collection of poetry by the 28 year-old Gladeview, who presently lives in Colorado with his wife Rebecca- who features in many of these poems. The 54 poems adopt a pared-down, lower case, minimalistic style highly reminiscent of the American poet John Yamrus. The poems are short narratives of less than 100 words and are characteristically geared towards making a dryly humorous personal or social observation about ordinary events- attending a funeral, visiting a chiropractor, ordering drinks, discussing poetry, picking up a hitchhiker and the like.

The PigeonBike Press typeface is bright and shiny and beautifully set-out. The cover includes a black & white cropped photo of a remote escarpment by the British photographer Leonne Bennett which evokes a raw, desolate feeling. In contrast, the title Just Ignore the Beer Stains is cheekily self-referential, asking the reader to ignore the poet’s ‘beer stains’, that is, his youthful imperfections- his purported romance with alcohol and the blemishes you might find in his early writings.

Most of the poems are written in first person from “Larry’s” point of view. The poems are often propelled by colloquial dialogue which reveal, through irony and understatement, the misunderstandings or quirky ways in which people attempt to communicate with each other. The collection is remarkably consistent in voice, subject matter and technique but a few of the poems stand out. Personal favourites include the terse car ad ‘Dad’s Classified’, ‘Thirsty & Forgetful’ about the speaker being asked to show his ID at a bar he has frequented for years, the metaphoric ‘Coming To Terms’ in which Larry likens his relationship to his woman to that of a cocker spaniel being dragged along a street, and ‘Poetry Needs To Be Natural’, in which the poet tongue-in-cheek expresses his poetics: ‘Poetry Needs To Be Natural/ not/ forced/ like the/ coat closet/ quickie/ before/ your auntie’s/ memorial.’

Overall, perhaps too many poems in the collection are about poetry or the writing process which creates the impression that Gladeview has lived thus far through the narrow prism of poetry rather than through hardened experience. As you read through his work you often sense the artifice, of Gladeview meta-fictionally mythologizing his relationship with his wife and his readers. And unlike Yamrus, don’t expect profound glimpses into the human condition. Gladeview is simply and unambiguously mapping out his first joyful steps of discovery. He has plenty of time to unbolt the veneer and express the misery and terror which awaits us all.

That said, it is certainly refreshing to read a new small-press poet who is not wallowing in a drug or alcoholic induced fog of self-loathing. Gladeview’s humour sometimes appears contrived but it can also be hugely appealing. And it is his candid, intimate tone which really makes this book sing.

An Interview with Lawrence Gladeview 27 February 2012

Bold Monkey: When did you first develop an interest in poetry and who were some of your early influences?

Lawrence Gladeview: I began to read poetry with the writing of Shel Silverstein. His poems share stories and characters through a genuine and humorous voice, something that I admire and influences my own writing.  My late college years were when I truly started to pay attention to poetry and began reading poets Yusef Komunyakaa, Amiri Baraka, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and Charles Bukowski.  It wasn’t until a few years after college that I really put a pound of flesh into poetry, began to grow as a writer, and introduce myself to more underground poets like John Macker, Michael Adams, John Yamrus, Todd Moore; and gals like Ann Menebroker, Puma Perl, and Lyn Lifshin.

Bold Monkey: According to your web page: http://lawrencegladeview.com/ you started publishing your poetry in 2009. Can you briefly recount the events leading up to your decision to finally submit your work in 2009?

Gladeview: At the time I started submitting my writing to publications, I was sharing my poems with friends and workshopping pieces online.  From there it turned into mailing out poems in an SASE, submitting electronically, and posting pieces to my now defunct Righteous Rightings blog.  Over the past few years I have been very lucky to have my poems featured here and there in print and online, but the fire burns most when those rejection slips find their way into my mailbox and makes me punch the keys harder.

Bold Monkey: You graduated from James Madison University with a degree in English. I’m curious as to what you studied there, especially the texts, lessons and experiences which may have stimulated you to write.

Gladeview: Most of my study at James Madison focused on African American literary genres and Eastern European authors, although here and there I would have a Period American Poetry class or Writing Composition workshop.  But the single most explosive experience of my college years was attending the Furious Flower Poetry Conference held on campus in 2004.  The conference featured the most illuminating, contemporary African American voices in poetry including Amiri Baraka, Nikki Giovanni, Yusef Komunyakaa, and Gwendolyn Brooks among others.

Bold Monkey: I recall reading somewhere that you arrived late to ‘underground’ poetry. Why the interest and what magazines and writers first appealed to you and why?

Gladeview: Underground poetry has no rules, says something authentic, and above all makes the reader react.  Billy Collins reads up on a stage behind a pulpit using vocabulary no one understands to describe something that’s already been said. Meanwhile, Tony Moffeit is taking up at a local poetry reading wearing leather pants with a snakeskin belt, wielding a harmonica and singing the blues.  

Bold Monkey: There are thousands of magazines out there. What are a few that showcase the type of poetry you enjoy reading? What specific qualities do they have which draw you in?

Gladeview: PigeonBike, Epic Rites, and Lummox Press are three publishers that do a great job printing high quality writing from diverse poets and artists.  The time and dedication these guys put into their projects shows in the product; who wouldn’t want their poems featured in a publication like that?  Their authors are provocative and unapologetic, writing addictive poems and stories that deliver the goods on authentic human sentiment.

Bold Monkey: Can you discuss your initial involvement with PigeonBike Press and your subsequent dealings with the editor R.L. Raymond in the publication of Just Ignore the Beer Stains?

Gladeview: Rob approached me about possibly doing a book last summer and I immediately jumped on it.  I had been featured in a few PigeonBike magazines and was familiar with Rob’s commitment to print publishing and featuring the very best.  From then on we started to get together a manuscript of poems, paying close attention to order and trimming the fat.  By late November, Just Ignore The Beer Stains was available for purchase and the final product could not be more well constructed.  Rob never compromised in the process of putting out this collection and it shows.

Bold Monkey: I have read many of your earlier poems in which you adopt a wide range of forms and styles- some which are quite sophisticated and experimental. The obvious question is- Why do you adopt throughout Beer Stains a pared down, minimalistic style, highly reminiscent of John Yamrus’s?

Gladeview:  I have been writing for over five years now, and over that time I have been finding my voice and solidifying my identity as a writer, and that growth comes from pocket haikus, bourbon narratives, and travel lodge tales.  John has been a great supporter of my poetry the past year and has always been kind in offering his feedback and advice.  Just Ignore The Beer Stains is a collection of poems smart-ass in attitude, humorous in behavior, and aged in a bottle.

Bold Monkey: What’s next for you?

Gladeview:  I have a few poems selected for publication in PigeonBike and Epic Rites projects coming out this year that I am very excited about.  I also have a couple of readings planned around the Boulder and Longmont, Colorado area this spring and summer.

Bold Monkey: Lawrence, thanks for taking the time to answer my questions and to let me enter your world.

Gladeview:  I just want to thank you again for your dedicated approach to this review, I cannot express my thanks enough.  Look forward to continued fantastic reading on Bold Monkey and will be sure to keep in touch! Cheers.

Buy Lawrence Gladeview’s book Just Ignore the Beer Stains at PigeonBike books here: http://pigeonbike.blogspot.com.au/p/lawrence-gladeview-just-ignore.html

A list of Gladeview’s previous publications can be found on his impressive looking website- LAWRENCE GLADEVIEW: Barroom Raconteur, Cocksure Lover and Foul-Mouthed Poet: http://lawrencegladeview.com/

A recent interview of Gladeview appeared in Horror Sleaze Trash here: http://www.horrorsleazetrash.com/interviews/13-questions-with-lawrence-gladeview/

Lawrence Gladeview is co-editor of Media Virus. Check out issue #31: http://mediavirusmagazine.wordpress.com/

                             

BOOK REVIEW: Charles Bukowski New Poems: THE PEOPLE LOOK LIKE FLOWERS AT LAST. Edited by John Martin, Ecco, New York, 2007 ( 299 pages).

This is the 42^nd of 44 books Ecco has published of Bukowski books, and without hesitation, I  would rate The People Look Like Flowers At Last at the bottom of the barrel of their posthumous poetry collections I have encountered thus far.

The Ecco books are printed on poor quality paper and while reading, the feel of the flimsy plastic like cover can sometimes send an uncomfortable shiver up your spine. If you are a Bukophile- sure you are going to enjoy this book. And granted, there are about twenty fine poems in this collection worth reading. The best are characteristically the longer anecdotal poems from the creative bank of Buk’s great repertoire of experience, both real and imagined. My personal favourites include ‘beef tongue’, ‘the dwarf with a punch’, ‘don’t worry, baby, I’ll get it’, ‘kissing me away’, ‘two kinds of hell’, ‘contributors’ notes’ and ‘sun coming down.’

The poem ‘the great debate’ perhaps sums up this volume best. Bukowski's alter-ego Chinaski receives the latest book from a friend he used to admire for his ‘crude, simple,/ troubled’ writing. But since his friend has become a university lecturer he considers his work ‘very pale’ and ‘spread across the page/ like a mist/ filling it/ but saying/ very little.’ Although his friend is now ‘a successful writer’ Chinaski believes he ‘no longer enflamed his readers’, ‘never made/ anybody/ angry/ disgusted/ sad’, ‘never made/ anybody/ feel the rush of wonder/ while reading/ it.’ It’s probably my critical eye and my familiarity with Bukowski’s work- but it is easy to draw ironic parallels with the speaker’s views and with this sad, inferior book of poetry. Many of the poems begin promisingly but often remain sketchy or fall flat on their face. But then again, who am I to question the merit of Buk’s posthumous work? I am a mere adherent presently suffering the effects of the over consumption of his dead vibes- having closely studied fifteen of his books this year.

The best previously unpublished Ecco collection of Bukowski poetry is easily Come On In! (2006) followed by The Flash of Lightning Behind the Mountain (2004) and much further lagging in merit is what matters most is how well you walk through the fire (1999) and then the stolid BONE PALACE BALLET: New Poems (1997).

Compare this with  the bukowski.net reader survey found here where you can cast your own vote:

http://bukowski.net/bookranking/

For the full ECCO list of books search here: http://www.harpercollins.com/searcheng/2PageSearchx.aspx?mode=search&search=bukowski&type=allbooks

Update: Also see my review- The Best & Worst of Charles Bukowski's Posthumous ECCO Poetry Books: http://georgedanderson.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/the-best-and-worst-of-charles-bukowskis.html

New Release: Howie Good Dreaming in Red. Right Hand Pointing. Lulu. 2011 (68 pages).

This is Howie Good’s fourth full-length collection of poetry and consists of fifty-two characteristically short experimental poems in which he adopts a variety of non-traditional forms, including- prose poetry, free verse, found poetry, collage and non-rhyming couplets. The language is simple but has a cut-up feel about it which can alienate occasional readers of poetry.

The overall tone of the collection is extremely varied and includes some fond personal and family reminisces but as you enter further into the territory of the collection, the more you become aware of  Good's sinister representation of a world which is twisted and full of injustice and brutality. There are numerous references to Nazis, barbed-wire and beheadings. In the interview which follows, Good explicitly comments on the overall intent of his book, ‘I’m just trying to convey some small but defining aspect of our time and place as I find it- cruel, hyper-violent, and bleak.’

There is no doubting that Good is an accomplished and adventurous poet and that much of our marvel of his poetry derives from our emotional reaction to what is difficult to rationalize in his work. As reader you must first navigate through his jig-saw, sometimes obscure experiments in language before you are offered a glimpse of what he is attempting to achieve. If you are patient and take your time with Good's work perhaps all will not be revealed- but he will open up new spaces in your head which may help shake you free from your set ways of reading and interpreting poetry.

INTERVIEW WITH HOWIE GOOD  22 NOVEMBER 2011.

Brief bio: Howie Good, a journalism professor at SUNY New Paltz, is the author of the full-length poetry collections Lovesick (Press Americana, 2009), Heart With a Dirty Windshield (BeWrite Books, 2010), Everything Reminds Me of Me (Desperanto, 2011), and Dreaming in Red (Right Hand Pointing, 2011), as well as numerous print and digital poetry chapbooks, including most recently Love in a Time of Paranoia from Diamond Point Press. 

 BOLD MONKEY Q1: The imagery in Dreaming in Red is bleak and has an underlying sinister, apocalyptic tone. You make references to Nazis, terrorists, barbed wire fences, soldiers, beheadings, injustice, weeping, suffering- you explore in this book the metaphoric hell on earth. What is your overarching concept for the book and what are you attempting to express about humanity and our times?

My poetry is sometimes referred to as surrealistic. I don’t necessarily agree with that characterization. It’s reality, not my poetry, that’s surreal. I’m just trying to convey some small but defining aspect of our time and place as I find it – cruel, hyper-violent, and bleak. In a paradox typical of art, the stranger or more unrealistic one of my poems seems, the closer it may approach what’s really going on in the world.

Q2: There are numerous references to dreams and to the color red in your collection. Can you clarify some of the intended meanings/ associations you wish your reader to draw from your title and central motif Dreaming in Red?

Readers should draw whatever conclusions they want from the references and images in the book. The poet’s task, as I understand it, is to write poetry, not to explain it once it’s written. The poem itself is all the explanation there is to offer. 

Q3: Many poems in the collection appear to be cut & paste in either free verse or prose poem form. You commented in your Fogged Clarity interview (linked below) that you like to ‘keep the reader off-balance.’ Can you elaborate in detail on your fascination with the cut & paste style? 

When a word or phrase or sentence strikes me while I’m reading or even during conversation, I write it down in my notebook. There they join material that’s more self-generated. All of it becomes the mud and straw for the bricks I use to build poems. Sometimes I’ll write a piece that’s kin to a found poem. In the book, SOMEONE WAS ALWAYS DYING SOMEWHERE and OVER YOUR CITIES GRASS WILL GROW are examples. They’re sort of verbal collages created from phrases I clipped from news sources and novels and arranged in what I hope is a provocative way. If you accept the premise that life in the twenty-first century is increasingly fragmented and discontinuous, then this may be the ideal form of writing to accommodate and capture the texture of modern experience. 

Q4: Since 2004 you have published at least four full-length collections of poetry as well as 31 print and digital poetry chapbooks. You also work as a journalism professor. I understand you write between 9 to 12 most mornings- but how do find the time and why the obsession with writing poetry at this stage of your life?

I take seriously Flaubert’s admonition to writers: Be bourgeois in your habits, and revolutionary in your work. This is the antithesis of the stereotype of the poet as a wild man leading an irregular Bohemian existence punctuated by drunken binges, drug abuse, and sexual abandon. As attractive or exciting as that kind of life may seem, it’s not exactly conducive to sustained creativity. Flaubert recommended saving the wildness for your work, and not your living arrangements. Essentially, I practice the values of the old Protestant work ethic – industry, sobriety, and discipline – to get my writing done.

 Q5: Your poems are characteristically short and use simple, clear language. Considering your prolific output do you usually do much editing and re-writing of your work?

I edit and rewrite extensively. I’ll even go back and revise published poems if something about them –an image, a word choice – bothers me in  retrospect. It’s extremely rare that I “knock out” a poem. Most of the time I don’t know what a poem is trying to say or do until it’s gone through numerous rewrites. For me, writing a poem isn’t like taking down dictation. It’s more like digging for gold in hard ground with broken fingernails.

Q6: You read extensively to aid your choice of subject matter. Can you outline some of your readings which contributed to the development of Dreaming in Red?

I do read a lot, and not just poetry. I particularly find biographies of visual artists useful. It’s not so much content or subject matter I draw from them, but titles and what might be called “prompts” – phrases and ideas I can push off from. I feel a fellowship to visual artists. Maybe it’s because the creative process for poets is closer to that of painters than it is to that of novelists or essayists. When I read about a painter like Joan Mitchell agonizing for hours over one brush stroke, I recognize my own experience wrestling with words.

Q7: A good sampling of your writing touches on the political but never explicitly. You characteristically present your views in a series of puzzles and language exercises. To what extent is this an accurate assessment of your work? 

Quite accurate if “political” is defined broadly, as the struggle to find a way to live together with the greatest amount of freedom and joy and the least amount of suffering and injustice. But I don’t often consciously write poems of political protest. Rather, given the times, any poem that questions the status quo is ipso facto political.

Q8: On a lighter note, what is your advice to young promising poets just starting out?

Organize your life around your writing, and not your writing around your life. And don’t be discouraged by rejection. Samuel Beckett’s first novel was rejected by 42 publishers; he eventually won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Thanks Howie and all the best with the book. All proceeds from its sale are for a great cause.

Thanks for all your kindnesses,

Howie

Buy Howie Good’s new book Dreaming in Red here: http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/dreaming-in-red/18726602

All proceeds from the sale of this book benefit the Crisis Center www.crisiscenterbham.com .The Crisis Center is a non-profit agency in Birmingham, Alabama offering suicide prevention, services to victims of sexual assault, day treatment for the indigent mentally ill, and other services.

Howie Good’s blog Apocalypse Mambo keeps his readers informed of the links to the latest poetry he has published in magazines and books:  http://apocalypsemambo.blogspot.com/

Research Notes:

Twenty of Howie Good’s  poems in Dreaming in Red were previously published in his e-book collection Love Dagger on Right Hand Pointing and can be found here: https://sites.google.com/site/howiegood2011chap

Howie Good was interviewed by Ben Evans of Fogged Clarity: An Art Review for his first full-length collection LOVESICK. This is an excellent and highly informative audio interview in which Good discussions a wide range of topics related to his writing process and the aesthetics of his poetry: http://foggedclarity.com/2010/08/howie-good/