The plan was to trust the process.
I didn't aggressively solicit work for this issue, didn't try to shape things to a preconceived idea of how poetry ought to cohere. I let the work come to me through the MiPoesias call. And, lo, it came in great quantity. I read it and read it, read it again, and decided, finally, to accept for publication what you see before you now.
There is a wilderness of styles and preoccupations represented here. Enjoy them one by one and think about the music they make collectively.
Thank you, Didi Menendez, for your intelligence, energy, generosity and gracious patience.
Tom Beckett
Tom Beckett lives in Kent, Ohio. He's complicated, deep, but a notorious curmudgeon, and is often seen shuffling down Main Street whilst railing at the universe. His interview blog, e-x-c-h-a-n-g-e-v-a-l-u-e-s, is located at http://willtoexchange.blogspot.com. Vanishing Points of Resemblance (Generator Press, 2004) is his most recent chapbook.
What's your favorite poem that you've written? Care to share it with us?
One of my favorites (which appeared in my chapbook, Vanishing Points of Resemblance, Generator Press, 2004) is "Equipoise".
EQUIPOISE
Head filled with cotton
Ears filled with static
Eyes filled with darkness
Mouth filled with tacks
Arms filled with water
Breasts filled with nettles
Cock filled with needles
Ass filled with glass
What is your favorite poem by another poet
(still alive still kicking still publishing now).
There are so many I could name but certainly Charles Bernstein's "The Klupzy Girl" leaps to mind. I had the honor of publishing it in the "Charles Bernstein Issue" of my magazine, The Difficulties. It was subsequently collected in Islets/Irritations (Jordan Davies, 1983). Who can forget its opening:
Poetry is like a swoon,
with this difference:
it brings you to your senses.
What poets have had the most influence on your work?
Gertrude Stein, Robert Creeley, David Bromige, Charles Bernstein, Bruce Andrews, Ron Silliman, Robert Grenier, Lyn Hejinian, Leslie Scalapino, Rae Armantrout, Eileen Tabios. But the list could go on and on and on...
What's your pet-peeve in a poem? (ex. comma splices, obscurity)
I tend not to like poems which
tell stories or preach.
What's your favorite print journal and why?
I don't read as many print
journals as I once did. I used to love L=A=N-G=U=A=G=E, edited rather
famously by Bruce Andrews and Charles Bernstein. It was a short enough
mag that it could be read in a sitting, but the ideas in the thing could
keep one going for weeks.
Do you have a writing ritual? Care to share it?
Do you ever break this ritual for artistic reasons? If yes, how does it
change or improve your method?
All rituals are made to be broken. Mixing things up is, in the long run, almost always better for one's work. At least that's what I think.
