Where did you grow up? Was poetry and writing part of that mix?
I grew up in New Jersey: first in Nutley (outside Newark) and then in East Brunswick, near Rutgers University. I’ve lived in Florida, New York City, and Oregon as an adult. Mostly, though, I’ve also lived in New Jersey as an adult. After college at Rutgers University. I lived for ten years in New Brunswick/Highland Park and now for the last ten years in Maplewood. I work in New York City.
My poetry exposure as a child was the usual mix. I was not particularly drawn to poetry. I recall a teacher once telling me that poetry is a “special talent,” she didn’t feel I had that talent and suggested I try writing fiction.
I was very interested in writing in high school (primarily narrative) and then journaled and wrote poetry as a college student. I became more interested in poetry while at college at Rutgers University. I was drawn to the performance venues in New Brunswick where I was exposed to poets performing in bars and such places, the environments drew poets, musicians, artists and other creative types who gathered together and read work in “open reading” style along with features.
Who are your poetic influences, favorite poets, writers, artwork, other things that inform your work?
My work is informed by two directions: the experiments of such traditions as the Surrealists and the New York School (2nd generation) and narrative. My favorite poets include Bernadette Mayer, Frank O’Hara, Walt Whtiman, Emily Dickinson, and Vladimir Mayakovsky. Besides surrealism I am a student of the writing and works (both fictional and poetic) that document the plight of the homeless, the dispossessed, and the poor: from the work of James Agee (Let Us Now Praise Famous Men) to Jacob Riis (How the Other Half Lives) to Luc Sante (Low Life). I have gotten inspiration from Carl Sandburg and William Carlos Williams. Much of my muse has been inspiration drawn from the Beats—Ginsberg, Kerouac, Corso.
My biggest influence is the work I do every day: helping mentally ill, formerly street homeless people in my job at an SRO on Henry Street, Manhattan. I have captured some of this on henrystreetpoems.blogspot.com; I have included more experimental works on tomobz.blogspot.com.
When did you 'become' a poet when did poet become part of your everyday life?
Poetry became a part of my every day life in about 1984 or so when I first ran across the work of the New Brunswick, New Jersey art scene. Since that time, I have continued to be in contact with a group of poets including people from the poetry readings at the Barron Arts Center, the work of Big Hammer Press/Vendetta Books (Dave Roskos); Joe Weil; Beth Borrus, etc. I consider myself a committed member to the Poetry Project at St. Marks and I organize for the yearly Bowery Poetry Club New Year’s Day reading and for Arbella magazine (20 years and counting).
How do you form a poem? Is poetry an organic or synthetic process for you?
Poetry is both organic and synthetic for me. I believe in the idea of “first thought, best thought.” Initially this idea was popularized by Allen Ginsberg (the quote may be from Chogyam Trungpa). I think it is important to set aside a time for writing and I do not wait to be hit by inspiration. I also believe in experiment so I have attempted to use a variety of styles including highly stylized approaches—sonnets, villanelle—to free verse.
Where do you write? Is there any special method to your writing?
Lately I write on the train as I have an hour and a half commute. It very much helps me to have that time and I am thankful for it. Sometimes I will spend a break at work writing or write at home or while my wife drives and I am a passenger in our car.
How long have you been the editor of Arbella Magazine and when do you think we will see another issue?
I have been an editor of Arbella magazine since its inception in 1986. I have averaged one magazine every two years or so in that time. I hope to keep that up. I am expecting to post an Arbella website along with the other two blogspot sites that I have, I hope to have that up within the next couple of months.
Tell me a little bit about your "poem a day" website.
Seven years ago I started a series of poems that I wrote daily for a year. I called this series “Total Poetry” from an idea I had read in a book about Naropa University Poetics—the work of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, Boulder, Colorado. My take on that idea was to write a poem each day (working day) for a year, on the train, when I was coming home from my job as a program director at a shelter for mentally ill, homeless people in Midtown Manhattan. There were between 2 and 300 poems by the end. I have taken that same idea and decided to try it again at my new job: an apartment building that houses formerly homeless, mentally ill people on the Lower East Side, Manhattan.
I currently have some 50 or so poems, but have only published 9 (as of today). I hope they’ll be more up soon. Here is a poem from that project:
HENRY STREET #9
110909, 5:47 PM, MONDAY, CAR 7216, LOWER LEVEL; MIDTOWN DIRECT TO DOVER, 1ST STOP MAPLEWOOD
Martin decided he wanted a beer
So he had one (maybe more)
He likes it clean when he’s drunk
So he wakes up the other guys on the hall
Doesn’t matter if it’s two am, four am
Doesn’t matter
Because Martin likes it clean
He’ll get them up
Get them up and working
They don’t do it other times
Even though it bothers Martin
He gets riled
Things can get out of control
Good thing for police
And Emergency Medical Services
Good thing for handcuffs
But Martin wasn’t drinking this weekend
He says the security guy is out to get him
They both like order
But in different ways
Martin said the guard lied
Martin was tight
Not drunk tight
Angry
3 am and he couldn’t get in
Where was security?
That’s what Martin wanted to know
Martin said he can’t wait to get his own place
He’s only here to get an apartment
He doesn’t need case managers
Security guards, all that other crap
Doesn’t need it
Just a place
And some keys he won’t forget in his room.
