Michael Parker
If you had to give advice to a poet just starting out what would it be? 1) Immerse yourself in the best of contemporary poetry. That means "READ" poetry all the time. 2) Find the voices and styles that speak to you. Emulate them. 3) Study and research all the numerous methods of structure and poetics. 4) Never stop building your vocabulary. 5) For me, I try to follow an admonition of Aristotle from his work "Poetics" -- employ plot, character, melody, and spectacle. Without these, there is no beating heart to your work. 6) Find ways to open yourself to everything, like a sage might. Be a sentient being.
How would you describe the ambiance of your work space? Half of my space is literally used for my full-time job. I fondly call it "Command Central" because there are so many PCs, monitors, webcams and video security cameras that I test and write about. The second half of my work space is the library, which comes with my trusty lazy boy and a bookcase and closet overflowing with books. The trusty lazy boy is in the corner by the window. It has been with me through good and poor health. In that lazy boy, I've penned most of my published poems and short fiction. This is where I'm sitting at this very moment and a full moon has just disappeared above the eaves of the house.
What's the biggest obstacle you've ever had to overcome? Surviving and recovering from two pulmonary embolisms that occurred December 2010. I honestly didn't think I would live past that week in the hospital. But fortunately, I am still here and hanging in there. This event has changed me in many ways. Simply, I approach life with much more gratitude for small things. Even now, things I take for granted leave me in a state of momentary awe and appreciation. Will this perspective stay? I think that is all up to me, right?
A hundred years from now what do you hope people say when they talk about you? This is truly a nice thought, that people would not just know my name one hundred years from now, but that they would be speaking about me (whether good or ill). Being in any way relevant to a conversation about the poetry movement would be an honor.
Do you feel you fit into any specific movement or style? I like to consider myself influenced by Omniformulism (as described by Annie Finch in her work The Body of Poetry), and by a hybrid of the Western Tradition and Zen.
What most centers me to the ideal of Omniformulism is at its root there is this genuinely acceptable openness of structure and poetics. Omniformulism is permeable, "hunger(ing) for poetry that moves freely between schools and cultures and traditions and eras…" It also invites poetry whose structure "reflects or refracts" and that "challenge(s) and explore(s) unfamiliar pattern(s) and also appreciate(s) and sustain(s) the familiar." Even more so, what makes me feel grounded to this movement is it's infusion of empowerment, not only empowering the poet with freedom and kinship, but encouraging the poet to be an empowering influence. Finch writes in her manifesto: "We want poems that reach out as much as in. We hunger for poetry that marks and leaves a mark on human occasions. We desire poems that carry and connect with desire."
At heart, I consider myself a mystic. So many aspects of the Zen tradition appeal to the good creature in me. I seek to feel enlightened and empowered, and I also try to adhere to the concept of using prosody as a tool for empowering the reader. I try to adhere to the practice of enlightenment, of losing oneself, being sentient, and seeking out the divine in things. To me, there is untapped magic in this practice.
In regards to structure and poetics, though, I would say I follow the Western Tradition. Some of my poet- fathers are Robert Frost, Jack Gilbert, W.S. Merwin, Franz Wright, Robert Haas, Billy Collins, Mark Strand, and Philip Levine.
www.poetsandartists.com
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