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Okay, everyone -- here's NeuroFizz' Q & A for discussion. Enjoy!
NeuroFizz (Rich), AW Poet Laureate, July-September 2007
1. When did you start writing poetry?
I started writing fiction about six years ago, and soon thereafter, the desire to write poetry bloomed. I messed around in my early years, but probably to the tune of about five attempts in fifty years. I’ve been doing other kinds of writing for much longer, long enough to develop arthritis in my words. But for poetry, I am still teething.
2. What other writing do you do regularly?
My day job requires a significant amount of writing. I write and publish results from my research, I write grant proposals, I review manuscripts of others, and help my students with their theses and dissertations. This is all scientific stuff, though, where I have to tell the truth. I have nearly 70 publications in peer reviewed scientific journals (and counting). I’m also finishing the Marine Science volume of the Encyclopedia of Science and Technology (publisher = Facts-On-File). My research is on the neural control of locomotory speed changes, and I use a marine critter as an animal model. My work goes from biomechanics to the molecular level (function of ion channels).
I also write fiction – my first novel came out in July 2006, my second will be out in October of this year (2007), two more are under contract (August 2008 and sometime in 2009), and I’m shopping number five. My first poetry collection will be out this coming January (in e-book format).
3. Do you think of yourself primarily as a poet?
I am two people. I am a scientist and I am a writer. The writer side of me is further split between fiction and poetry. In terms of writing volume, I’ve produced way more on the fiction front, but on interest and passion, I’d rate fiction and poetry about equal.
4. Why do you write poetry?
I consider writing an intellectual challenge, and writing poetry is a special one. It allows me to play with words and thoughts, to experiment with structure, both formal and informal, and it throws constraints at me that don’t exist, or at least aren’t the same in fiction writing. If I said I write poetry to help improve my fiction writing, I’d be selling poetry way short, and misrepresenting my goals. Writing poetry does have this type of benefit, but it’s merely a beneficial side effect, not a driving force. I guess I write poetry because I like the challenge of weaving words into fabrics that have different colors, patterns, and textures. Finding the right words and playing with them is just plain fun to me.
5. How does writing poetry relate with your other writing?
Now I can talk about how writing poetry helps with my fiction writing. The mantra of science writing is “tighten the writing—be concise and exact.” In a general way, this applies to poetry as well (for me, anyway). While there is much more leeway in writing fiction, I like a relatively lean style of writing in that arena as well. By writing poetry, I think I’m gaining more perspective on how to write rich prose with an economy of words, while retaining the ability to elaborate when necessary or desired. I guess poetry instills more discipline in all aspects of my writing, although there is a strong base of this from my science writing as well.
6. Beyond Absolute Write, what is your publication/performance history?
I have answered this in question #2 above, so I won’t bore you by repeating it.
7. How often do you write poems?
My schedule is so full, I can’t achieve a regular output of poems. If I took a long-term average, I’d say I write somewhere around 1 or 2 per week. I tend to go in bursts, though, which is more a product of my time availability than of anything else.
8. What goals, if any, do you have for your poetry?
One is to entertain, but not totally in the way you might think. I do want readers to enjoy what I write, but I also find it incredibly fun. It is entertaining to me, in other words. With some pieces, like the ones in the Animalia collection, I want to give readers a little solid information about the wonders and peculiarities of the animals around us. But even there, the goal is to use these animal peculiarities to highlight human foibles and fancies. I guess you could say one of my goals is to define little slivers of human nature in my poems. Humor (in all of its forms) is a tool to this end, so if I can make someone chuckle as well, I’m a happy man.
9. Do you set out to write a poem, does it compel you to write it, or something else?
It can come from a word, a phrase, or an observation that serves as a nucleating agent for the poem. I don’t know if it is the scientist in me or not, but my mind tends to draw parallels, to see similarities in dissimilar circumstances or in dissimilar situations. I think this is a breeding ground for metaphors and other forms of literary comparison. When one of those parallels pops up, I am compelled to put it on paper.
10. What formal, semantic, or thematic traits do you prefer to use in your poems?
In terms of structure, I’m all over the place, although I’ve been paying attention to rhythm quite a bit lately. I have no preference, though, and structure rarely drives the writing. If it falls out while writing, I’ll try to even it out, unless the poem requires a jolt or two. On the semantic side, I love plays on words, double meanings, twisting and twisted words, and sudden twists of the poems themselves. I love irony. I do tend to have pieces that fit a general topic (loosely at times)—description of the human condition. Much of the poetry I read is dark, moody, or centered on what I call “heavy emotions.” I write some of these, and I really appreciate poems of this nature (particularly those of william haskins). But I lean more toward the lighthearted, whimsical, humorous, or playful. Even when I write about a very serious matter, I tend to (or more appropriately, try to) make light of it, or give it a good dose of irony.
11. Which usually comes first: Topic/idea, form, words? Other?
More often than anything else, words and phrases, along with the parallels I mentioned in question #9. Sometimes, an animal peculiarity starts it all off, but that seed only germinates if I can find a good parallel in human behavior. Form? Not really. That sort of evolves as the piece is being written, which is why I tend to be all over the place in the structure of my poems.
12. Do you revise? Right away, later on? How do you decide when you've finished with a poem?
Once I get it down on paper, I give it a couple of reads straight through. I tinker a little with it then, and once again when I decide to post it. I will tune it up when I receive good ideas or comments in the critique section of the poetry forum. At that point, I file it away in my computer poetry folder. About every couple of months or so, I go through the folder and read all of the pieces once again. With those fresh eyes, I sometimes give a tweak or two, but most of the poems remain unchanged at that point.
13. How did you come to be interested in poetry?
This is going to sound really strange, but it was in the Office Party section of AW. There is a thread on Limericks where each poster adds a line to an existing limerick or writes the first line of a new one. If you go back a couple of years, when that thread was young, you’ll see I posted there regularly. It brought back pleasant memories of a scientific colleague I worked with in Scotland in the mid 90’s. He and I have similar senses of humor, and he was incredible in his ability to make up limericks “on the spot.” Most were bawdy or worse, but I tried my best to contribute, and found the challenge of cleverness appealing. But what really got me going was the poetry forum right here. People here have a genuine interest in the medium, and most are very encouraging to others who choose to experiment with it.
14. What particular poem or poet first attracted you to poetry?
Once again, I’m going to give a strange answer. I read to my son every night when he gets into bed (he’s seven now). We both found we liked Shel Silverstein’s poetry books, and his unique look at things. Of course, he also had wonderful illustrations to go with his poems, but this presented another challenge to me once I gave poetry a try. I wanted to see if I could write poems that portrayed as much as his poem/illustration combinations, but without the help of the drawings. The words have to be the illustrations.
15. What poems, poets, movements or eras have influenced you as a poet: which do you particularly enjoy, admire, or aspire toward?
I am ashamed to admit that I have not studied poetry to any significant degree. I’m doing so now, but my plate is so full, I have to steal time from other tasks to do it. But there is a very influential writer who has impacted my work, even though he worked mainly in short stories. He is one of my literary heroes, and went by the pen name of… wait for it… o henry (big surprise, right?). I just love those twist endings of his. I admire poetry in many forms and from many “eras” but I don’t aspire to fit into any of them. I’m happy to trudge along on my own path, with o henry whispering in my ear, not of destination or of hazard, but just babbling about all of the turns in that arrow-straight path.
16. What single poem of yours would you recommend to someone who had never read your work?
I’m going to be selfish and claim I can’t narrow it down beyond three (which is also true). For word-play, I’d recommend Paralytic Paralipsis; For a good dip into human nature, Parsimony Lost; for my favorite from the Animalia series, Pheromonics. Funny how they all start with the letter “P.”
17. What are your thoughts on poetry today: its function, future, direction, relevance?
The function of language is to communicate. Poetry is a form a communication. That hasn’t changed, and in my mind, never will. Its function is to entertain, to titillate, to make one think, to make one dream, to make one reflect, to make one identify. As for its future direction, I have to fall back on the line I use when students tell me “that’s what I meant” when discussing their essay answers on my exams—my crystal ball broke a couple of years ago and I just can’t seem to find a good replacement. Writing is too subjective, and I’m too much of a greenhorn, to make a meaningful prediction. Its relevance? As long as there are creative individuals with insatiable curiosities, and as long as these people hang around each other, and continue to challenge their intellects, poetry will inspire and grow, if not in popularity, in the lush green of its foliage, nurtured by its deep and extensive root system. How can any human endeavor get any more relevant than that?
18. What, in your view, makes a written/spoken work a poem?
Good question. Tough question. It’s an emotion, a feeling, a relationship, an amusement, a thought—conveyed in words of extraordinary language (rather than ordinary language). It’s the creation of emotion with words, that creation called imagery. But it’s more than that. It can be as simple as telling a story, and as complex as delving into the minds of maniacs. But it is done with words. Extraordinary words. And it is enhanced with texture and structure, even if the structure is totally random (there is still structure in line breaks and punctuation that usually distinguishes it from standard prose).
19. What do you like about your own poetry?
I like the way it seems to fit in with my general philosophy on my own personal growth. I want to be able to look back every year, every month, even every week, and say, “Wow. I’ve sure grown since then.” I sense great growth since I’ve been hanging here at the Poetry Forum, and everyone who posts here has had an impact on that. Whether or not that growth shows up in my poetry, I don’t know. I sure hope it does.
20. What would you say to someone who wants to learn to write poetry well?
Read, write, post, listen (to critiques/suggestions). Read, write, post, listen. Read, write, post, listen. Knead, fight, toast, glisten. Bleed, bite, roast, piss ‘em. Now… put some stank on it…
NeuroFizz (Rich), AW Poet Laureate, July-September 2007
1. When did you start writing poetry?
I started writing fiction about six years ago, and soon thereafter, the desire to write poetry bloomed. I messed around in my early years, but probably to the tune of about five attempts in fifty years. I’ve been doing other kinds of writing for much longer, long enough to develop arthritis in my words. But for poetry, I am still teething.
2. What other writing do you do regularly?
My day job requires a significant amount of writing. I write and publish results from my research, I write grant proposals, I review manuscripts of others, and help my students with their theses and dissertations. This is all scientific stuff, though, where I have to tell the truth. I have nearly 70 publications in peer reviewed scientific journals (and counting). I’m also finishing the Marine Science volume of the Encyclopedia of Science and Technology (publisher = Facts-On-File). My research is on the neural control of locomotory speed changes, and I use a marine critter as an animal model. My work goes from biomechanics to the molecular level (function of ion channels).
I also write fiction – my first novel came out in July 2006, my second will be out in October of this year (2007), two more are under contract (August 2008 and sometime in 2009), and I’m shopping number five. My first poetry collection will be out this coming January (in e-book format).
3. Do you think of yourself primarily as a poet?
I am two people. I am a scientist and I am a writer. The writer side of me is further split between fiction and poetry. In terms of writing volume, I’ve produced way more on the fiction front, but on interest and passion, I’d rate fiction and poetry about equal.
4. Why do you write poetry?
I consider writing an intellectual challenge, and writing poetry is a special one. It allows me to play with words and thoughts, to experiment with structure, both formal and informal, and it throws constraints at me that don’t exist, or at least aren’t the same in fiction writing. If I said I write poetry to help improve my fiction writing, I’d be selling poetry way short, and misrepresenting my goals. Writing poetry does have this type of benefit, but it’s merely a beneficial side effect, not a driving force. I guess I write poetry because I like the challenge of weaving words into fabrics that have different colors, patterns, and textures. Finding the right words and playing with them is just plain fun to me.
5. How does writing poetry relate with your other writing?
Now I can talk about how writing poetry helps with my fiction writing. The mantra of science writing is “tighten the writing—be concise and exact.” In a general way, this applies to poetry as well (for me, anyway). While there is much more leeway in writing fiction, I like a relatively lean style of writing in that arena as well. By writing poetry, I think I’m gaining more perspective on how to write rich prose with an economy of words, while retaining the ability to elaborate when necessary or desired. I guess poetry instills more discipline in all aspects of my writing, although there is a strong base of this from my science writing as well.
6. Beyond Absolute Write, what is your publication/performance history?
I have answered this in question #2 above, so I won’t bore you by repeating it.
7. How often do you write poems?
My schedule is so full, I can’t achieve a regular output of poems. If I took a long-term average, I’d say I write somewhere around 1 or 2 per week. I tend to go in bursts, though, which is more a product of my time availability than of anything else.
8. What goals, if any, do you have for your poetry?
One is to entertain, but not totally in the way you might think. I do want readers to enjoy what I write, but I also find it incredibly fun. It is entertaining to me, in other words. With some pieces, like the ones in the Animalia collection, I want to give readers a little solid information about the wonders and peculiarities of the animals around us. But even there, the goal is to use these animal peculiarities to highlight human foibles and fancies. I guess you could say one of my goals is to define little slivers of human nature in my poems. Humor (in all of its forms) is a tool to this end, so if I can make someone chuckle as well, I’m a happy man.
9. Do you set out to write a poem, does it compel you to write it, or something else?
It can come from a word, a phrase, or an observation that serves as a nucleating agent for the poem. I don’t know if it is the scientist in me or not, but my mind tends to draw parallels, to see similarities in dissimilar circumstances or in dissimilar situations. I think this is a breeding ground for metaphors and other forms of literary comparison. When one of those parallels pops up, I am compelled to put it on paper.
10. What formal, semantic, or thematic traits do you prefer to use in your poems?
In terms of structure, I’m all over the place, although I’ve been paying attention to rhythm quite a bit lately. I have no preference, though, and structure rarely drives the writing. If it falls out while writing, I’ll try to even it out, unless the poem requires a jolt or two. On the semantic side, I love plays on words, double meanings, twisting and twisted words, and sudden twists of the poems themselves. I love irony. I do tend to have pieces that fit a general topic (loosely at times)—description of the human condition. Much of the poetry I read is dark, moody, or centered on what I call “heavy emotions.” I write some of these, and I really appreciate poems of this nature (particularly those of william haskins). But I lean more toward the lighthearted, whimsical, humorous, or playful. Even when I write about a very serious matter, I tend to (or more appropriately, try to) make light of it, or give it a good dose of irony.
11. Which usually comes first: Topic/idea, form, words? Other?
More often than anything else, words and phrases, along with the parallels I mentioned in question #9. Sometimes, an animal peculiarity starts it all off, but that seed only germinates if I can find a good parallel in human behavior. Form? Not really. That sort of evolves as the piece is being written, which is why I tend to be all over the place in the structure of my poems.
12. Do you revise? Right away, later on? How do you decide when you've finished with a poem?
Once I get it down on paper, I give it a couple of reads straight through. I tinker a little with it then, and once again when I decide to post it. I will tune it up when I receive good ideas or comments in the critique section of the poetry forum. At that point, I file it away in my computer poetry folder. About every couple of months or so, I go through the folder and read all of the pieces once again. With those fresh eyes, I sometimes give a tweak or two, but most of the poems remain unchanged at that point.
13. How did you come to be interested in poetry?
This is going to sound really strange, but it was in the Office Party section of AW. There is a thread on Limericks where each poster adds a line to an existing limerick or writes the first line of a new one. If you go back a couple of years, when that thread was young, you’ll see I posted there regularly. It brought back pleasant memories of a scientific colleague I worked with in Scotland in the mid 90’s. He and I have similar senses of humor, and he was incredible in his ability to make up limericks “on the spot.” Most were bawdy or worse, but I tried my best to contribute, and found the challenge of cleverness appealing. But what really got me going was the poetry forum right here. People here have a genuine interest in the medium, and most are very encouraging to others who choose to experiment with it.
14. What particular poem or poet first attracted you to poetry?
Once again, I’m going to give a strange answer. I read to my son every night when he gets into bed (he’s seven now). We both found we liked Shel Silverstein’s poetry books, and his unique look at things. Of course, he also had wonderful illustrations to go with his poems, but this presented another challenge to me once I gave poetry a try. I wanted to see if I could write poems that portrayed as much as his poem/illustration combinations, but without the help of the drawings. The words have to be the illustrations.
15. What poems, poets, movements or eras have influenced you as a poet: which do you particularly enjoy, admire, or aspire toward?
I am ashamed to admit that I have not studied poetry to any significant degree. I’m doing so now, but my plate is so full, I have to steal time from other tasks to do it. But there is a very influential writer who has impacted my work, even though he worked mainly in short stories. He is one of my literary heroes, and went by the pen name of… wait for it… o henry (big surprise, right?). I just love those twist endings of his. I admire poetry in many forms and from many “eras” but I don’t aspire to fit into any of them. I’m happy to trudge along on my own path, with o henry whispering in my ear, not of destination or of hazard, but just babbling about all of the turns in that arrow-straight path.
16. What single poem of yours would you recommend to someone who had never read your work?
I’m going to be selfish and claim I can’t narrow it down beyond three (which is also true). For word-play, I’d recommend Paralytic Paralipsis; For a good dip into human nature, Parsimony Lost; for my favorite from the Animalia series, Pheromonics. Funny how they all start with the letter “P.”
17. What are your thoughts on poetry today: its function, future, direction, relevance?
The function of language is to communicate. Poetry is a form a communication. That hasn’t changed, and in my mind, never will. Its function is to entertain, to titillate, to make one think, to make one dream, to make one reflect, to make one identify. As for its future direction, I have to fall back on the line I use when students tell me “that’s what I meant” when discussing their essay answers on my exams—my crystal ball broke a couple of years ago and I just can’t seem to find a good replacement. Writing is too subjective, and I’m too much of a greenhorn, to make a meaningful prediction. Its relevance? As long as there are creative individuals with insatiable curiosities, and as long as these people hang around each other, and continue to challenge their intellects, poetry will inspire and grow, if not in popularity, in the lush green of its foliage, nurtured by its deep and extensive root system. How can any human endeavor get any more relevant than that?
18. What, in your view, makes a written/spoken work a poem?
Good question. Tough question. It’s an emotion, a feeling, a relationship, an amusement, a thought—conveyed in words of extraordinary language (rather than ordinary language). It’s the creation of emotion with words, that creation called imagery. But it’s more than that. It can be as simple as telling a story, and as complex as delving into the minds of maniacs. But it is done with words. Extraordinary words. And it is enhanced with texture and structure, even if the structure is totally random (there is still structure in line breaks and punctuation that usually distinguishes it from standard prose).
19. What do you like about your own poetry?
I like the way it seems to fit in with my general philosophy on my own personal growth. I want to be able to look back every year, every month, even every week, and say, “Wow. I’ve sure grown since then.” I sense great growth since I’ve been hanging here at the Poetry Forum, and everyone who posts here has had an impact on that. Whether or not that growth shows up in my poetry, I don’t know. I sure hope it does.
20. What would you say to someone who wants to learn to write poetry well?
Read, write, post, listen (to critiques/suggestions). Read, write, post, listen. Read, write, post, listen. Knead, fight, toast, glisten. Bleed, bite, roast, piss ‘em. Now… put some stank on it…
