INTERVIEW
John LeKay: When
and where did you first start writing poetry an can you
remember what your first poem was about?
- Larisa
Alexandrovna: The first poem I remember is when I was
about six, in Vienna Austria. We had finally gotten out
of the Soviet Union and were slowly making our way to
the States. We shared a flat with another Russian family
and an older woman, also from the Soviet bloc. The poem
was about the Russian revolution, if you can imagine,
and it was totally inaccurate, and really very silly.
But my mother was very proud of it, so she had me read
it to the older woman, who shredded it to pieces. It was
really a stupid, inaccurate, and badly written poem.
But I was six, what did she expect?
- JL: Can
you please tell me what inspired "Speaking to Jingo-Man"
- LA:
In part, I can. I was getting pressure to back off a
story and I was not reacting well to the situation. I
had attempted to get advice from seasoned and highly
regarded journalists on how to handle such "pressure"
but they were not willing to discuss the topic and their
own experiences with that type of push back. I
understand now why they are reluctant and it has less to
do with fear of retribution than it does with no one
believing you. I know this is very general, but that is
the best I can do with regard to this "pressure." I was
very emotional in reacting to the situation, and in the
end, I did not back off the story, but I felt I had to
say something. Speaking to Jingo Man was my
response to that very stressful situation.
- JL: Do
you tend to feel inspired or write at certain times of
the day, or at certain times of the year? Summer, Autumn
months?
- LA:
No, not at all. I am odd. I suppose because I don't have
a prolific period or an inspired period. My poetry
writing is like a different animal from my other
writing. When I am reporting, I am led by curiosity,
compelled by it. And I am up against deadlines. But when
I am writing poetry, I am led, compelled by something
different than curiosity, although the questioning is at
its core the same, the process is quite different.
I know that when I have to write, I have to write.
But I cannot schedule it or look for inspiration in my
environment. I have tried that. It does not work. It
really is like a reflex more than it is a controlled
experience. With essays, and other non-fiction I am
closer to my poetry writing. But I always have to
go back and clean it all up, tweak it, correct and
adjust, stuff like that.
- In
short, I have no answer to what inspires me or when. I
know it is disappointing, but I really don't.
JL: How
important is your environment to you. In terms of the
writing process. Do you need a writers get away?
- LA:
While my environment does not inspire me necessarily, it
can stifle me. So I do need certain things. I need a
"room of my own" as it were, that has my things in it
just the way I like them. I am horribly anal about
certain things being in a certain order. So all of my
books are organized by genre and in alphabetical order.
All of my tea pots ( I collect tea pots, how exciting)
are set out in a pretty display. I have my cigarettes
and my coffee. That is about it. Really boring and
anal, but as long as I have my room and my certain
things arranged just so, I am good to go.
-
- JL: .Do
you listen to music when your write?
-
- LA: It
really depends on what I am writing and my mood really.
I cannot write articles to music or poetry to
music in general, because I actually listen to the music
and lose concentration. But again, it depends on my mood
and what it is that I am writing about.
- JL:
Do you prefer the writing process more, or seeing a
finished product?
-
- LA: I
hate the process. I wish I could take what I have in my
head and transfer it somehow in one swift gesture
or movement. I am incredibly impatient. I cannot stand
waiting for my edits to come back or waiting for
whatever it is I need at any particular time. I don't
like the process, because I think the thing is done
before we ever start writing. Like chess, it plays out
from first move to end game in my head. That said, while
I dislike the process, I think it is in the process
where we learn to polish our craft, expand our
abilities, flex our creative muscles.
- JL:
Do you tend to do a lot of re-writes, editing etc, or
seem to get it right at first?
-
- LA:
No one gets it right the first take. They can get it
close, but not right. I get the meat of it right the
first take, which is the full emotion behind it. the
editing is where again craft takes over, it is the
process. I think there are some poet's who got very
close to getting it right on the first take, like
Rimbaud, Emily Dickinson, Keats, for example. But I
don't think we will ever really know how much of the
writing went on their minds before they set out to do
the craft of writing.
- JL:
Have you ever wrote something and regretted it and
wished you could get it back to work on it some more?
-
- LA:
probably 90% of my work. It's hard to let go I think.
-
- JL: . Do
you have family members that also write poetry?
-
- LA:
No, I don't. Most of my family does not even read
poetry. But my father does and he loves the Russians
like Turgenev and Mayakovsky.
- JL: .
Who are some of your influences and what is one of your
all time favorite books of poetry?
-
- LA:
Nabokov is, for me, a god. His grasp of the language,
bet it English, Russian, or French is mind boggling. He
is not really a poet, but his technique, his
mastery of the metaphor structure, his ability to make
things visceral, are the tools of a great poet. I love
Anna Akhmatova, Edna St. Vicent Millay, Sexton, for
their distant emotions. Bukowski's gritty and aggressive
style is really quite seductive. Tsvetaeva breaks
my heart. I love Emily Dickinson, Rimbaud,
Mayakovsky, also. I could go on, but it would be a very
long list.
- Basically, I adore the Russians and really, the magical
realists. My favorite book of poetry, wow, that will be
hard. I would say Emily's Fascicle 18, which is not
really a book, more like a scrapbook, but it is
what it is. She sewed her poetry together in little
groups.
- JL:
How do these political times of war, impact your poetry?
-
- LA:
I don't think I will know until I look back at it. I can
say that I have been writing less because I am busy
reporting more. But outside of that, I don't know. I am
too close to things right now to really understand the
impact.
-
- JL:
Do you feel that poets have a social or even a moral
responsibility?
LA: Yes
they have a moral responsibility, but not a social one.
Society will take its direction from art sometimes and art
will sometimes be influenced by society. But there should
never be a social obligation. I am with the "art for art's
sake" school of opinion on this. Morally, however, which of
course depends on how one defines morality, is another
story. Some believe that "Beauty is truth, truth
beauty,—that is all/Ye know on earth, and all ye need to
know," (Keats) which I don't particularly agree with. Others
believe in going into the woods to live deliberately
(Thoreau), which is where I tend to fall, with the American
Romantics. But this is a very long discussion and perhaps
should be a book of some sort..
JL: Do you
think Donald Rumsfeld is a poet of some sort or could have
been inspired by Bob Dylan.
Bob Dylan
wrote, I was older then, I'm younger than that now"
Rumsfeld
quote
I would not say
that the future
is
necessarily less
predictable
than the past.
I think the past
was not
predictable
when it started.
LA: You are
comparing Dylan's ability to translate time with Rumsfeld's
need to mask time and confuse. Rumsfeld is simply trying not
to tell the truth by speaking in riddles, not poems. Dylan
is speaking of how life changes a person. Two different
things.
No. I don't
think someone can be a poet when they have such little
regard for the basics of craft, for creativity, for the
abilities of a human being. No, he is a murderer and while
murderer can be poets, of course, Rumsfeld's inability to
grasp structure, change, subtle differences, for example,
demonstrate why he is no poet. He is just a butcher, a
sloppy and arrogant butcher. But he is no poet.
JL: What about number 43. He said.
I think we are
welcomed.
But it was not
a peaceful
welcome.
--George W.
Bush, defending Vice President Dick Cheney's pre-war
assertion that the United States would be welcomed in Iraq
as liberators, NBC Nightly News interview, Dec. 12,
2005
LA: I
don't see basic language and merely speaking as poetry. It
is an opinion delivered with little creativity and craft. I
think it is probably more poetic to say "they will greet us
with flowers" but in the end, propaganda does not have
the moral imperative, nor does it work from an honest place.
It is in the nature of propaganda to distort, not
clarify; to close, not open. It is not natural or organic.
It is deliberate abuse of the tools of poetry. So in
general, no on most political talking points ring poetic to
me, even when they are honest, it seems merely a pep
talk.
JL: An
actors studio question? What is your favorite curse word?
LA:
Fuck.
JL: Are
you working on or thinking about writing a book of poetry at
the present or on any other special projects?
LA: I
am working on a book of poetry, but it is taking a good deal
of time because I am so focused on two other projects. I am
working on a book called "Odessa Mama", which is based on my
experiences living in and running from the Soviet Union. The
other book is a political thriller, if you can believe that.
Plus, I have not found a publisher yet for my book of poems,
and so I don't have the kick in the pants to finish it up.
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