Tales From The Darkmaas Side: The Interview

Have you ever read your poems aloud to others? Would you do a reading? Do you think reading one's poems aloud (to an audience or just alone) is useful and, if yes to that last one, why? :)
 
So you live in Kingston Ontario? I've actually passed through there, around ten years ago.

Is this where you poems are set? Not necessarily literally but in your imagination? And how much of these erotic encounters based on experience and how much is projection and fiction. Projection on people you've observed and you've entered their heads.

I do indeed.

Very interesting question. I hadn't actually thought too much about geographical locale. When I answered Desejo's question I only considered type of place. Let me get statistical and go and actually count the one's I've posted that were written in Kingston.

Drum roll. Only eight poems and one story. I don't know if this is significant or not. I travel a lot and I'm a sucker for an exotic locale.

They are all based to some degree on experience. Obviously there is some embellishment for effect or to make a point. (If you are asking if my erotic life is as varied and interesting as events described ... no.) Angeline pointed out my re-use of names and characters.These are fictional people sometimes based loosely on real people. Some of the poems of course are completely fictional.

A verbose non answer if ever there was one. We could have a long discussion about this but my belief is that there is no truth in poetry. The events get mangled first by the poet and then by the reader. That's what it's all about.We create an alternate reality in order to test our assumptions and beliefs about the "real" world (whatever that is). I've never met the Queen, but I use her mercilessly as a metaphor. Where's the truth in that?

Maybe when this interview is over we should pick this up again because it's (to me at least) a significant facet of writing.

::
 
Kingston is a wonderfully diverse place - a venerable university, large prison, a lake and all its varied life both recreational and industrial. Not to mention history. It is green for the most part with big, shady trees. As d'maas said, not too large and not too small. Great 2nd hand book stores - unless Chapters and Amazon killed them, and a hop skip jump to US border, if that's your thing. If I wasn't dug in here I'd choose there.

We touched on music but not the kind that gets your juices going, jazz? Classical? Pop? Or......?

I'm musically omnivorous. What juices are we talking about here? If you mean music to accompany a naked lady ... something without a lot of beat actually because you end up thumping to the beat rather than the moment. (No Bolero thanks.) Try this and see what I mean. Choral ensembles like say the Tallis Scholars. Some Jazz of course.

::
 
Have you ever read your poems aloud to others? Would you do a reading? Do you think reading one's poems aloud (to an audience or just alone) is useful and, if yes to that last one, why? :)

I don't but I probably should.

The poems are conceived on the screen - straight from head to fingers to symbols on a screen. I like how things look on screen and I suppose they should be enjoyed as such. However, I do recognize that I have a sloppiness regarding meter that would improve with reading aloud.

I probably wouldn't want to do a reading. For the most part, poetry today is transmitted as text not as performance. If you want to perform your poems then you have to treat them more as lyrics. You end up with a different poem.

::
 
I thought this question was unasked, is so pardon, can you describe the creative mood within your mind. Not the inspiration that brought the idea/compulsion to mind, but actual nuts and bolts of piecing together. Sounds funny as I read it back. :eek:
 
One day more!

darkmaas' interview, which for me has been a delightful (cause I love him) and educational (cause I learned stuff) experience, will end tomorrow. If you have more questions this would be the time to ask them. :)

darkmaas I'd like to know which poets, outside the forum, you consider your favorites now. Any reading you would recommend? Also what do you think is the best poem you've ever written and which is your favorite (maybe they are the same, maybe not).

And thank you for giving us so much of your time, which I know is limited. :rose:
 
I thought this question was unasked, is so pardon, can you describe the creative mood within your mind. Not the inspiration that brought the idea/compulsion to mind, but actual nuts and bolts of piecing together. Sounds funny as I read it back. :eek:

The nuts and bolts is a process. Mood is something else. My mood might drive the process. Is that what you mean?

Mood is driven by the pre-literate part of the brain. Creativity is a frontal lobe activity. Lizard brain versus human brain. Creative mood then is an awkward juxtaposition. Creativity is usually demanded by emotion (fear, anger, lust ...) or a basic unmet need (hunger, sex, physical deprivation, crisis ...). All lizard brain stuff. Basically the lizard calls up to the human and says "Hey Bub, we got a problem here that fight or flight isn't working for. How 'bout some help."

To be successfully creative it helps to flip easily between which part of your brain is dominant. I believe that doing so releases a lot of interesting brain chemistry that does generate a sort of creative mood. In my case, a sort of nervous euphoria when I'm "in the zone". I scare people when I'm there. I'm detached, calm, and outwardly in control.

Then the process part kicks in. Stuff happens. Your subconscious gets tapped. Odd connections get made. Suddenly you have a poem and not just clever stanzas. Magic.

Does that make sense?

::
 
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What is the difference between Craft and Art? a question from another thread; what's your take?
 
What is the difference between Craft and Art? a question from another thread; what's your take?

I'll channel my inner 12-0.

Read William Morris about "craftsmanship" then the preface to Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray".

Nothing new has been added to the debate since 1891.

::
 
darkmaas' interview, which for me has been a delightful (cause I love him) and educational (cause I learned stuff) experience, will end tomorrow. If you have more questions this would be the time to ask them. :)
Oh, hell.

Did I miss this? I won't be back until next week.
 
Oh, hell.

Did I miss this? I won't be back until next week.

Sowwy....

But the threads will still be here, just not stuck so you can still post and ask questions. Just might take the poets a little longer to get to them. :)
 
The nuts and bolts is a process. Mood is something else. My mood might drive the process. Is that what you mean?

Mood is driven by the pre-literate part of the brain. Creativity is a frontal lobe activity. Lizard brain versus human brain. Creative mood then is an awkward juxtaposition. Creativity is usually demanded by emotion (fear, anger, lust ...) or a basic unmet need (hunger, sex, physical deprivation, crisis ...). All lizard brain stuff. Basically the lizard calls up to the human and says "Hey Bub, we got a problem here that fight or flight isn't working for. How 'bout some help."

To be successfully creative it helps to flip easily between which part of your brain is dominant. I believe that doing so releases a lot of interesting brain chemistry that does generate a sort of creative mood. In my case, a sort of nervous euphoria when I'm "in the zone". I scare people when I'm there. I'm detached, calm, and outwardly in control.

Then the process part kicks in. Stuff happens. Your subconscious gets tapped. Odd connections get made. Suddenly you have a poem and not just clever stanzas. Magic.

Does that make sense?

::
now did you channel your 12-0
OR did 1201 channel you
they have started to do brain imaging on the process, that is the scary part, some of these things can be shown. Haven't kept up to date on this, last I remember is early work with PET, certainly something that is not an appropriate tool for everyday use, but odd connections get made, and are shown. Sorry for the interrupt.
 
darkmaas' interview, which for me has been a delightful (cause I love him) and educational (cause I learned stuff) experience, will end tomorrow. If you have more questions this would be the time to ask them. :)

darkmaas I'd like to know which poets, outside the forum, you consider your favorites now. Any reading you would recommend? Also what do you think is the best poem you've ever written and which is your favorite (maybe they are the same, maybe not).

And thank you for giving us so much of your time, which I know is limited. :rose:

Thank you Ange for "hosting" this shindig. You do a lot more work that it appears on the surface. I have to admit I actually enjoyed the experience.

I still return frequently tp Pessoa (who I met through this forum). Mostly I read less famous poets that I pick up on remainder tables. Ronna Bloom wrote a lovely book "Personal Effects" which cost me a mere $9 a few years ago. Debbie Urbanski, who is the co-owner of Boxcar Press used to post online but seems to have vanished. Maybe she will actually publish her own stuff. I buy anthologies of Asian contemporary poetry because it interests me. (I've given up on haiku. Too much is lost in conversion to roman type which compounds translation losses. It's a stupid form for English just as I am sure a limerick makes no sense as a form in Japanese).

I stated earlier that my favourite of my poems was "Etruscan Bones". It's been a week and I haven't changed my mind. I have no idea what my best poem is. You tell me!

::
 
now did you channel your 12-0
OR did 1201 channel you
they have started to do brain imaging on the process, that is the scary part, some of these things can be shown. Haven't kept up to date on this, last I remember is early work with PET, certainly something that is not an appropriate tool for everyday use, but odd connections get made, and are shown. Sorry for the interrupt.

Don't apologize. Brain function is a hobby/fetish of mine. Tell us more.
 
7 word autobiography

Just came across this and I now need to know yours. And yes, I will ask Butters and Tzara as well :)

7 words that you would use to introduce yourself.


See this link for more info and some great examples : 7 word Bios
 
And remember folks

just because a thread gets unstuck, doesn't mean you can't bump it back up with new questions.

Darkmaas, I have a feeling we'll be seeing more of this thread. That's a very good thing.

:rose:
 
Just came across this and I now need to know yours. And yes, I will ask Butters and Tzara as well :)

7 words that you would use to introduce yourself.


See this link for more info and some great examples : 7 word Bios

Literary persona of a guy named David.
 
Tristesse --Whoops! I was not around for your interview - so I spaced. Please consider yourself 7 word assigned.
 
I was elsewhere during this thread's life, is my excuse for being weeks too late on asking questions. So sue me.

I don't think anyone asked the question I most wanted to ask, which is--what's that name mean, darkmaas? Where the (expletive) did it come from?

And, if I'm ever in your city, I'd love to buy you too many drinks and send you home in a taxi.

Because poets don't let poets versify drunk. Or they shouldn't, anyway.
 
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