Christopher Luna is an editor, journalist, and performer with an MFA in Writing and Poetics from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. His articles and criticism have appeared in Rain Taxi Review of Books, the Oregonian, the Willamette Week, Current Biography, and the Boulder Planet. His poetry has appeared in publications including eye-rhyme, Gare du Nord, Exquisite Corpse, the Babylon Review, Many Mountains Moving, the @tached document, For Immediate Release, and Big Scream. Luna has collaborated with musicians including Dystopia One, Pimpcore, Liquid Logic, Piltdown Man, Vole, and Steven Taylor. He is the author of Literal Motion (Bootstrap Press, 2000), which features three interviews with the filmmaker Stan Brakhage, and is currently editing the selected correspondence of Stan Brakhage and Michael McClure. He is a freelance writer and editor who is looking for work. See some of his work here, here, here, here, here, here and here. Read some of his reviews here, here, here, here, here and here. 1. What is the first poem you ever loved? Why? "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost. Because it provided my teenage self with a glimpse of a possible future in which I chose my path in life rather than it being chosen for me. 2. What is something/someone non-“literary” you read which may surprise your peers/colleagues? Why do you read it/them? I read "Vibe" magazine because it contains well-written pieces on hip-hop, politics, and culture, and never forgets to give props to rock-and-roll (my first love). 3. How important is philosophy to your writing? Why? Philosophy is not necessarily an element, but since I believe that all that we can perceive through our senses is potential material, individual philosophers or philosophical ideas may enter into the work. 4. Who are some of your favorite non-Anglo-American writers? Why? I love Amiri Baraka for his unrelenting attempts to speak truth to power, and his unwillingness to apologize for being angry. I also believe that he is the best jazz poet of all time. I love Toni Morrison for consistently blowing my mind. I don't believe I will really be able to say that I have read her books until I have re-read each one 2-3 more times. I also enjoy reading Sherman Alexie, Frank Chin, Langston Hughes, Bob Kaufman, Akilah Oliver, Harryette Mullen, and Nikki Giovanni. 5. Do you read a lot of poetry? If so, how important is it to your writing? I read poetry as much as possible. It is extremely important to my own poetry, because it inspires me to live, and to write, and because it reminds me of how much more work I have to do. 6. What is something which your peers/colleagues may assume you’ve read but haven’t? Why haven’t you? I haven't read Dante because I tried on two occasions and just wasn't feeling it. 7. How would you explain what a poem is to my seven year old? I would tell your child that a poem uses words to remind people of people, places, and things that they may have missed because they were too busy or sad to notice. 8. Do you believe in a Role for the Poet? If so, how does it differ from the Role of the Citizen? I believe that the poet has a role to address all that he/she senses. For some, this includes world events. But I don't believe that a writer has to be explicit about his/her opinions in order for the work to be political. I wish that more poets took their potential to educate and stir the hearts of their readers more seriously. Just because poetry remains a relatively obscure discipline does not mean that our words have no affect on those who read them. And I would hope that all citizens feel sufficiently moved at some point in their lifetime to become more involved in their communities, because every little bit helps. Nearly all of the revolutionary icons whom people admire (and feel frustratingly inferior to) began by attempting to change the reality in their neighborhood. 9. Word associations (the first word which comes to mind; be honest): Lemon**Meringue Chiseled**Chin I**and I Of**It Form**follows Content 10. What is the relationship between the text and the body in your writing? In my case, the relationship between the breath and the line is important. For example, I often write prose poems which are formatted into thin columns like newspaper texts. Much of my writing is an attempt to transcribe the constant chatter of the mind, but in the case of these prose poems, the shape of them indicates that they are to be read aloud as fast as possible. Think Frank Capra or Tom Raworth. For this reason, those poems that allow more space feel freer (more open to improvisation in performance) and sometimes slower to me.