Ray Bianchi, is a native of Suburban Chicago, the child of Italian immigrants, educated at the University of Iowa. Ray Lived and worked for most of the 1990's in Bolivia and Brazil in Bolivia in a men's prison and in Brazil in international business and publishing. He is married the Brazilian artist Waltraud Haas, His work has appeared in Tin Lustre Mobile, Moria, Poesia y Cultura, The Economist, Moria, Antennae, Red River Review, Fiera di Lingue,Ray is also editor of www.chicagopostmodernpoetry.com he is the author of a chapbook, The Suburban Manifesto and his first book Circular Descent is available from Blazevox press. Buy his book here. See some work here, here, here and here. 1. What is the first poem you ever loved? Why? I would have to say it was Song of Myself by Whitman. I come from an 'ethnic' family my parents are immigrants from Italy and the sense of having a short history in this country is profound for us but when I read Song at age 15 I was moved and I identified with it totally. It made me feel American for the first time. 2. What is something/someone non-“literary” you read which may surprise your peers/colleagues? Why do you read it/them? I read allot of Political Biographies especially about politically incorrect figures, Hitler, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Daley I find the inner workings of their lives interesting and I love to read about their formation as people. I also read allot of sports books, baseball in particular I love books by Roger Angell and others who bring the game out and make it read for people. 3. How important is philosophy to your writing? Why? I guess it is important. I come out of a tradition politically that is strong outside the US an not so much here that is one of the Catholic left best embodied here in the USA by Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton and more recently by Michael Moore the filmmaker. These sets of ideas make advocacy for the poor, the developing world, and outcast as central to my poetic project. I do not do this directly my work is never overtly political but I like to challenge the comfortable be they the hypocrites within my Church who oppose Gay Marriage but allow pedophilia or people who say they are for freedom but only a freedom that is comfortable. Regarding pure philosophy, you know Heidegger et cetera this has never moved me too much but it does give some fodder for thinking. 4. Who are some of your favorite non-Anglo-American writers? Why? Wow, what a question I tend to read mostly non American and non English speaking writers here is my list; Eugenio Montale, Italian he is a wonderful lyricist and someone who crafts each letter of each word in the poem his work is like a fine meal. Guiseppe Ungaretti, Italian but he lived in Brazil for a long time his short poems are really great. Pablo Neruda, of course he is the greatest poet in any language from the 20th century. Paulo Leminski, Brazilian, what a wonderful poet his work in Portuguese is infused with wonder and is well written I really love his work. Ana Belen Lopez, Mexican, she was recently anthologized in Sin Puertas Visibles from Jen Hofer, her work is domestic and revolutionary in the same poem. There are many others, Umberto Saba, Cesar Vallejo, Carlos Drummond De Andrade, Anna Akmatova, that I love as well. 5. Do you read a lot of poetry? If so, how important is it to your writing? Yes I love poetry as I am a poet but I tend to read through one writer at a time, I just reread Olson and Zukofsky as I am working on a new book and Olson along with Pound are lodestars for me. Reading poetry is essential to my writing my work sits on the shoulders of giants. 6. What is something which your peers/colleagues may assume you’ve read but haven’t? Why haven’t you? Shakespeare, I have read some but not allot I just find it boring I would rather read Cervantes or Dante or other Renaissance writing I find English writing in general and Shakespeare in particular a bore. 7. How would you explain what a poem is to my seven year old? A poem is like pure lemon juice, without sugar or water, strong and pure Fiction is Seven Up, watered down and added to reducing the flavor. 8. Do you believe in a Role for the Poet? If so, how does it differ from the Role of the Citizen? To be a public intellectual and to challenge the system prophetically to do more that criticize but to create an intellectual challenge to injustice and oppression and to open up new ways of thinking about life by using words and language. We are all citizens we should all vote and protest but a poet is called to do more. 9. Word associations (the first word which comes to mind; be honest): Lemon**Lake Garda Chiseled**Dante I**Fat Of**Beach Form**Cake 10. What is the relationship between the text and the body in your writing? Very little although of late I have been writing poems on Sexuality which is new for me the fact is that I am not comfortable with the physical this may be a vestigal from my time considering being a priest I find that the body is separate from what I am intellectually and this is bad I think but it is a dichotomy I live with now.