Aaron Belz lives in St. Louis where he curates Readings @ The Contemporary (formerly Readings @ City Museum) and teaches high school English. His poems have appeared in Boston Review, Fine Madness, Fence, and many other places. See some work here, here, here and here. 1. What is the first poem you ever loved? Why? Lance, I'll be honest, the first poem I ever loved was "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," which I encountered in an 11th grade English class at Stony Brook School. I loved it because it was an invitation to go somewhere foggy and to have random associative memories there. This defines the basic movement of my own poetry as well as that of my later hero, John Ashbery. 2. What is something/someone non-“literary” you read which may surprise your peers/colleagues? Why do you read it/them? I read "Consumer Reports" magazine, because I am a little bit addicted to the way it rates goods and services according to set criteria. It also contextualizes goods and services in ranges of similar products, thereby disempowering brand identities, which in other contexts (prime time television advertising, for instance) are dominant. Finally, it visually displays quantitative information in a way that pleases the brain. The letters to the editor are not so bad either. It seems imperative, in a capitalist culture, that there be some independent, objective assessment of goods and services. 3. How important is philosophy to your writing? Why? Philosophy is incredibly important to my writing, especially as it relates to (a) God and (b) temporality. We don't pay enough attention to the future in our current poetics. I often work through a series of propositions and contemplate possible conclusions, sometimes twining multiple possible conclusions. Nietszche, Hegel, Kant, and Leibniz, have all influenced my thinking in these regards. Bas Fraassen is also helpful, though he is very hard to understand. I think that I would love the book _Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid_, though I have never found time to read it. 4. Who are some of your favorite non-Anglo-American writers? Why? Easy: Cesar Vallejo; the Apostle Paul; King David; all those Chinese poets translated by Arthur Waley at the beginning of the 20th century; Woody Allen; and James Baldwin. If there were one reason that these writers are some of my favorites, it is because they talk directly about God and eternity. They don't seem to be as wrapped up in making beautiful texts as they are in getting at the Truth. 5. Do you read a lot of poetry? If so, how important is it to your writing? I read new books and poems by my friends. I also read a lot of "canonical" poetry, because I am a high school teacher, and such is my lot. I don't find reading a lot of poetry to be terribly important to my writing, because most of the time I feel that I'm passing over the same ground again and again. Sometimes, however, in the middle of a new poem - or perhaps something by Thomas Hardy or Edward Taylor - I feel as though I'm falling off the edge of a cliff. The one poet whose work I can read again and again without failing to discover something new is Robert Frost. 6. What is something which your peers/colleagues may assume you’ve read but haven’t? Why haven’t you? I haven't read any Milton. I just can't stand the guy. 7. How would you explain what a poem is to my seven year old? I would say that a poem is a piece of writing that is important both because it is especially beautiful and because it is especially true. It's a balance. You don't want to fall into the slough of Bunyan, who wrote _Pilgrim's Progress_, nor do you want to end up like Ginsberg, who admitted, "If I had a soul, I sold it for pretty words." 8. Do you believe in a Role for the Poet? If so, how does it differ from the Role of the Citizen? If there is a role for the poet, it is to observe, listen, think, and nap. Later, maybe he should say something, but I believe he should say very little. 9. Word associations (the first word which comes to mind; be honest): Lemon**ice Chiseled**ice I**thou Of**or Form**substance 10. What is the relationship between the text and the body in your writing? The text is public; the body is private. That is a paradigm that has been abandoned in postmodern literature, and I wish there were a way to get back to it. I keep thinking of Noah, who "planted a vineyard; and he drank of the wine, and became drunk, and lay uncovered in his tent." This display eventually lead to the curse of Canaan.