Dana Ward is the editor of Cy Press, & he lives in Cincinnati, Oh. He is the author of Standards(Sea.Lamb.Press, 2004), the Imaginary Lives of My Neighbors (Duration, 2003), & I Didn't Build This Machine (Boog Literature, 2004) Recent work is out or forthcoming in the Tiny, Bird Dog, Aufgabe, Dusie, the Hat, & elsewhere. Buy his books here and here. See some work here and here. 1. What is the first poem you ever loved? Why? Howl, at around the age of fifteen. It read, & still reads like, the ultimate survival quest for the imagination. It details so movingly the nature & threat of the bureaucratic/militaristic real, that modern inferno. 2. What is something/someone non-“literary” you read which may surprise your peers/colleagues? Why do you read it/them? I work in a hotel gift shop which sells a tremendous amount of periodicals. Each Monday I begin with the New Yorker then proceed through the racks, & by Thursday I've worked my way through to reading the last couple of pages of Star, a really delicious tabloid by the way, esp. in its new glossy format. I read sports books, biographies of all sorts. I can not be reading something at any moment when not otherwise preoccupied. 3. How important is philosophy to your writing? Why? "Ideas" are central to my poetry. & Since philosophy, theory, etc are made of ideas (& words. I know, I know OK?), I would say philosophy is deeply important to what I do. Though I wouldn't say I privilege it over any other source of ideas, or any other place to experience new ones. 4. Who are some of your favorite non-Anglo-American writers? Why? Madnelshtam, Shlovsky, Weil, Kroptokin, Montale, N.Sarruthe, Jabes,Pessoa,Cendrars, Pasolini. . .the list could go on forever. In fact, the writers mentioned are just those I've been thinking a lot about the past six months or so. There's tons & tons more. & so many more to come. 5. Do you read a lot of poetry? If so, how important is it to your writing? O god, tons, as much as possible, everything. Its compulsive, and fundamental to my relationship with “the world” at large. 6. What is something which your peers/colleagues may assume you’ve read but haven’t? Why haven’t you? Umm. . .Proust, sadly. But I can't wait to read it! 7. How would you explain what a poem is to my seven year old? A kind of talking song where it’s ok to do all kinds of things you wouldn't do otherwise with words. 8. Do you believe in a Role for the Poet? If so, how does it differ from the Role of the Citizen? The role of the Poet & the role of the Citizen are the same: to hate all forms of oppression splendidly, & communicate & act on this how best one sees fit. That sounds really pat so get back to me on this one, ok? I still wonder about this a lot, & when being so concise about something so complex, I tend not to trust myself. 9. Word associations (the first word which comes to mind; be honest): Lemon**lemonade Chiseled**dudes I**party Of**course Form**formula 10. What is the relationship between the text and the body in your writing? I think a lot about exhaustion, how that feels, & how it impacts thinking & singing. Obviously the body is a site through which much oppression is formulated, & also a source of great joy & pleasure. I think about the tension of those things a lot.