Photo taken by Greg Fuchs. Edmund Berrigan lives and works in New York City. He is the author of Disarming Matter from Owl Press, 1999; and most recently Your Cheatin' Heart, from furniture press. Buy his book here. See an interview about songwriting here. See some work here, here and here. 1. What is the first poem you ever loved? Why? The Hand that Signed the Paper by Dylan Thomas stands out. It was from the first book of poetry I ever bought, when I was 16. Though it was the abstract gibberish of Thomas that truly attracted me, this was an anti war poem (Gulf War I was playing in theaters), and surreal while still rooted in its subject (floating hands signing treaties that bred famine and locusts). & it had a refrain, and was easy to memorize, so it was also the first poem I memorized and tortured my friends with. 2. What is something/someone non-“literary” you read which may surprise your peers/colleagues? Why do you read it/them? I read Chemical Week magazine every week because I get paid to. Here are some choice quotes: * “Certainly we are looking at bacterial productivity as a major opportunity,” van Hoorn says. * EPA dismissed the concerns about hermaphrodite frogs on grounds that hormone disruption cannot be used to restrict a chemical, because the government has no officially sanctioned test for measuring such disruption. * PTT says it will combine TOC with BPE if it decides not to go ahead with the NPC-TOC merger. 3. How important is philosophy to your writing? Why? I work on a word-to-word basis, and prefer collage to philosophy. 4. Who are some of your favorite non-Anglo-American writers? Why? I don’t like this question, it makes me feel like I’m pitting my friends against each other, and I try not to play favorites anymore anyway. And also I don’t relate to the word Anglo, it makes me feel like a clown. 5. Do you read a lot of poetry? If so, how important is it to your writing? I read a lot of poetry indeed, and listen to just as much at readings. I obstinately compare my writing to everyone else’s with mixed results. I love to know what people are doing, but if I think too much about it I start to feel lost, etc. Reading my own poetry has quite an impact on my writing. 6. What is something which your peers/colleagues may assume you’ve read but haven’t? Why haven’t you? My friends shouldn’t make assumptions about me. 7. How would you explain what a poem is to my seven year old? I assume the kid already knows, and I would probably ask the kid to explain it to me. If the kid seemed to be missing anything, I’d ask the kid some questions, but all definitions and explaining would be up to the kid. 8. Do you believe in a Role for the Poet? If so, how does it differ from the Role of the Citizen? I only believe in me and Yoko. 9. Word associations (the first word which comes to mind; be honest): Lemon**Grass Chiseled**Salon I**Potato Of**When Form**of ice bucket 10. What is the relationship between the text and the body in your writing? There is no text and the body is hungry.