Larry Sawyer is a poet who edits www.milkmag.org with his wife Lina ramona Vitkauskas. He's published poetry and critical reviews in magazines such as Exquisite Corpse, Moria, Tabacaria (Portugal), Hunger, Paper Tiger (Australia), The Prague Literary Review, Big Bridge, Skanky Possum, Cipher Journal, Unpleasant Event Schedule, 5_Trope, WORD/for Word, Versal (Holland), Van Gogh's Ear (France), Jacket (Australia), Rain Taxi, The East Village, and elsewhere. Chapbooks include Poems for Peace (anthology, Structum Press) and A Chaise Lounge in Hell (aboveground press, Ontario, Canada) See some work here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. 1. What is the first poem you ever loved? Why? I had a high school English teacher who led a discussion about “The Windhover” by Hopkins that really produced a sort of revelation about the possibilities of poetry opening up before me, because after that particular description and discussion of the poem I felt I could literally “see” what was being described in a poem for nearly the first time, i.e., words enacting an event rather than simply describing an event. I wouldn’t say I love that poem, but it served a valuable purpose. To a lesser extent, consider Ginsberg’s phrase “boxcars, boxcars, boxcars” from “Howl” or Aram Saroyan’s one-word poem “lightght”. There’s brilliance all around us. Words became objects in themselves. It was a pivotal moment for me, but I’d also had an ongoing infatuation with the work (and even the persona) of Arthur Rimbaud and felt like “Une Saison en Enfer” had opened up another world to me, although one could make the case that this particular “poem” is actually incendiary prose. 2. What is something/someone non-“literary” you read which may surprise your peers/colleagues? Why do you read it/them? Everything I read ends up in some repository of the psyche and comes to the fore when I write, so I guess I consider it all to be “literary” in a sense. I obsess over the news media like many others I suppose and pour over all the trash tabloids when standing in the check-out lane at the grocery store, which makes me feel like I’m amiable alien for a few minutes. I doubt if anyone I know cares what I read literary or otherwise. I do think mining nonliterary sources for gems is important--at least I find it necessary. Sometimes you have to get your head out of the water and check to see if the people on the beach are still there. 3. How important is philosophy to your writing? Why? I should mention my short attention span for anything that seems incredibly obtuse. Philosophy has been important to me but not so important to the writing of my poetry. I remember reading Nietzsche early on and being attracted to some of his ideas and then sort of becoming repelled by them later. I’d say that I work through my own personal, idiosyncratic philosophical “problems” in my writing, but I don’t have some conscious modus operandi to which I adhere. All philosophies seem valid from my standpoint, as do all religions. 4. Who are some of your favorite non-Anglo-American writers? Why? That list would be very long and would have to include Paul Celan, Guillaume Apollinaire, Max Jacob, Jorge Luis Borges, Andre Breton. Certainly also Homer, Li Po, Mayakovsky, Tsvetaeva, Lorca, Huidobro, Vallejo-- there must be a million others. Senghor and Cesaire are huge stalagmites in the cave of poetry. These are just some of the poets whose works really detonated in my consciousness. That’s a tough question to answer. It seemed to me early on that these poets have a breadth and depth of imagination that is astounding. I haven’t read enough Chinese and Japanese poets. I admire Yamamoto Kansuke immensely. Look him up. I read all the aforementioned in translation and because of that there’s the distinct possibility that I therefore missed the “poetry” of those works entirely! I do think the rushed foreplay of the best available translation is rather better than stark nothing. 5. Do you read a lot of poetry? If so, how important is it to your writing? I edit a literary magazine with my wife and end up reading at least some poetry everyday. Some of what I receive in the mail is bad writing of course but a lot is good. I tend to reread quite a bit to try to reduce the interference that my own particular mood may produce. In other words I trust myself, but I still make instinctual decisions. Beyond what I receive as submissions for www.milkmag.org, my online poetry magazine, I’m always caught reading whatever poet has inflamed my imagination at any given moment. I’m usually reading a few different books nearly simultaneously--depending on my interest level. Reading poetry keeps me here among the living! 6. What is something which your peers/colleagues may assume you’ve read but haven’t? Why haven’t you? I never read Pound’s Cantos. I never read Zukofsky’s “A,” although I read a very interesting book about the writing of “A.” I can’t stand Auden. There, I said it. I simply haven’t gotten around to reading those works. Also, it’s somewhat of a turn-off to need a skeleton key to enter a work and really “get it.” That’s not to say that something needs to be “gotten” at first reading, however. I’m currently reading Hebdomeros, by De Chirico and that’s not something that has any real, or literal, meaning. I guess one has to consider the artist’s intent; then reconsider, and reconsider, and reconsider … I don’t know if anyone would make any assumptions about anything I have or haven’t read. I guess I become interested in some key player and then end up reading about the whole crew eventually. For instance, someone turned me on to Frank O’Hara a long time ago, which led to my “discovery” of Kenneth Koch, John Ashbery, Barbara Guest, James Schuyler, then Berrigan, Padgett, Joe Brainard, Jim Carroll, etc. 7. How would you explain what a poem is to my seven year old? I’d simply point to the sky. 8. Do you believe in a Role for the Poet? If so, how does it differ from the Role of the Citizen? No, nope, never. 9. Word associations (the first word which comes to mind; be honest): Lemon**heads Chiseled**torso I**Ching Of**course Form**less 10. What is the relationship between the text and the body in your writing? I want my poetry to have a physical presence.