Kate Greenstreet paints and writes. She lives in New Jersey, she works as a graphic designer. EtherDome Press is publishing her chapbook, Learning the Language, this summer (2005). Her first full-length collection will be out from Ahsahta Press in 2006. Buy her chapbook here. See some work here, here, here, here, and here. 1. What is the first poem you ever loved? Why? Growing up, I was always reading, and I collected lines: sentences and phrases stayed in my head, or I wrote them down. Sometimes I'd group them, as if they were speaking to each other. I can't remember reading poetry until I started high school, then it was pretty much the same thing. I loved lines of Tennyson, and later Dylan Thomas, cummings, Eliot. The first poem I remember loving in its entirety was Frank O'Hara's "Why I Am Not A Painter." I liked its style, and its humor. It showed me a whole new way a poem could be: like talking (really), with rhythm. And it seemed to be describing a new world that I might someday enter. 2. What is something/someone non-“literary” you read which may surprise your peers/colleagues? Why do you read it/them? I tend to be reading whatever I need to read to learn what I'm trying to do next (Understanding Electricity, or Trees of North America). I read a lot of software manuals. At the moment (early May), seed catalogs. I also read on subjects that have shown up unbidden in my writing, to find out more--most recently Bridges by Judith Dupre. 3. How important is philosophy to your writing? Why? Well, certain philosophers were formative--in particular, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Buber. Also Emerson and Thoreau. Buddhist philosophy has been an influence on the way I look at things (like, there might not be a God but just grow up). I'm not intellectual but I'm attracted to thinking. Writing is a way I can engage with the basic questions "Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?" (to quote that old philosopher Gauguin). 4. Who are some of your favorite non-Anglo-American writers? Why? Rilke, Dostoevsky, Kafka, Camus, Transtromer, Sonnevi, and Baraka have each been crucial. For the past year or so, I've been especially moved by Jaime Saenz and Erin Moure. When I ask myself why these (or other) writers are favorites, I think of something C.D. Wright said, that some of us read and write "to be changed, healed, charged." 5. Do you read a lot of poetry? If so, how important is it to your writing? Depends on how you'd define a lot. I read poetry every day, certainly. Right now mostly contemporary poetry. I think of art as a conversation, and of reading as the vital other side of writing--what allows it to be an exchange. 6. What is something which your peers/colleagues may assume you’ve read but haven’t? Why haven’t you? There are so many I haven't read yet, or haven't read thoroughly. On my current list: Hannah Arendt, Jackson Mac Low, Hannah Weiner, Nicole Brossard. 7. How would you explain what a poem is to my seven year old? I'd say that making up a poem is a way to share a secret without telling it. 8. Do you believe in a Role for the Poet? If so, how does it differ from the Role of the Citizen? In my experience, poetry seems to be in the air between us. I think our task as humans--not obligation but natural desire--is to find ways to connect with and support one another, bridging what separates us. I see poetry, regardless of style, as having that capability. 9. Word associations (the first word which comes to mind; be honest): Lemon**ice Chiseled**fleeced I**confess Of**the people Form**aggregate 10. What is the relationship between the text and the body in your writing? My writing process is a combination of listening and speaking while moving text around until I hear what I'm listening for. Since breath is, for me, a poem's primary vehicle, text and body are inseparable. I read an essay today by R. Bruce Elder. He said this: "The thinking that makes art belongs to the flesh. That is what spares art from being self-expression... The poetic principle is prior to all reflection, including self-reflection... The flesh is one; all flesh is the same flesh..."