Blowback magazine online 34 Questions
Tom Harding
1. Why do you write poetry?
I wrote poems to my girlfriend. I used to send them to her
at work. Then I wrote too many for her to read but I kept
going out of some weird desperation. It became therapy, it
burns up allot of evenings of useless energy.
I wanted to be a philosopher really or a carpenter. The
happy medium to it all is poetry.
2. What audience do you hope to reach in
Your poems, if any?
I’m happy to have any audience. It occurs to me people
who have reacted kindly are people of a similar disposition
to me. It’s like the Leonard Cohen poem,
‘I learned to write/ what might be read/ on nights like this/
by one like me.’
3. Is it important for you to one day achieve
Poetic fame, or win prizes of any variety?
No.
4. If you said no to the above question, is
That really the truth?
No. Well… that's ticklish. I don’t panic over a reasonable
response. This is the contradiction allot of people get tied
up in. Poetry gives you the elasticity to handle that. Like
Keats’ Negative Capability, or Walt Whitman’s ‘Vast
Multitudes’. You can have desires and be equally disgusted
by them.
Poetry, writing, art can often be a plea. So an answered
plea is highly attractive. That doesn’t transfer to awards
though, that seems murky to me. They give awards for
almost everything that’s useless, usually several times a
year.
I once had one about this, but it came out badly because it’
s not easy to write straight about contempt. It ended, ‘they
cut men to pieces and fold them into prisons and those
who shrink this knowledge best accept awards.’
5. How significant is poetry in the world
Today in your opinion?
In the world I know it’s about as significant as flower
arranging. Then to be influential in this world you’ve got to
be pretty crude. I wouldn’t wish it on poetry.
6. Does poetry have any impact in the
World beyond tiny little pleasures to
The few that read it?
Probably not but you can’t underestimate that impact on
the individual. You can read it like people read a
newspaper. It gives a broader perspective, you don’t have
to get disposed on events and trends, ‘What has been will
be again, what has been done will be done again; there is
nothing new under the sun.’ Poetry follows this line.
I don’t know if it could ever be used again for social
defection. Not in this culture, maybe I’m not mixing in the
right circles.
7. If you think poetry has tiny impact in
The world, do you think that could ever
Go beyond a kind of elitist/underground/
Hallmark silly populist prism it exists in now?
Not from what I’ve seen. Its like placing flowers in the
corner of a vast hall- there are more gaudy alternatives
than ever. I just don’t think this is the time for it.
8. Do you think it is important to write
Frequently or only when in the mood?
Frequently. I like the Ginsberg line, ‘I wont write my poem
until I’m in my right mind’ But I can’t wait for that so I
write all the time.
9. How do you go about determining if
Your poetry is any good?
It’s hard. Often I can’t. There is a very small period when
the poetry is still malleable. But it’s a race. It’s like
working with clay that hardens as you mould it. ‘In the
heat and hand of the work yard.’ If I read a line three times
over its quality is lost to me. It seems inalterable- you
either get happy with it or its left only for the smashing.
It’s all about keeping a good validity of judgement.
Rereading diminishes this; it’s like a fading flashlight.
Almost inevitably the poems of mine I like are the ones
that come out easily. I can’t really tell if they’re actually
the best or not.
10. How often do you ask somebody else
To give you a reaction to your poetry?
Almost never. I put it out there, up on my site or send it
off. What reaction comes back comes back. The rest is
lost in space.
11. If you do solicit an opinion is it
Other poets, critics, teachers, friends,
Or someone else you seek?
I don't really ask anyone. I do with longer work but not
poetry. I like to get it out. Afterwards people will
sometimes come to me and say they’ve read something
they like. Friends, my brother, my girlfriend, people of
discretion and sincerity. People who know how to not hurt
my feelings.
12. How often do you go back and edit
Your poetry?
I don’t. When I go back it’s mostly immoveable. I may swap
a word or too, but not often. I only go back to change
spelling and grammar which is the bane of my writing.
13. How often do you go back and read
A poem you have written and think
Either this is really great or this is
Terrible?
Well the first time you go back is just as important. The
cold light of morning. It’s usually a pretty shocking time. If
from ten pages of rubbish I can garner ten good lines then I’
m increasingly happy with that.
14. How did you first get exposed to
Poetry and what prompted you to
Delve more deeply into it?
I studied Seamus Heaney at school and though I generally
end up hating most things I study, two of his poems
managed to break through and stay with me, The Skunk
and The Guttural Muse. There still very important poems to
me.
Later I moved to London and my brother gave me
Bukowski’s Roominghouse Madrigals, which was a
typically seminal moment.
Music helped shoehorn me further. Bob Dylan, Leonard
Cohen. Learning what people I liked, liked. Dylan takes you
many places, Rimbaud, Keats, Ginsberg. Cohen another
way, Garcia Lorca, Irving Layton.
It’s like going down the rabbit hole. There’s stopping
points all the way. Someone like Ginsberg opens
everything up. It becomes a deluge. I’m still learning and
reading. At the moment it’s Kenneth Patchen.
15. Did you ever take formal courses
Of poetry or literature and what
Was your thoughts on how this
Impacted you?
No. I studied script writing. Which was all about narrative
purpose and allot of lies. Characters had to change and
every moment of the script had to have purpose to advance
the story. It was exactly the opposite of what I wanted to
do, and the contrary of what poetry could offer. Even the
best realist narrative is like science fiction to me. There’s
nothing incidental and everything I wanted to talk about
was incidental. It didn’t seem to convey the edgy
frustration of things. The screams down the corridor. I
liked Jean Luc Godard.
It’s the kind of narrative that has hijacked allot of populist
thinking. It’s built on an obsession with character and
change. In my experience people don’t change, or if they
do it’s twisted and strange and people don’t know about it.
‘There’s no beginning or end, just an erring middle.’ Poetry
is all about the erring middle.
Really I was too young to know what it meant. People
where generally preoccupied with there own messes to
worry about anyone else’s. On the plus side it gave me
time to myself and access to a good library.
I’ve ruined too many things I like by studying them and
getting involved up to the elbows. I don’t want poetry gong
the same way.
16. Do you think it is important to
Independently study poetry outside
Of any formal context?
Yes. Studying poetry can only teach you the tricks, you can
replicate the mechanics, strip it down, put it back but it
wont put the ghost in the machine.
What’s important is to have that time, time to learn and
read. I’m lucky to have that time. Were all lucky to live on
the winning sides. ‘I prefer the rule of our native killer
because there better than the rest.’ We live on the winning
team, we take the reward but we have to shoulder the
burden. It’s like writing war letters home from the
perpetrators side. It’s our duty to comment on the
atrocities.
17. Do you think it is important for a
Poet to have a wide knowledge of
The history of poetry?
It's horrible to put rules on anything but I think most good
poets have a love for poetry anyway. It’s like sportsman or
anything. At a certain level you want that grasp of heritage.
There are many alternate histories you can take though.
18. Do you think that it is important
To read contemporary poetry and
If you do, how much contemporary
Poetry do you actually read?
It’s hard to know what that is- less rhyming couplets and
exclamation marks. Contemporary to me is Frank O’Hara,
Robinson Jeffers. I think a person could stumble on a good
modernist style by reading, aping and trial and error but it
doesn’t mean you have the ideas to flesh a poem like ‘Be
Angry At The Sun’. Ideas and philosophies are what are
important to me.
19. How many poets actually bother to
Read poems other than their own
At websites they are posted on?
(editor comment, site statistics
heavily indicate a pattern of
Egocentric poet viewing habits)
It’s depressing. I’m as guilty as any. Sometimes it gets to
painful to immerse yourself with all the other SOS signals.
But I like poetry by unsuccessful writers. Artists get allot
more forgiving on the world when they find success. They
let the establishment from the noose. That’s why I like e-
zines and writers first works. Writing when the audience is
still a bare wall.
20. Do you think the poetry world has
Been tribalized between academic
And non academic worlds that do
Not frequently intersect?
I don’t believe peoples reading habits are that way. It’s
very easy for a person of any sense to move between
Auden to Byron to Bukowksi to anywhere but it's perhaps a
problem for some publishers to put it on the same page. I
don’t know. I’m self-taught. I don’t have many friends who
are poets; I don’t talk to poetry people. I’m sensing there is
a fractured scene out there; it’s like flashing up parts of
the monster with a torch. I couldn’t give you an idea of the
whole beast.
Really, I don’t talk about poetry to allot of people. My
learning has been a trail in the dark but I’m surprised how
locked up everything is.
21. Do you believe that academic poets
And institutions tend to have a superiority complex
Relating to outsiders?
Yes, though I have no proof or evidence! I don’t know,
some do and some don’t. To me it’s seems no different to
any other delicate scene. Allot of energy is taken up in self-
protection. Their keeping their pastures green. Some of it’s
to be expected. You have a similar hustle with jazz. It can
be like the Brinks job getting in. Styles and forms, little
explanation. It gets clandestine. It’s like putting a ‘No
Trespassers Sign’ On the door. That’s why they don’t like
people like Bukowski or Bob Dylan, they let people in the
back door.
22. Do “insider” “little circle” “asskisser”
“flatter my back, I’ll flatter yours”
Networks exist in the poetry world and
How negative a truth is it if so?
Well, what I dislike is all this CV building. Saying you’ve
been published ‘here’ to get it in ‘there.’ These are things
that I ran away from in my real life. It’s the formality and
procedure of the real world. It all goes down sideways.
Spending time trying to appeal to myopic tastes,
formatting poems to specific need, selling yourself, the
artist as a showman. It’s all a million miles from that
primary feeling that has you sitting down at the desk to
write the thing in the first place.
23. Is a creative writing degree necessary
To write poetry that could be historically
Significant?
No! Then again it depends on whose writing the history
books, so probably yes.
24. Are the undergraduate/graduate creative
Writing programs mostly a business
Enterprise to make money for educational
Institutions or are they an oasis for
Creativity and vital for making future poets?
There’s nothings left that’s isn’t business. I think self-
education is vastly more important, reading as much as
you can, trying to get as much time to yourself as you can.
Trying to not turn weird in the process.
Things are kind of disgusting, Its very grim, people are
mostly lost. It’s like getting stuck in a ditch. Education is
strange anyway; I always thought they should teach
philosophy and humility in the schools.
I imagine you’d probably be a better writer studying
something in great detail like mathematics or the human
body.
25. What are your feelings regarding the
Presence of online poetry magazines and
Their significance in the poetry universe?
They’re vital to the people that enjoy them and that’s all
that’s important. For me they’ve been great. I’m thankful.
There’s so much gross misinformation out there. 99% of
what we surrounded by is disposable. A poetry magazine of
any kind never has to worry about its comparative worth.
26. Do you think printed poetry magazines
Are anything more than novelties heading
Towards oblivion in the internet era, or
Are they vital still?
I know someone who says the printed word is dead! They’
re vital enough to prove people like that wrong. There are
many reasons why their important but you can’t
underestimate the tactile pleasure of the printed page.
27. What poets most influenced you in any way?
There’s so many. Easier is to tell you what’s on my desk
now- Charles Simic, John Keats, Frank O’Hara, Robinson
Jeffers, William Carlos Williams, Richard Brautigan.
28. How did you determine what form of poetry
That you write in?
Things find a way. Inevitably the mind grows bored,
switches off and the next thing you know your writing it.
Sometimes I want to paint the idea or write a song. I’d like
to be considered as a project man. I’d like to do it all. It all
comes from the same place. It’s a tone of being, an
abstraction of mind that suits a certain romantic sort of
person. Still inevitably I come back to poetry.
29. Do you ever identify yourself as a “poet” to
Others?
Only when I drink.
30. If you do identify yourself as a poet, does this
Ever make you feel silly, or pretentious,
Or embarrassed?
Only when I’m sober.
31. What kind of events or moments ever bring
About any sort of “poetic inspiration” for you?
I like the big things. The two thousand year plunge. The
inevitability of it all. I like atmosphere; rain, snow,
afternoons. I’m describing the texture of the wood but
really I’m talking about the trees.
It’s like the Issa haiku, ‘In this world we stroll along the
roof of hell gawking at flowers’ –that’s it exactly. Really
Issa is as good as it gets.
32. How often do you ever feel creative or
Poetic and are too lazy to actually go and
Write anything?
Not that often. I can feel bad in life but feel good about
writing. Invariably if I feel bad about writing I feel bad
about life. Those are bad days.
33. Do you feel there is sort of a “lost” history
of important poetry that is never found in
Emily Dickinson’s drawer, or never written
But could have been?
I’d like to read her workbooks. Alternate endings to ‘Hope
is a thing with fur’ etc. I like to read the workings as much
as the poetry.
34. Do you have any comments you’d like to
Make outside of these questions?
No, I think you’ve let me say enough! Thank you.