Blowback How are things out there on a lazy Saturday? William Taylor O, not so bad..Stayed up a bit too late with some cheap wine last night..So I'm nursing a slight hangover with coffee and videogames... Blowback You are a gamer? William Taylor Not hardcore...I have a playstation two..Getting through Resident Evil 4 right now... Blowback I haven't played those games since high school in the 80s I'm afraid to even start that again, since I know they are way beyond Atari, and I might spend too much time with them if I started William Taylor Yeah..I have to watch myself..I grew up on Atari as well...I only allot myself so much gaming time per day... Blowback You are born and raised in Bakersfield California, and now live in San Francisco, have you ever lived outside the state? William Taylor Nope..I seem to be a California guy...Once you live by the ocean it's hard to move elsewheres..At least that's my experience..But San Francisco is expensive..I'll have to move on eventually... Blowback So Wichita Kansas is not a possible destination? Blowback William Burroughs spent his last decade or more in Lawrence Kansas, William Taylor Ha..Probably not..I'm kind of scared of the midwest..Being landlocked and all..ha William Taylor But you never know..There is a beauty in such places as well. Blowback ah, I'm a Midwesterner and you seem to forget about the Great Lakes, they look just like oceans when you look out at them. William Taylor I know..I'm sheltered..I haven't traveled around the country too much..Have traveled through the Midwest once...it was very beautiful. I do love New Orleans,..So, who knows where we'll end up... Blowback The French Quarter is awesome, but I've of course not seen it post Katrina, its so sad. William Taylor Yeah.. Same here. I spent my Honeymoon there, actually. Blowback Why have you traveled so little? William Taylor hmmm...not sure, really. I hate flying..Roadtrips are nice..But I seem to find somewhere I like and just buckle down there until something comes around to shove me off to somewhere else... Blowback So no Kerouacian impulses? William Taylor Not so much..I guess if I had time, and didn't have to worry about work and money I'd definitely do more traveling..As it is there's always stuff going on where I am...I tend to be a creature of habit..I like my day to day routines... Blowback where can you imagine settling if you are driven out by the merciless real estate booms crushing so many unfortunate enough not to be participants in that "wealth creator" of ownership? William Taylor Well..My wife is eventually going to be seeking out teaching jobs..So we'll see where that takes us..But we've been talking about Oregon and Washington State..Seattle, Portland maybe.. William Taylor Somewhere it rains a lot..ha. Blowback Grunge (past tense) and Drugstore Cowboy area? lol William Taylor Exactly. I'll start a retro grunge band ..we're gonna be huge..it's all about timing. Blowback So you can actually imagine giving up California, how important is that state to your poetic identity? William Taylor Well. Place tends to play a big part of my writing...I do a lot of my writing by walking around the city and just taking in all the stuff that's going on..grabbing random images here and there..but as long as I live somewhere interesting..I think I'll be okay.... Blowback how old are you? William Taylor I'm 38. Blowback and how has married life affected your artistic life? William Taylor hmmm..I've been married three years now, or just about. I'm not sure if it's changed my writing that much..though sometimes I have nicer things to write about every once in a while..but nice things tend not to make great reading..it's really hard to write a good love poem..but I try every once in a while... Blowback so in your case happy, domesticity hasn't had any confining effects on your creative life? William Taylor not so much..maybe a bit...I'm somewhat more conscious of my subject matter...my wife gets a bit concerned when I write too much dark stuff..but I think she understands.. Blowback There are many examples of productive married writers, you could be Paul and Jane Bowles or James and Nora Joyce as inspiration. William Taylor exactly. It hasn't killed me yet... Blowback do you feel like you have lost or are losing your youth? William Taylor my wife writes as well..so I think that make sit a bit easier.. Blowback impending middle age angst? William Taylor O, I think about it from time to time...I don't know if I'll ever grow up, really. I still don't feel much different than I did when I was 18 or so..I still like my videogames and punk rock records...though turning 40 might be a bit scary...I think I've aged pretty well thus far..so it hasn't hit me very hard yet..maybe when I lose my boyish good looks... Blowback I read a quote from Trent Reznor (NIN) that says he looks around at people his age (he is 41) and he says everybody is married with kids, and picnics and he just doesn't relate to most people his age anymore. That struck me as fascinating. William Taylor I feel that all the time myself..my wife is 11 years younger than me and I relate to her more than I do most people my age..sometimes people ask me if I have kids and it freaks me out..I still don't feel like I'm old enough for such things...ha. Blowback yes, I've noticed that late 30s especially tends for certain kind of people artistically inclined to be alienating. you feel separate from many people your age, but you look at teenagers and see how ridiculous they are and you don't want to be immature and dumb, and yet you still want to be cool and mature in manner that doesn't feel like a sell out William Taylor exactly..there's the danger of becoming the old guy who's trying too hard to be hip...it's a hard line to walk..some people are done by the time they're 25 or so..kids, job that sucks your energy away, etc...and some people seem young even when they're 75 or so...I think it's all in the mind..as cheesy it sounds... Blowback we both agree is a very difficult path to navigate. I really admire older people who can be both mature and in someway, retain aspects of being cool, or dissident, and not look foolish. it seems the natural subject of poetic exploration. Blowback I love for example Martin Scorsese and the now deceased William Burroughs. they seem to pull it off. Blowback David Bowie too William Taylor yeah..society dictates so much about where you're supposed to be at each stage in your life..financially, etc. I tend to ignore it as best I can, for better or worse. People like Tom Waits have always been an inspiration to me...people who walk their own road creatively and otherwise...some people seem kind of timeless..ya know? William Taylor and like you said, Burroughs, especially. and Bowie. Blowback I've actually had very little discussion on this subject ironically until now with you, but it's definitely been heavily on my mind for the last few years I must confess. I feel age alienated too. But I consider myself a swirl of mature and conservative in many ways and very dissident, unorthodox in many others. Lots of contradictions, and looking around at the majority of people my age kind of accentuates it. Blowback I see career obsessed people, golf obsessed, kid obsessed, real estate obsessed and I just feel out of the loop. William Taylor yeah, it gets harder as you get older..when you don't really fit into the mold that society has set out for you..it's much easier when you're young..they expect you to grow out of it, but some never do. it's hard, especially careerwise..when you don't have a grand plan set out before you that will make your future safe... Blowback and they radiate a kind of conformity that manifests itself in all kinds of ways in put down variety if you fall outside that pattern. it?s a bourgeois kind of petty, ignorant smugness, that they use to collectively elevate themselves. I know as a fact that sometimes they wonder if they know what they are doing, they have doubts they don't like to confess. William Taylor Yeah..I wonder about that all the time...are they really as self assured and well adjusted as they seem...perhaps they just lack imagination..or maybe they're just quietly going insane inside....but they do have smugness about them...and it's hard not to have a complex when you're working shit jobs at 40 years old..but I think I'm happier than a lot of them..so fuck 'em. Blowback it's interesting that the conventionally oriented form the extra majority, and yet seem so threatened when somebody doesn't conform to what society has programmed them to buy into. I never myself say to someone, why are you married, why did you have kids, buy a house, are so focused on your career you hate, even if I think it. But try being kidless, unmarried, not give a crap about a career, own no real estate and see how they react to that. Blowback they feel compelled to "comment" about it in whispers and variety of ways William Taylor That's damned good point...they do seem to feel threatened by it, somehow. William Taylor Like the Bukowski poem..the man with the beautiful Eyes..it's a great in that it kind of deals with that subject... Blowback what's really ironic is when many males get the midlife crisis and they dump the wife, hang out in bars, get a sports car or motorcycle and act crazy, all the conformity is thrown into chaos and then the smugness takes a hit Blowback and the smug wife, is now in tears and the vultures circle and it's fascinating. William Taylor yeah..I think it all comes down to fear..fear of age..fear of death...most people don't take their own mortality very well..or perhaps the pointlessness of their lives...it makes them crazy if they think about it..so they try not to. William Taylor I think about it all the time..it makes things easier. Blowback this is not an endorsement of regressed middle age crisis behavior i'm just pointing to the stresses that crack within it. if it doesn't lead to divorce, it usually erupts within in fights and withdrawal and other stuff people don't see publically Blowback the hypocrisies William Taylor yup. I agree. Blowback you mention Bukowski who is an absolute icon to me. you seem to remind me of him actually in your poetry. William Taylor Yeah, he's definitely an influence. Blowback but I don't feel like you are trying to rip him off ( a good thing!) William Taylor no..i mean I went through a big Bukowski phase some years ago..some poems I had to throw away because they were too Bukowski..but, if you're lucky..you can learn from your influences and move on and be a stronger artist for it... Blowback I get all kinds of submissions that write stuff about getting drunk, and being wild, or murderous, or some pornographic kind of explicitness, and they think this passes as poetry. All of this stuff is valid for poetry, but I always thinks its in the words, the nuances, the setting yourself apart from the ordinary, finding new revelations, new ways of saying the same things and they in my mind inevitably fail this criteria William Taylor exaclty..all the Bukowski aping is maddening...they don't get it..Bukowski wasn't good because he wrote about fucking and drinking and what have you..he was good because he was doing something new and powerful in a way that nobody else had quite done before..many poets in the small press you feel as if they've read nothing but Bukowski..they have no rhythm in their work..no larger vision... Blowback I totally agree. so much of what I see on the internet small press I think is faux, radical, lazy, and borderline worthless. I hate to sound so cavalier, there is so much crap. I like word riot, and Thunder Sandwich (which is in hiatus) while not perfect, (who can be?) they are two sites I admire. William Taylor Lazy is the perfect word...and it's hard to say this without sounding self important or pompous or whatever..but poetry is a craft, and I've worked at it for many years..there is little quality control ion the small press..editors don't do their job..everyone is so self congratulatory...it's frustrating, to call yourself a poet... Blowback again, i'm in total agreement. William Taylor You tell someone you write poetry and they say, yeah, so does my 14 year old sisters..she's got journals and journals of the stuff....sigh.. Blowback and then their is those stupid Hallmark like scams that flatter those stupid people into publishing their poetry in the World Book of Poetry or whatever, and they accept anything, you could type out the cackles of your parrot, and then charge you $40 bucks to buy the book and some fool will proudly put it on their table to show off. William Taylor yeah..the vanity presses...it's sad how many full grown, seemingly sensible adults go in for that stuff...anything to see your work imprint, I guess... William Taylor they don't understand that only people who see those books are the other fools who paid to be in them..and even they only read their own work..so it's pointless and sad... Blowback the poetry world I think is in a state of confusion that the internet and desktop publishing have exacerbated it. You have the Vanity Press/Scam thing, the wild wilderness of the poetry websites, and the rarefied, snobby, self congratulating world of the Universities, and their gatekeepers. All of them are filled with bad poetry. It is a goal of Blowback to try to solve this riddle. Even if its in the most humble, tiny manner. I have both worlds on this site and try to exist within both worlds. William Taylor I agree..and I like the work that you publish...it's all very depressing and pointless seeming at times..but when I do find the good magazine from time to time that really is trying to do something..itbucks me up a bit...poetry has been important to me in my life..I think it still can have an effect on people's lives.... Blowback so Blowback has bucked you up a bit? William Taylor yeah...whenever I find like minded people who really seem to care about what they're doing, it helps things a bit. Knowing there are others out there. Blowback how much of the site have you actually looked at? I find many poets only like to read their own work. They say they like a site but if you challenge them for specificity, they are revealed to have read little. William Taylor it's true...and I can be guilty of that myself from time to time...I sat up a few nights ago with a bottle of cheap wine and read through some of the work on your site..what I read I liked...give me a moment and I be more specific..ha. Blowback then I know if you are specific you are not an ass kisser! lol, quickly, don't peek now quickly at the site William Taylor Michael Eastabrook I always like..Shane Allison is good... William Taylor I'm trying to remember the people I especially liked... William Taylor ah..the Karl Koweski stuff was good.. Blowback anyone you hadn't seen before? there seems to be a group that is all over, and that is fine but I want to find new poets. William Taylor and you had some Justin Barret and Ana Oaks stuff I liked as well.. William Taylor Amanda Oaks..forgive my typing..ha Blowback these are all established poets in the "indie" poet world William Taylor hmm..there was a woman I wasn't familiar with..Maureen somebody, I think..I liked one of her poems... Blowback yes Maureen Dolan she is new as far as I can determine William Taylor yes. their work tends to stand out. William Taylor yeah. I'd never read her before. Blowback well you've passed the test! I do believe you. William Taylor ha, whew. Blowback I look at the site statistics, and I see everybody checks out the submissions page, they read the manifesto a lot, and then there is a severe drop off. You can tell its mostly poets looking to be published, that's fine and expected. But the very least if they are going to submit, you would think they would want to read other poets out of curiosity to measure against, and to see if they are Blowback compatible for the site. William Taylor it's true...it's detrimental to blindly send your work out there...and you ideally shouldn't be submitting to places that publish stuff you don't want to read..ha. But, as a writer..you do want to get your stuff out there...another hard line to walk... Blowback I personally would never submit poetry to a site I don't like. I don't want my name on a site for egotistical reasons only. Blowback it kind of "dilutes" your integrity to be on a bad site in my mind William Taylor yeah. I try to only submit to places that do stuff I like, otherwise you won't respect yourself in the morning. William Taylor that's a good point. Blowback there are a lot of poetry "whores" Blowback they fuck any website that will accept them William Taylor so, so many..and it's detrimental to the work..you try too hard to have your work in every magazine out there and your written ends up suffering for it..I know this from experience, ha..I have some pretty weak stuff out there from years ago..... Blowback well the question is how do you "correct" the mistake? William Taylor well, you need to reach the point where you realize writing superior work is more important than having mediocre stuff out there in a zillion different obscure little publications...one good poem is worth a hundred mediocre ones... Blowback I get many batch submissions and only publish one poem I like. If I like many of them I put more on. William Taylor yeah. The world of poetry is as competitive as any thing else in it's own little way..so people try hard to keep they're name out there..which is fine, if they can write that much quality stuff...but you have to be careful or you're just churning out the same stuff over and over..and it's obvious to the readers... Blowback yes I agree with you. it would be advisable for other poets to consider this. it's amazing how egotistical poets in their "little" universe can be. The jealousies, the ego trips, the pettiness. William Taylor yeah, it's very tiring. Small fish in small ponds. it's all very petty and so silly...and the original point is lost..to actually create something that will move people... Blowback many poets have dreams (illusions?) of fame. (there is poem on blowback about this) how do you view the question of poetic fame? do you seek it? William Taylor well, as a poet, you eventually have to be realistic...poetry ain't the way to fame and fortune...everyone imagines themselves the next Bukowski...me, I want my work to be out there..and hopefully endure in it's own little way for a while..the idea that after you're gone something that you've created is out there speaking to people..it helps a bit...I don't dream of much more.. Blowback well that seems utterly realistic! Blowback do you believe in a god in the universe? William Taylor not really. not a god that judges and has a grand plan for us human kind..god is in everything I guess, as cheesy as that sounds... Blowback well ask this as you might imagine as a set up! Blowback the set up is this, with so many poets and persons of all variety seeking fame perhaps more than at any point in history, with Blowback celebrity obsessions, pathetic reality TV, youtube/myspace phenomenon, Warhol has been elevated to World Philosopher status with the 15 minutes of quip fame. Blowback so.... Blowback do most of these people seeking eternal fame realize that if there is no God, (I don't know for the record) that even if there is an afterlife, this world one day is destined to be consumed by the scientific certainty of an expanding sun in its death spiral and will incinerate all humans long before the earth is actually devoured by the fusion reactions in the fireball of the sun? Blowback so the end reality, is..... nobody will be eternally famous. its a fantasy silly humans conjure. Blowback a harsh reality. William Taylor yeah...I think about that a lot more these days, especially these times being as they are...when the world explodes or implodes or burns or freezes or whatever it eventually is gonna do..shakespeare, Socrates, nobody is immortal in the end..the universe will go on just fine as it did before...but there's the idea of eternal recurrence...that everything that has been will be again, etc..so who knows