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| APRIL'S POET OF THE MONTH |
| J. WATTERS |
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| --J. WATTERS-- poet & Darwin junkie |
| j. watters writes between thinking about evolution and trying to pay the bills. he lives in California with his mate and their kid. watters' work has been published by Sick Puppy Press, Unlikely Stories, Duct Tape Press, Pig Iron Malt, remark, and Zygote in my Coffee. |
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| ***POEMS*** |
| **INTERVIEW** |
| 1) You mention in your BIO that you “write between thinking about evolution and trying to pay the bills.” How much has Darwin & the theory of evolution had an impact on you as both a person & a poet? What about “paying the bills”? Does the daily routine to keep a roof over your head & food on the table enhance or impair your creativity? As a person Darwin - or at least evolutionary thinking - has influenced me immensely. I like to consider things from a logical point of view and the evolutionary way of thinking is essentially just logical. That is really why there is no sense at all in removing evolution from school curricula. Teach kids how to think - not what to think. Or don't, and let my kid walk all over them. That's evolution. I guess some of that comes out when I write. The bills, the daily routine, the roof and the word - they are all mixed up together and the truth is that my job both impairs and enhances my creativity. My work is intense and keeps me thinking all the time. Fortunately, I have a job that allows me to be creative - in a different manner than writing does, but it keeps the juices flowing. It is also a source for some ideas that later turn into poems. But YES of course it interferes, but mostly with finding the time to send stuff out. If it is between writing another poem and trying to get published, I'll take the next poem anytime. 2) A lot of your poetry seems to have a somewhat dark & twisted humor to it. How much of your work is drawn from real life experience? Is it fair for readers to assume that your poetry is autobiographical? It is hard to write about things you've never seen. Most of the stuff I write about happened so I guess it is mostly autobiographical. 3) What are your thoughts on the current state of poetry in the mainstream vs. the underground? Would you say the internet & the proliferation of online zines has resurrected public interest in poetry ? Why or why not? I didn't used to like reading poems online. It hurts my eyes and people fuck with them sometimes by putting them on silly colored backgrounds or something. Truth is though that the only place poetry is not in need of defibrillation is online. Poetry certainly isn't thriving in the fifteen dollar a copy journals at the newsstand or the weekly open mic at the coffee shop. Drop the pretension and the predictable stupid intonation and you have the internet. No doubt about it, the internet has given underground poetry another chance. Reading a poem shouldn't have to be a major investment. When that happens only poets read them and the whole thing is dead. But what if I turn up on paper some time? Of course I want to be on paper. Paper is still the best medium for the word but I'm not interested in playing the game that goes with getting on paper. So I guess I'm a little conflicted. 4) Who or what initially turned you on to the art of poetry & the written word? When I was about eight or nine I was messing around in our living room and there was an open notebook on the coffee table. It was my mom's notebook. There were a few stanzas scratched out on the visible pages. That notebook was off limits to us kids but it was lying there open like some kind of irresistible bait. I stood back and read a few of the stanzas from afar so if my mom came in she wouldn't think I was snooping. Wow, the words on those pages were strong and pointed - many of them were four letters. I didn't know that you could do that, and I especially didn't know that my mom, who is one of the most gentle people in the world, had an angry side. 5) Can you describe for us what the writing process is like for you? What does it take to invoke your muse? Any quirky rituals we should know about? I write in fits and bursts. I may go a month or two without writing anything but during that time I'll go over some ideas in my head. Then I may sit down and write as many as ten poems in a night. I don't really have any quirky rituals except that I write everything in a notebook with a pen. Usually there is a bottle of something involved but that's not really to help me write as much as it is that writing tends to cut in on my drinking time. Ideas come to me easily. They are everywhere. Whether they be a glimpse of panty, a newspaper headline, a conversation or a bowel movement. If I have a muse, she is a whore - anything works for her. 6) What’s next for J. Watters? Any projects in the works we should know about? I'm having fun doing things like I am right now so I'll probably keep at it this way for a while longer. I've written a couple books of poetry that will likely sit on my desk for a while longer. One of them is called 'poems to wipe your ass with' and the other still has no name. I've also been working on a novel - we'll see if I ever finish it. |