poetofthemonthintervmar2

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3) What is it about the “mainstream” poesy journals & vanity chapbooks that turn you off?

              You mean what isn't there? Vanity chapbooks are as beneficial to others as much as self-masturbation is and polite poesy journals are really a giant poetry cluster fuck. The only people who read them are the inbred group of rhyming mutant poets who write them.In "The Beauty of My Poetry" I say poets published there are:

    " men with manicures who teach at universities.
      men who never had to sully their hands with hard labor.
      men who pimp writing grants from Foundations.
     and only gain fame in the small circle of poets with pasty faces and no passion or
     soul.
     Their poetry does not come out like the first shit in the morning.
     Only a deadline is their inspirational laxative."

         But I am not worthy to answer this question when the "great one"-Charles Bukowski has pricked academic poets in poems such as "so you want to be a writer?" when he says" don't be dull and boring and pretentious, don't be consumed with self-love, the libraries of the world have yawned themselves to sleep by your kind" and in an interview in the New York Quarterly when he says"There is nothing wrong with a poetry that is entertaining and is easy to understand. Genius could be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way."

4) Who or what initially turned you on to the art of poetry & the written word?

        I can tell you who didn't-all my fucking high school English teachers who made me memorize that charlatan Shakespeare. I was in a disciplinary problems and slow learners English class.Someone who thought Black Beauty was a tough read stole the key to a 100 question multiple-choice exam on "The Merchant of Venice". The dope, instead of just getting a 70 so he did not have to read it again got a 98. The English teacher was so clueless that she cried and said , "Sometimes it takes the great bard to open up reading for even the slowest." The rest of us weren't too slow-we grabbed him and beat the shit out of him for not sharing the answers.

        I survived that and wrote in every form but poetry. I hated rhyming poetry and discounted all poetry until my brother sent me "Love is a Dog From Hell" by Charles Bukowski with the inscription "Ross, you're twisted. Charlie is twisted. Give him 25 pages. I stayed up all night reading Buk. I was mesmerized by the stark reality in his poetry. I started consuming everything I could get my hands on-day and night. Saw Babet Schroedor's "The Bukowski Tapes'' 4 times in a row. I was a Buk junkie.One day I woke up and just started writing poetry for myself that focused on the raw underbelly of urban life as I lived it. My friends encouraged me to enter "The Greater Buffalo Poetry Slam" where I was writing poetry at the bar since I did not ahve enough. To my great surprise I won. I was offered poetry gigs at different venues- many where I am no longer welcome. I never submitted my poetry anywhere until two years ago and was accepted by the" German Annual Bukowski Review" and Joan Jobe Smith's excellent "Bukowski Review". My friend Bill Roberts told me about your great zine and I found other places to show my work for better or worse.

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 cannot force my writing for money-never could. I have to be inspired or pissed off. I just wrote a piece on racism in professional football where I got all the white haters to write a full page of letters to the editor and a fat bastard conservative talk show host to spend 3 hours berating me. I got unsigned hate mail from all the gutteral illiterates written with crayons and phone calls threatening me. I couldn't be happier. I did it not only because I believe my racial theory but wanted to prove that something as inconsequential as black athletes dancing in the end zone was more important to most white males than Iraq, the great poverty in America or the fact that the president of the United States is a lying piece of sperm.

            With poetry-something just slams into my consciousness and I write the possiblepoem title and sometimes do not write for months.Or, when I thought I was getting too soft as an attorney -I went to all my old haunts for some action and inspiration.

6) What’s next for Ross Runfola? Any projects in the works we should know about?

          Yeah. I have had my eye on a woman for weeks. My next project will be to see if I can get laid.