http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/minggeedoodee
IC: Soooooo what's your book about then? :)
Slater: it's about love, lost love, death, fear and how all these things manifest in an awesome drunks brain.
HOW DRUNKS HAVE SEX
We got naked and lonely and felt just fine
sometimes being lost, just where you need to be
the beer and the whiskey chased down the wine
I saw her miss me from across the bar
I felt her close but we'd never met
we got naked and lonely and felt just fine
Drifting and drinking, you get what you get
cold stairs, cold bodies, cold pillows
the beer and the whiskey chase down the wine
Mistreated, lied to, cast aside, still
we somehow find a partner at the bottom
we got naked and lonely and felt just fine
They will laugh at our drunken choices
they will scoff in their superior tone
the beer and the whiskey chase down the wine
Sneaky sunlight makes our choices real
after sex brews in the sheets with us
We got naked and lonely and felt just fine
the beer and the whiskey chased down the wine
IC: This poem seems to be one of your more structured poems, with the refrain that cadences in the last two lines.
Slater: It's one of my villanelle - it's a form of poetry ... 19 lines. Most of my stuff is free form random shit that pops into my head. It can tend to be pretty arrogant. I liked the idea of having a structure to exist in and, frankly, I think some of my best poems have come out of it.
IC: I love how it works with this poem - to contain the contrasts - the cognitive dissonance of encountering alienation with comfort.
Slater: I feel that alienation and comfort can be strange but wonderful bedfellows. Life is full of contrasts that are only a razor's edge apart
IC: Your poetry is often about life - do you think of yourself as a philosopher, or voice of the people?
Slater: I think of myself as both....and would hope that my poetry would convey both as well, but 'voice of the people' is a really broad field
IC: Who do you think the ideal audience for your poems are? Who should be reading your work?
Slater: hrmmmmm....my shit is pretty dark, but I think I can see everyone connecting to it, as far as my demographic - fuck if I know honestly....I could see see angry teenage boys connecting to it and 40 something housewives getting it as well.
IC: Do you work alone, and how do you feel about that?
Slater: The dark places I go to for some of my stuff, I don't think I'd want to take anyone else there
IC: Do you feel that your home town has informed your work?
Slater: Growing up in a town of 295 people in central Minnesota had a huge effect on me - it was a cultural vacuum.
IC: Your current book is entitled 'Dying in Berlin' and is for sale now.
Slater: it is
IC: With your move to Berlin - is the book a reflection of you after the move? Why 'Dying' in Berlin?
Slater: it's more of a metaphor than real--I don't feel like I'm dying here, I feel like I'm reborn, but the old me is dying and I welcome that. Evolving..shedding old skin....becoming something better.
IC: Has the publication of the book felt like the end of that process? like a new beginning?
Slater: it has...it took me 44 years to publish one fucking book, but because of Dying, I will have another one by the end of July.
IC: How, to you, is your new book different from your last?
Slater: I don't think it's very different at all - it's an extension - and I wouldn't want it to be different. I want to have a style that is noticed. Maybe when I'm on my death bed I'll write some other shit, like Bukowski did, but until then, I want to have a vibe that is 'me. You know it. THAT's an R.L. Slater poem. That's what I want people to say.
IC: The new poems you've shown me today - they seem like you, if anything *more* in your style, like it's been honed
Slater: That may be my only difference between Dying in Berlin and the stuff I'm writing now. I think I have gained a bit of brevity.
IC: In terms of your poetry - who would you say has influenced you the most? Who are your influences?
Slater: Charles Bukowski, hands down. There are others, of course - Dylan Thomas, Sandberg, Shakespeare, Vonnegut, but CB is a god in my mind.
IC: What are you reading at the moment?
Slater: 'Where I Lived and What I Lived For' by Henry david Thoureu is what I'm currently reading.
IC: Do you have advice for other poets, who might be thinking of publishing a book?
Slater: Just fucking do it. Waiting is wanting, and wanting is always disappointing. Live, love, fuck, evolve... those are my closing comments.
IC: Thanks for the interview. (smiles)
Slater: It was my pleasure.
'Dying in Berlin' can be purchased here:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/minggeedoodee
