LatinosUSA

«Time passes. Seasons change» – Gary Gautier

MAN : Do you think poetry is back in fashion?

GG : Honestly, I don’t think poetry is ever in or out of fashion. It will always be there. As long as human beings have language and imagination, there is a hole to be filled by poetry. There may be local surges of this or that poetry community, and they may have great relevance for the local culture, but in the big picture of human experience, poetry will always be there fulfilling a function, regardless of the ups and downs.

MAN : Do you write poetry daily, or do you write as ideas come to you?

GG : Easy one. I write when inspiration hits, and it often comes in spurts that may last a day or a month. I am not offering this as a model for others, just a curiosity of my own creative practice.

MAN : What is your next publishing project? Could you tell us how it came about?

GG : My forthcoming book, Two Dreams and Two Hollows, is a mix of short stories and flash non-fiction, seaspawn and seawrack, covering a range of voices and styles, filled with quirky characters and dreamlike archetypal moments. Includes two previously published novellas. Its genesis is partly related to the discussion in my attached radio interview, in which I discuss my creative oscillation between fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. I thought it would be interesting to put them together and see what kinds of synergy and dissonance might emerge.

MAN : The city you live in, and a description of your favorite bar or café

GG : Guanajuato City, a pueblo mágico at the geographical center of Mexico. Lovely and not too touristy, but still, as Calle Sangre de Cristo winds toward the centro, you can find at Café Tal a few old vagabonds from the north or from Europe mixed in with the locals – university kids, artists and musicians, service workers, and so on. The place itself has friendly staff, old world atmosphere, and huge windows opening on to the street. If you sit long enough, someone you know will surely pass by and call your name from outside the window.

Author’s Bio:

Gary Gautier has taught university writing and literature and given numerous radio interviews. His previous poetry book, Schematics and Assemblies of the Cosmic Heart, was shortlisted for the Faulkner-Wisdom Poetry Prize, and a screenplay version of his novel, Mr. Robert’s Bones, was selected to the second round (top 10%) at the Austin Film Festival. Gary has hitchhiked through 19 countries and 35 US states, and he currently lives in the pueblos mágicos of Mexico.

• A sample poem from your book

“Hero and Leander (the lamp and the water)”

I still walk to that lake, the surface now still,
absence of geometry, ache of tranquility,

a voice but a whisper
soothing, sad, a silver
thorn in the side of love.

What love creates, need destroys.

We put flowers on the table
at the change of the season.

Then the rains came. We watched
through the kitchen window.
You turned out the lamp.

“I love you more than I need you,” I said.
“Now I know what that means.”
But need, the ache, the silver thorn,
will have its bloody day.

Time passes. Seasons change.

When I walk to the lake I stir the surface,
the glitter of sun, a dangerous swell,
my hand beginning to move
into place a geometry
of memories. 

• A link to purchase your most recently published poetry book

https://www.amazon.com/Day-We-Met-Earthly-Time/dp/B0DH8D81C5

• Your upcoming performance schedule, if you are a performance poet (optional)

No performances scheduled at this time

• A link to your most recent interview (optional)

30-minute radio interview on WRBH New Orleans:
https://soundcloud.com/wrbhreadingradio/writers-forum-gary-gautier