I sat down with Jack Martin, Gulo Gulo Poetry’s September feature poet, and Thomas Ivory Jr., Gulo Gulo’s president. We talked about Jack’s new book and our shared love for poetry. This transcript consists of our conversation before and during the interview. We began discussing a book Jack uses to teach his High School English students. This was Trenton Krzyzowski’s first attempt at interviewing for publication.
Jack Martin: “I don’t use them all, but I like that you can jump around to make the randomness work for you. There’s meaning in things that are different. When you put them together, they mean something different. I plan to use these for the (Gulo Gulo) workshop.”
Thomas Ivory Jr.: “Us poets we’re always thinking in different ways expressing. Well, Trenton’s actually a journalist, and he was nice enough to offer to interview you today for our newsletter.”
Trenton Krzyzowski: “I’ll probably be pretty quiet. As a journalist, I’m Interested in stories. I don’t want it to feel contrived. You can edit the transcript if you want. I know people don’t always say what they mean.”
Jack Martin: “I don’t really give a fuck.”
Thomas: “What monetary value do you see in your work?”
Jack Martin: “Reading the poem is payment enough.”
Trenton: “I will say, as someone who works in the publishing industry, I am much more likely to create quality content if I know I’m getting paid.”
Jack: “I think you should write because you love it. Don’t write because you think you’re rich. It makes you better and your writing better. “
Trenton: “(Journalism is a different mindset than poetry, but) True. It has to come from a humble place.”
Jack: “That’s the reason I love these guys, Todd and Joe (owners of Wolverine Farm).
Trenton: “Ok, well, we can start the questions now. You write about politics in many of your poems. What’s your relationship with current affairs in America from the time you were a child to who you are now?”
Jack: “Everything is political. I don’t think of myself as a political poet. I think everybody should tell the truth, and that doesn’t happen with politics. The image is more important than the statement. It drives in deeper hits, the heart. The challenge is show, not tell. Politics is a theme, but being… We have to be in the world.”
Trenton: “While reading your work, this line in ‘looking to postpone the ultimate confrontation’ stuck out to me:
‘I didn’t call the president to tell him what I wanted, I undressed.
So did she,
see.
Forget about the G men.
They were a figure for something we’ll never understand.
The door unfolded the water.
The blue door shredded.
Why not?’
The poem dances around acknowledging American politics and a love story. What does the poem mean to you? What’s the story behind the poem?”
Jack: “I thought of this as a love poem with a little bit of politics behind it. I didn’t call the president… I undressed. Instead of being political, I just went for it. I think this tries to link politics in, but politics is real life.”
Trenton: “ It is; everything is political.”
Jack: “This book of poems is like a random autobiography. Yeah, an autobiography randomly interspersed with wild musings and stories. ‘The Squirrels in the Man Costume’ that’s a poem about a squirrel in a man costume. I’m inspired by Dean Young and Russel Edson. Edson, I always admired the weirdness in one paragraph stories. They’re not all stories; they’re strange poems. Let’s see, Edson… The difficulty of the tree: “A woman was fighting a tree…”
Trenton: What poetic tradition do you want to fit into, and which one do you want to change?
Jack: We shouldn’t change any poetry traditions. I write what I love, and you should, too. We get better by reading each other and practicing. The ideas come from the imagery.”
(Thomas mentions “The wounded breakfast” and I think that is good interview title idea)
Trenton: Why should people care about your poetry?
Jack: “Read to find something you like. Look for a good image. There’s a bunch of poems about my mom. She was a good person. She raised me. She didn’t write. She used to say: ‘We’re all doing the best we can with what we got.’ which is kind of cliche.”
Thomas: “Perfect mom quote, though.”
Jack: “Perfect mom quote… Brnee brown, Yeah, ‘we’re all doing the best we can…’ But some people who are not doing well stay away from them if that’s the best they can do. I think my mom would have agreed.”
Trenton: “Wise woman. Can you teach me something about the poems from your book?”
Jack:
“This poem talks about… Well, I walked by the Nick Willy’s Pizza place, an old Pizza place in Fort Collins that isn’t here anymore, and saw a woman throwing pizza doh. Her fingers were pointing to the ten corners of the solar system. That’s how I got the idea for this poem. If you count the sun and nine planets, it makes sense.”
Thomas: “Earth-bound image, intergalactic, broad.”
Jack: “Two Kittens in the cardboard box.”
Thomas: “I feel like I’m floating in the clouds reading your poems. The fluidity is really nice.”
Jack: “What is the soul is good one. I won’t read it. I wanna make you go through it…”
Trenton: “Cool. Well, that basically concludes the interview…”
Thomas: “What’s your favorite color?”
Jack: “I like them all. Whatever color the wild iris is.”
Thomas: “You seem like an earthy blue-green kind of guy.”
You can buy Jack Martin’s book here to support his work. He lives in Fort Collins, Colorado, and teaches High School English in Arvada, Colorado.