And the Winners Are... And an Interview of the Surreal

Congratulations to the winners of the Big Poetry Giveway:

Brian Wong

Lesa Medley

Andrea-Drebelle

Please do get in touch if you are Brian, Lesa, or Andrea!

I've been on the road and so catching up now. Thank you to all who participated! Over 70 poets left their names and emails at my blog --- A pleasure to be part of Kelli Russell Agodon's cool project.

Thanks also to poet Michael Wells who was kind enough to ask to interview me about my new book, Cloud Pharmacy. As life has been rather busy lately, I responded to Michael's questions after midnight each night for a week, it's strange to read the answers now in daylight. Here's just a bit of what we talked about:




MAW: I could not help but notice the words alchemically speaking in the title poemCloud Pharmacy. Given your repetitious use of alchemist between two of your poetry collections I have to wonder if you don’t feel as a poet you have to practice a bit of such chemistry to arrive at your destination as a writer. Can you tell us about the connection between your writing and alchemy?


SR: When I was a Senior in high school I read, no I devoured, 100 Years of Solitudeby Gabrielle Garcia Marquez. I was in love with his imagination. This novel was like nothing I had encountered before. The part of the book I remember best was the story of the alchemists. This sense that men mixed potions not only to find the recipe for gold but also to further their knowledge of themselves appealed to me – a sense of inner and outer discoveries paired together.


Only with Garcia Marquez’s recent death did I make this connection back to my first encounter with alchemists. So I don’t claim that poetry is the only alchemy --- I believe it is the work of many writers --- as well as visual artists and musicians.

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