IB: Where do you write?
Wherever an idea comes from me, mostly on my phone due to convenience, but I prefer pen and paper. I’ve pulled over on the side of the highway to wrestle down inspiration. It comes and goes as it pleases, wherever I am.
IB: Where’s the weirdest place you’ve recited poetry?
While getting a tattoo in Edinboro, P.A.. It was filmed and ended up being included in the poem video The Goat Gods.
IB: What do you write about?
I write what’s going on around me, using my past / present to understand future circumstances. I write trying to gain a better understanding of myself.
IB: How did you get into that?
It’s a just doing thing.
IB: Who or what inspires you?
Travel is invigorating. Hitchhiking has lead to some weird moments. Conversation contains plenty of potential poems. Twitter has offered ideas. Reddit too. Anything can be adopted into writing. LSD and other drugs fed me with ideas, though I don’t usually take anything anymore. LSD for therapeutic purposes every once in a while. I’m partial to mixing wine and poetry. I don’t think one single thing inspires me. I tried to condition poetry into a knee twitch, something that happens without calling.
IB: You often reference a Cult. What are you talking about?
My friends and I formed a Cult in high school. We built a dome out in the woods and sang Sublime around a campfire, had small gatherings where we’d smoke and drink, just hang out and be out of the cop’s way.
You couldn’t see people approaching out fort in the woods. Bike cops roamed around the near by trails, so there was usually a small sense of paranoia if we heard footsteps. We started making a bololol noise if we heard someone approaching. If they bololololed back, they were a friend. If not, we dipped out.
IB: Biggest challenges for you as a writer in the indie lit scene?
I think I made my poetry public a bit to early, looking back, I should have spent some more time cultivating my writing, but hell, I’ve had fun and it did help me grow as a writer. My age became less of a handicap as Nostrovia! Poetry grew.
IB: What is Books & Shovels?
Books & Shovels is a traveling bookstore Captain Thornton, Sam Lennon, and I founded through Nostrovia! Poetry. It ran from Manchester, NH, through to Denver, CO, but a car accident cut the project short financially. It’ll be relaunching mid-2015, but at the moment, we’re traveling about the United States.
IB: What’s your fondest performance memory?
#ThisIsPoetry in Springfield, IL, where I met wonderful people like Michelle McDonald and A. Razor, among many others, people that told great stories and laughed openly without fear. Or the 2014 NYC Poetry Festival. That was a weird time.
IB: Where do you want to go next?
We’re headed to Tucson, AZ, leaving via Greyhound on Christmas day. I have a show on the 29th, stoked to be performing with Zarina Zabrisky, Simon Rogghe, Ezra Letra, and Issac Kirkman.
IB: This myth that writers drink a lot: any views?
I’ve pulled my share of the weight. There’s a grain of truth in the cliche. Using drugs and alcohol as a tool is one thing, though I don’t think artists should be dependent on drugs for inspiration.
IB: What or who has changed, blocked or furthered your writing the most?
A man who tried to kill me when I first left traveling left me paranoid out of my skull. I was suspicious of everyone and everything. Still am a bit. It’s made socializing difficult. My writing definitively has suffered as that state of mind developed, but I’m doing what I can to get back in my headspace.
My friend Tyler Leblond pulled me up into dedicating my being to writing. He gave me the necessary encouragement to keep moving forward when I was younger, inciting an appreciation for self education and passionate living.
That all began when we started wandering miles without reason or care, just kept walking. Walking brought out honest conversations, about anything and everything.
