Tales From The Darkmaas Side: The Interview

[Angeline]

When I first read darkmaas, on the new poems page and here on the forum, I thought he was some kind of twisted Jesuit. His words speak volumes to me about an avid and broad mind, about a well-read poet who brings both intellect and worldly experience to his writing. His wit can be acerbic and aesthetic or broad, slip-on-a-banana-peel silly. And the guy writes erotic poetry that in my humble opinion is more grounded and authentic than almost anything I've read here (or much of anywhere). His poems sweat, slurp and sometimes even break wind, and yet they always seem to have an underlying dignity. How does he do that?

Never one to follow a leader he has always gone his own weird way (and I him for it). He has started some of the most bizarre and fun (even when they sound sad) threads on the forum. I am especially fond of his 12 Bar Blues challenge, as it was there I met my beloved. darkmaas is, as you see, an inspiring guy.

And as for the poems, here are a few tidbits~


I wonder if the Queen
slams screen doors.
Maybe she has a white-gloved footman
to glide behind
and close the screen behind her
against the bugs of Buckingham.

She’s not like you
and I can say with certainty
she’ll never find herself
standing naked in the dappled moonlight
of my back garden.

Excerpted from A Screen Door Slam
~

Down in the basement
I’ve built an alembic
of glass and fire
to distill love from ardor.
In the dark it glows
with amorous intent
and rumbles needy
but all I get
is the crust of lust
and whiffs of desire.

They say the old magick died
with Yeats and Crowley.
All the incantations
lost
to our shiny
post modernity.

Excerpted from L'Hotel Belevedere
~

Place the yolk
held in its fragile membrane
past her teeth
white and dangerous

Watch it roll
undulate
at the slightest movement of her tongue

She grins
brings her lips to yours
gently
tongue to tongue
she rolls it
precious
past two crenellated rows
of teeth
onto your tongue

Excerpted from Tampopo Noodle
~

"Your brother's wife,
She called me clever slut and
Painted tart.
I don't like slut,
And why am I a pastry?"

"They're only words.
They cannot hurt you"

"Stupid English,
Talk,talk talk.
You have too many words.
I hate your words,
Your stiff top lip,
Pip-pip."

Excerpted from Stiletto
~

I could go on and on, but really if you are not familiar with darkmaas' poems, go and read them. Now.

Just be sure to come back with your questions. This interview will not fail to educate and entertain!

Ok, Monsieur darkmaas, my dear soul, tell me please about your poetic influences and if they've changed over the years since you found Lit. And look sharp: Tristesse has a questionnaire.

 

[HarryHill]

I did not think I would have a question for Darkmass, but this one has a last line that is a signature of butters, kinda. My question is which came first metaphorically, the chicken or the egg? I am enjoying the descent into your vault, If nothing else these interviews provide an opportunity to explore the craft of others.

 

[Desejo]

To start with, I'm curious about how you would qualify your relationship to place, versus people in your poetry. I ask because you've got four poems bearing hotel names, but the content in three of them is only tangentially about the hotel. Hotels - because the relationships are transient?

And is there really a Hotel Malaka out there (surely not in Greece?!)

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

Ok, Monsieur darkmaas, my dear soul, tell me please about your poetic influences and if they've changed over the years since you found Lit. And look sharp: Tristesse has a questionnaire.

Careful, you might scare him back into his lair, besides I'm always gentle.

My own question still formulating and I'll save Proust until later in the inquisition - um - thread......

 

[darkmaas]

Angeline:

Who said flattery will get you nowhere? I'm grateful for the very kind words but I've just now realized that I'm going to have to "descend into my vaults" as Mr Hill so cheerfully put it - like it was one of the rings of Hell.

I'm going to ignore your question for the moment because ... well I'm not sure of the answer. I would like to think I sprang fully literate from the womb but that would be an exaggeration. I shall return to it though.

Patience.

d.

::

 

[darkmaas]

Ah Harry,

"Reliquary" makes me cringe a bit. It was inspired by a passing reference made by Xtaabay, who was ... well she's not here to defend herself, so I'll merely state that Ms Butters has independently picked up the metaphor.

Glad you are enjoying the "vault". I was hoping that some of my ... er ... less polite efforts would be ignored but alas, Ange has dug around in my closet and the skeletons are loose.

d.

::

 

[darkmaas]

To start with, I'm curious about how you would qualify your relationship to place, versus people in your poetry. I ask because you've got four poems bearing hotel names, but the content in three of them is only tangentially about the hotel. Hotels - because the relationships are transient?

And is there really a Hotel Malaka out there (surely not in Greece?!)

Pretty much everything I write is about the people. I am fascinated by how they react singly, in pairs and in groups. You are correct though; hotels (and bars and restaurants) are interesting exactly because of the transient nature of the places and the delicious play of private interaction in a public place. I find the line between private and public space fascinating.

Of the hotels: Hotel Malaka is based on the Eastern and Orient Hotel in Penang. It's since been restored to it's former glory, but when we were there it was mildly down at heel. It is also the hotel in "Etruscan Bones". (I'm trying to figure how you might think it Greek.)

The Belvedere Hotel exists in Kingston. It was a residential hotel when I lived there as a student. Very bohemian. It's now a B&B. L'Hotel de Campos is fictional but the name refers to one of Fernando Pessoa's heteronyms. The fourth hotel escapes me.

d.

::

 

[Desejo]

Pretty much everything I write is about the people. I am fascinated by how they react singly, in pairs and in groups. You are correct though; hotels (and bars and restaurants) are interesting exactly because of the transient nature of the places and the delicious play of private interaction in a public place. I find the line between private and public space fascinating.

Of the hotels: Hotel Malaka is based on the Eastern and Orient Hotel in Penang. It's since been restored to it's former glory, but when we were there it was mildly down at heel. It is also the hotel in "Etruscan Bones". (I'm trying to figure how you might think it Greek.)

The Belvedere Hotel exists in Kingston. It was a residential hotel when I lived there as a student. Very bohemian. It's now a B&B. L'Hotel de Campos is fictional but the name refers to one of Fernando Pessoa's heteronyms. The fourth hotel escapes me.

d.

::

Far be it from me to tell you this without the assistance of wikipedia:

Why Hotel Malaka makes me laugh

 

[darkmaas]

Far be it from me to tell you this without the assistance of wikipedia:

Why Hotel Malaka makes me laugh

That does make me laugh. Why everyone should know a little Greek ...

 

[HarryHill]

That does make me laugh. Why everyone should know a little Greek ...

...
Or even a tall one. ^^ While you were answering the question about hotels, you use a reference to Penang in postcard 4 from a blue planet, a place found while researching your poems about an ancient bronze age drum (The Moon). Fascinating reading. I assume you have seen and heard it?

 

[Angeline]

Yes, I know. I already asked a question and it's only day one. But I've been in the uh vault reading. It strikes me that we singled out Tzara for writing women with his female alt. You, however, often write in third person omniscient narration and many of your characters are female. You've written from men's, women's, even a pair of pink panties' perspectives. And when you do write in first person, it's usually the narrator talking about someone else. Are you most comfortable writing in third person? Where are you in those characters? Ok, everywhere I guess, but who are these people you channel? Some of them appear in numerous poems. Are they amalgams of fact and fiction? You've created some memorable and endearing characters over the years here.

No rush on an answer. I was just wondering.

 

[darkmaas]

...
Or even a tall one. ^^ While you were answering the question about hotels, you use a reference to Penang in postcard 4 from a blue planet, a place found while researching your poems about an ancient bronze age drum (The Moon). Fascinating reading. I assume you have seen and heard it?

The "Moon" is in Pejeng which is in Bali, Indonesia. (Penang is in Malaysia.) I have seen it but not heard it. It's huge.

 

[darkmaas]

Yes, I know. I already asked a question and it's only day one. But I've been in the uh vault reading. It strikes me that we singled out Tzara for writing women with his female alt. You, however, often write in third person omniscient narration and many of your characters are female. You've written from men's, women's, even a pair of pink panties' perspectives. And when you do write in first person, it's usually the narrator talking about someone else. Are you most comfortable writing in third person? Where are you in those characters? Ok, everywhere I guess, but who are these people you channel? Some of them appear in numerous poems. Are they amalgams of fact and fiction? You've created some memorable and endearing characters over the years here.

No rush on an answer. I was just wondering.

There's no short answer so I'll just start on a circular wander.

Why write poetry? For me it's a way to understand. One makes a assumption about how people work. One builds a place and populates it with interesting people and then lets them interact. It is the standard short story approach. The thing about poetry is there's a distillation step. How do you build it all into a relatively small frame? That's the magic. One way is to use archetypes - characters who display a certain behavior. I give them names and recycle them. Lazy perhaps but it allows a certain continuity.

With me so far?

Personally, I'm not that interested in me. So you won't see poems about the "acts of darkmaas". I'm also not that interested in male behavior. I see it daily and there's not much mystery there. It's not surprising then that I'm mostly exploring female behavior in general but specifically female response to a complicated and shifting moral environment.

So where am I in my poems. Well, I'm the guy running up the stairs with a bucket of ice cubes. I sit in bars and wonder about bone structure. I try (metaphorically) to distill love from ardor.

So who are Armand, Sophie, Babylon, Simon and now Jakob? Shorthand mostly.

Helpful?

::

 

[Angeline]

There's no short answer so I'll just start on a circular wander.

Why write poetry? For me it's a way to understand. One makes a assumption about how people work. One builds a place and populates it with interesting people and then lets them interact. It is the standard short story approach. The thing about poetry is there's a distillation step. How do you build it all into a relatively small frame? That's the magic. One way is to use archetypes - characters who display a certain behavior. I give them names and recycle them. Lazy perhaps but it allows a certain continuity.

With me so far?

Personally, I'm not that interested in me. So you won't see poems about the "acts of darkmaas". I'm also not that interested in male behavior. I see it daily and there's not much mystery there. It's not surprising then that I'm mostly exploring female behavior in general but specifically female response to a complicated and shifting moral environment.

So where am I in my poems. Well, I'm the guy running up the stairs with a bucket of ice cubes. I sit in bars and wonder about bone structure. I try (metaphorically) to distill love from ardor.

So who are Armand, Sophie, Babylon, Simon and now Jakob? Shorthand mostly.

Helpful?

::

Of course. And I don't find it lazy: it's interesting that these characters return and have (for me anyway) become iconic in your poems. I don't think there are a lot of men here who write females in a way that makes them feel real, but you do (as Tzara has when he channels Minervous). It's refreshing to me to read such poems. And like I said before, you treat your characters with an underlying respect. I think that's part of what makes them believable.

And now I must reload my elephant gun. I'm hunting spam wabbits.

 

[HarryHill]

darkmaas, where are you? waiting for a question? fine, Do you have a recipe for rabbit? Is there a mathematical formula that expresses the limits of how many angels fit on the head of a pin. allie allie ox in free.

 

[Desejo]

How do you know when a poem is done?
Did you make more progress by reading poetry, or writing it?

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

Dear Darkmaas,

Your erotic, sad, funny poem about a mismatched couple and a last bachelor assignation, Schafstiefelgeister translates - as far as I can tell - to Sheepbootspirit. Why? What inspired the poem (and the title)? You wrote it way back in '03 so you may not remember but I've always loved it and wondered.

darkmaas, where are you? waiting for a question? fine, Do you have a recipe for rabbit? Is there a mathematical formula that expresses the limits of how many angels fit on the head of a pin. allie allie ox in free.

It'll be your turn soon on the grill so don't get complacent.

 

[HarryHill]

It'll be your turn soon on the grill so don't get complacent.

..
You have to catch me first. You, however, will probably look magnificent on a spit.
..
darkmaas, favorite of your poems and why.

 

[darkmaas]

darkmaas, where are you? waiting for a question? fine, Do you have a recipe for rabbit? Is there a mathematical formula that expresses the limits of how many angels fit on the head of a pin. allie allie ox in free.

Sorry to be late Harry. I stepped out for dinner and a few post prandials. I actually do a lot of cooking. I have several recipes for rabbit. My favourite starts with, "First catch your rabbit ..."

I have two degrees in high temperature thermodynamics. Of course there's a formula for how many angels. We need to know their enthalpy of formation and the expected decrease in entropy due to the close packing. The temperature at which hell freezes over would be useful ...

The answer to the last is of course 42.

::

 

[darkmaas]

How do you know when a poem is done?
Did you make more progress by reading poetry, or writing it?

I don't. I'm not a perfectionist so I apply the law of diminishing returns. I hit send when I can't see any easy way of making it better or it goes into my bad poems recycling file to be cannibalized for future poems. Having said that, in hindsight, most of my poems need work, particularly the early ones.

Writing, writing, writing. One should read a lot but not necessarily poetry. Paradoxically reading bad poetry in my case was helpful, because it stimulated the editor-in-my-brain seeing things go wrong in other poems. Traveling, learning a second language, exploring a lovers brain or even your own ... all useful. Ask stupid questions. But mostly write.

::

 

[darkmaas]

Dear Darkmaas,

Your erotic, sad, funny poem about a mismatched couple and a last bachelor assignation, Schafstiefelgeister translates - as far as I can tell - to Sheepbootspirit. Why? What inspired the poem (and the title)? You wrote it way back in '03 so you may not remember but I've always loved it and wondered.

It can be translated as "Jackboot Ghosts" I think. Of course I remember it. I struggled a bit with it. I said above that I wasn't that interested in male sexual behaviors and this poem is the exception to the rule. Male sexuality is more complex than we are given credit for and this was an attempt to explore that. In the original version, the female character was Haitian so there was both a gender and a racial contrast. Two readers of the early version only saw the racial tension (which surprised me) so I toned it down. I'm happy with the result but it's not a pretty poem in that I find the content rather ugly.

::

 

[Desejo]

Following up on the question posed to Tzara - how do you decide what to post to the "official" lit site, and what stays here in the forum? And what are the pros and cons of posting poems for comment/ scores?

 

[Desejo]

Also: do you look like the dude in your avatar . Or dress like him? Just for that poetic flair.....

 

[darkmaas]

..
darkmaas, favorite of your poems and why.

What a question. Probably "Etruscan Bones" because it's a very personal slice of life. But if you ask me tomorrow it might be something else. Oddly the poem that garnered the most applause was ... I had to go and dig up the actual title ... "only" ... which was written for a challenge is one of my least favourites.

::

 

[darkmaas]

Following up on the question posed to Tzara - how do you decide what to post to the "official" lit site, and what stays here in the forum? And what are the pros and cons of posting poems for comment/ scores?

It used to be that you uploaded your best poems to the official site. Doggerel remained in the forum. At the beginning I enjoyed the comments and was perplexed by the scoring. However, now anybody whose opinion I might wish is more likely to see my stuff on the forum so I post here. I have no intention to physically publish so that is not a concern. If you want a broad audience though, posting to the official site will probably give you more readers than either the forum or physical publication.

I'm less prolific than Tzara so archiving is not a concern either.

Having said all that, this personal immersion in my vaults has been amusing so I'm rethinking and will probably take some of my recent stuff from this forum and post it formally so that in another decade I can look back at it with ease.

::