Interview with Ralph Angel and Michelle-Mitchell Foust's Intro to Creative Writing Class

Betsey: Welcome to the Sarabande in Education Chatroom! Today, Michelle Mithchell-Foust's Intro to Creative Writing Class from Fullerton College will be interviewing poet Ralph Angel.

ralph angel: morning, betsey Fri May 17, 2002 1:00 pm

Betsey: Hullo, Ralph. Glad to see you got in all right. Fri May 17, 2002 1:01 pm

Michelle : Morning, Betsey, Ralph. We made it! Fri May 17, 2002 1:01 pm

Betsey: Good! Fri May 17, 2002 1:02 pm

Michelle : First question: from Erica...Do you have to be sad to write a sad poem, in love to write a love poem? Basically, in your poems, are you in the feeling of the moment when you write it, or does it just come to you? Fri May 17, 2002 1:03 pm

ralph angel: good question, erica. the short answer is yes. a poet only has two tools with which to work: the language in which he composes and the fact of his experience. a poem enacts the fact of one's experience (and sometimes i don't much like or feel comfortable with what i find there). Fri May 17, 2002 1:05 pm

Michelle : I saw the poem "Such Weather" as a contrast between the human relationship and the immensity of the world....Is this poem about the failure of initimate relationship and the renewal of human emotion? I understood the message of the poem to be a lesson of chance, and wise vs. foolish choices. Would this be an accurate interpretation? Fri May 17, 2002 1:06 pm

Michelle : P.s. That question is from Deborah. Fri May 17, 2002 1:07 pm

ralph angel: deborah, that's an extremely erudite interpretation of the poem. probably better than i could come up with. go with it. and thanks. Fri May 17, 2002 1:08 pm

Michelle : May the force be with her! This is from Monica...What aspects of your style do you think have changed most since your last published work? Fri May 17, 2002 1:09 pm

ralph angel: the three books relate, of course, but the differences (and some critics and reviewers think they're dramatic) reflect both the evolution of my orientation to and rapport with language and the evolution of my life experience. Fri May 17, 2002 1:12 pm
Michelle : Ian isn't happy with this question, but he asked it anyway. How do you regard your previous work? Fri May 17, 2002 1:13 pm

ralph angel: i don't much look back, ian (though, of course, i read from it all, and am asked about all of it in interviews). i don't write any of it off. all past work is the best i could do at the time. Fri May 17, 2002 1:16 pm

Michelle : "And More" seems quite ambigous. What were your intentions? Did you intentionally aim for the possibilities of more than one interpretation? Fri May 17, 2002 1:17 pm

Michelle : Alexandra asks the new question... Fri May 17, 2002 1:17 pm

ralph angel: i almost didn't include the poem in the book, alexandra, given the wildly divergent interpretations that came from readers i respect. but, you know what?--i could accept each and every one of them. it all seemed to go to the heart of what i was living at the time i made the poem--deep love and ambivilance and gratitude. Fri May 17, 2002 1:22 pm

Michelle : Carmen is curious...Do you have any connections to Native Americans? Fri May 17, 2002 1:23 pm

ralph angel: no, carmen, other than reading some native american philosophy and having as one of my best childhood friends a boy of blackfoot descent. Fri May 17, 2002 1:26 pm

Michelle : The other Michelle in the room asks: Your poems have an element of "dream" and "sleep"--is that how you give a TIME to TWICE REMOVED? Fri May 17, 2002 1:27 pm

ralph angel: might you pose the question differently? i don't quite, forgive me, understand it. Fri May 17, 2002 1:28 pm

Michelle : In "Twice Removed" sleep seems a move between worlds. True? Could dream also be a move between worlds? Fri May 17, 2002 1:30 pm

ralph angel: yes, michelle, absolutely. the poems, and my life experience, don't much distinguish between internal and external reality, between unconscious and conscious reality, and the like. it is, for me, a fact of being, and, when i'm in my trance, all experince has its way with me.

Michelle : Marina wants to know...do you write other genres? Fri May 17, 2002 1:34 pm


ralph angel: i've done a few other things, but (in my eyes) not very successfully. i've a notebook of scribblings for a novel, marina, but don't tell anybody! Fri May 17, 2002 1:38 pm

Michelle : We won't. Maggie asks: What is your poem titled "This" really expressing to the readers? Fri May 17, 2002 1:39 pm

ralph angel: don't know that i can answer that, maggie. what does it express to you? (help!) Fri May 17, 2002 1:41 pm

Michelle : Maggie believes that "This" involves someone the speaker loves who's far away...yet the relationship is ongoing. Fri May 17, 2002 1:43 pm

Michelle : How long did it take to get the collection of poems together? Sally asks... Fri May 17, 2002 1:44 pm

ralph angel: exactly, maggie. when i stepped out of my trance, i was flabbergasted--the closest thing to a love poem was staring me in the face. Fri May 17, 2002 1:45 pm

ralph angel: sally, the poems took me about four years to make. and then i spent about a month or so to assemble the "larger poem" of the book. Fri May 17, 2002 1:48 pm

Michelle : Dear Ralph, do you go into these trances voluntarily, or involuntarily?
Ian's question...ha ha. Fri May 17, 2002 1:48 pm

ralph angel: in the early years, ian, mostly involuntarily. but after a while poetry really does become a way of life. these days, entering my trance is an act of discipline, not unlike meditation. in this distracted reality of ours, day to day, it is an act of will. Fri May 17, 2002 1:51 pm

Michelle : In "The Local Language" what does the line"water breaking apart as it leaves the cliff and falls forever through its own, magnificent window" mean? I couldn't connect it with the rest of the poem. Fri May 17, 2002 1:53 pm

Michelle : Mark asks the question... Fri May 17, 2002 1:53 pm

ralph angel: i'm not sure, mark, that i know what it means. but, believe me, i'm sitting
here trying. it was an image of amazement for me on a day that i hiked up to a waterfall
while on a fulbright in slovenia. Fri May 17, 2002 1:57 pm

Michelle : Did your mother love poetry or literature when you were young? Does she read your poetry? Fri May 17, 2002 1:58 pm

Michelle : Rayanne, Mom of 4, asks. Fri May 17, 2002 1:58 pm

Betsey: We only have a few minutes...so we'll need to be wrapping it up...thanks! Fri May 17, 2002 1:59 pm

ralph angel: a funny question, rayanne. i did not grow up in a book-reading household, and i was the first person in my family to go to college. my parents read my work, i think, though i'm not sure. they have loved hearing me read my work publically when i'm ivited to the northwest, and have loved the audience response to it. Fri May 17, 2002
2:02 pm

Michelle : Thanks Ralph, Betsey! This was great. Thanks for such wonderful responses. We have benefitted greatly! MMF Fri May 17, 2002 2:03 pm

Betsey: Thank you Michelle and Class! And of course, thank you Ralph. Michelle, I will e-mail you a transcript of the chat. Fri May 17, 2002 2:04 pm

ralph angel: your very welcome, michelle. and thanks to your wonderful, soulful students. remind them that martinis will be served at your place at five o'clock. Fri May 17, 2002 2:04 pm

Michelle : Cosmopolitans, Ralph. Cosmopolitans. Or Mint Julips. Peace out. Fri May 17, 2002 2:05 pm