Interview with Ralph Angel and Lorene Delaney-Ullman's Art of Poetry Class at the University of CA, Irvine

ralph: good morning, lorene

Lorene: Good morning, Ralph. Are you ready for your first question|? I have 14 students ready and waiting...

wilson: hello...thanks for your time ... In "And More" you ended your poem "i cant quite put my finger on and like. Is that to the effect of "and like i don't know why she is so beautiful today?

ralph: i'll replyin a sec, wilson. thanks for your question.

ralph: wilson, is that how you read the last line?

wilson: yea.. after i wrote it in for you

Michelle: Hi, Ralph...(I'm sitting in with Lorene and the group. Hope all's well. Tue Feb

ralph: thanks, wilson, i appreciate your reading/experience of the poem. though i may not have intended your experience exactly, it's my job to generate experience for the reader or listener.

chau: Hi, my question is that --most of your poems seem to be based on observation of "here and now," both mind and body, but before writing each poem, do you set a tone for it--as to what kind of poem it should be?

Lorene: Ralph, by the way, I just spoke with Sarabande, and Betsey is not in today, so Nicole will be moderating.

Nickole Brown: Hello, all. This is Nickole from Sarabande. Let me know if you guys need any technical assistance. . .

ralph: no, chau, i don't. when i'm in my trance, i listen or wait for the language of presence.

chau: thanks

Arthur Thio: Hello Mr. Angel. I was just curious to know how many revisions does it usually take for you to complete a poem. Thank you.

ralph: it varies, arthur, poem to poem. by that i mean each poem gets made in its own sweet time, as i tend to revise during the making, and rarely after the fact.

Wesley: Mr. Angel, What inspired you to write "The Nothing That Is" and name it after the final line of Wallace Stevens' poem "The Snow Man"?

Arthur Thio: I see. Thank you

Melissa Aguas: I write poems like that too, Mr. Angel!

ralph: wesley, your second question is easier. stevens is a god. the first is more complicated. the short of it is that i was in my trance, and, after making the first stanza, i think,and having taken myself to a dark place, i got a phone call in which i learned of a dear, dear friend's death.

Johanna : Hello and thanks for your time. Here is my question: It seems you tend to write about LA in your poems. What about Los Angeles inspires you?

Wesley: Thank you for the vivid answer.

Christine: I'm sorry for your loss...

ralph: johanna, i've lived in los angeles half my life. and i write from my experience.

Christine: I was wondering what made you want to write about the Ten Commandments from the films by Krzystof Kieslowski and not any other film? What about these films impacted you?

Nickole Brown: The response time for your conversation seems a bit low. Could everyone check to make sure they have their "Auto refresh" setting at at least 60 seconds?
Johanna : maybe even ten seconds

ralph: the poem is an homage to kieslowski in general, and to "decalogue" in particular. i fell nearly into madness making that poem (i couldn't know if it was a poem as i was making it), as i watched one film each day and simply asked myself to "respond." i don't recall shaving much or leaving the house, but i do remember how my wife, debra, allowed me to go where i had to go.

simon: hi mr angel, it's an honor to chat with you. my question is, in regards to the photograph on the cover of your book, is there any significance about this picture in relation to your poetry especially the poem/book title "twice removed"?

Johanna : your poems were impacting on their own. without the films

ralph: well, simon, like stevens and kieslowski, atget is a god. how does the photograph speak to you?

Ngoc Han: Good morning Mr. Angel. Hope your morning is going well so far. I was wondering if you could relive a moment in your life that you have written about and be inspired to write about it again with as much or more motivation as the first time, what moment would it be and why?

ralph: what a great question, ngoc. i wish i could answer it. but when it happens, i will remember, believe me, your question.

Ngoc Han: Thank you!

Michelle: Thanks for taking the time to chat with us. Do the Ten Commandments play a special part in your life or did the films just inspire you to write about them?

ralph: as a child, i was educated in the jewish bible.

Jason: Is your love life and love in general as dramatic as everyone interprets it to be

ralph: please, please, jason, tell me how it's interpreted?

Jason: well my class seems to analyze every word unitl they bleed so I was just wondering

vi: hey mr. angel. i was wondering where your favorite place to sit and people watch is? (p.s. thank you for being here... we appreciate you, as well as your poetry)

ralph: tend to them, jason, they're suffering. and, vi, i don't have a favorite place, but you're hip to know that i love being out and about the city and among people.

Christine: Your poems are so personal . . .had you intended on having this work published from the beginning? If not, what made you decide to publish these?

ralph: i make poems for people, christine. and i'm fortunate enough to put them in the world as i make them. it's hard to say if this book is more personal than the others. each depicts being alive at the time.

Aaron Bert: Hi, my question is...Do you find it hard to write poetry in Los Angeles, a city so far removed from nature?

ralph: the first writer i heard speak in los angeles was saul bellow (another god). he recounted his time in l.a., and said he learned to write here in what he called a cultural desert. i thought that an interesting phrase, "cultural (as in humanity) desert (as in nature)."

Melissa Aguas: Hi! Good afternoon. As a poet, do you feel that your reader is at a loss if they do not interpret your poem in the way that you originally intended? Side note: we think you are a god of a poet as well. ;) no lie.

ralph: melissa, it's my job to create presence, immediacy, to generate an experience for the reader or listener. if you happen to be present in my poems, then your experience is perfect and right.

Melissa Aguas: Another question: What inspires you most to write poetry?

Lorene: Michelle and I are wondering if you are reading at the Getty soon?

ralph: life, dear. i don't know nothin' 'bout nothin' else.

Aaron Bert: Why do you talk about the significant other "you" in the beginning and end of the book, but not in the middle?

ralph: i just read at the getty, in november, i think.

ralph: wow, i didn't know that i'd done that, aaron. very insightful. please come up with a theory and send it to me. you're a natural-born book reviewer.

Christine: You take a very minimalist approach to the "Decalogue." Why?

ralph: kieslowski's approach is "hugely" minimalistic in those films, and poetry by its very nature is compressed and compact.

vi: what's your favorite collection of your own poems and why?

ralph: each collection, vi, is the best i could do at the time. i hope you enjoy them all

Jason: Wherever you reference "her", "she", or something related to a woman, is it mostly the same person (possibly your wife)?

ralph: occasionally, it is my wife, jason. other times, it's other people. at times, it's an amalgam of people, i suppose.

Jason: thanks, that is what I had hoped

Michelle: What inspired you to become a poet?

ralph: it just happened, honestly. and then it just became a way of life, like eating and sleeping and taking a walk.

Ngoc Han: hi again, Mr. Angel. Do you have a favorite poet that you read often? Which poets insipre you?

ralph: i go back to so many, ngoc. right now (for the past few months) i'm reading the novelists, jose saramago, w. g. sebald, and anne michaels.

Ngoc Han: wow, thanks

simon: have you ever try listening to a specific type of music when writing some of your poetry? like for example, dramatic classical (Bach, Mozart) to help you build momemtum and inspiration for writing certain parts of your poems that has the same "dramatic" feeling you want in your poetry.

ralph: i nearly always play music when i'm making poems, simon.

vi: okay, thank you ralph. take care and good luck with everything.

Johanna : In "Decalogue", you bring out a sort of double sidedness to the commandment, did you find that necessary to portray that to your reader? As a raised Catholic, I completely see this side, and was wondering if you did as well?

ralph: yes, johanna, there is much irony in the poem (and in the films), as there is, i think, in life and all religious texts.

Johanna : thank you

Christine: Thank you Mr. Angel. I have really enjoyed reading your responses.

Lorene: Thanks so much, Ralph, our class is out of time. We really appreciate your candor.

Melissa Aguas: Thanks a lot!! It was great chatting with you.

Ngoc Han: well, thank you for sitting down with us today, it's really nice to read your work and actually meet the person behind it, bye

simon: thanks very much mr angel !

ralph: thanks to all of you. it was a pleasure. all best wishes. all good things.

wilson: your book is one of the few textsbook i wont be selling back to my school book store.. thanks for you thoughts and experiences

Nickole Brown: Thanks for participating, guys. Sarabande will be sending along a transcript of this chat and we will post it in our online archives.
Thanks, Ralph!

Lorene: Thanks, Nickole. I appreciate your moderation.

Nickole Brown: And thank you, Lorene.