ChicagoPostmodernPoetry.Com

Poetic Profile

 

 

William Allegrezza

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

General Questions

 

1) Where did you grow up? Was poetry and writing part of that mix?

 

I grew up in Jackson, Mississippi.  I don’t know that poetry was part of my early life, except for in a musical format, but literature definitely was, especially since my mother was an English teacher and Mississippi prides itself on its fiction writers, especially Faulkner and Welty.  We even had a Eudora Welty library in Jackson.

 

As a teen, I started writing songs for bands.  That’s probably where the desire to write poetry began for me.

 

 

2) Who are your poetic influences, favorite poets, writers, artwork, other things that inform your work?

 

I have many favorite poets, such as Giuseppe Ungaretti, Charles Olson, Denise Levertov, Sappho, Petrarch, Dante, Homer, Eugenio Montale, Pablo Neruda, T.S. Eliot, John Crowe Ransom, Charles Bernstein, Susan Howe, Walt Whitman, e.e. cummings, Muriel Rukeyser, and Antonio Porta.  Besides poets, I enjoy the work of many artists, like Eva Hesse and Donald Judd, and fiction writers, like Dostoyevsky, Melville, Stendhal, and Caroline Gordon.

 

So many things influence my writing.  I’m probably only conscious of some of them. 

 

 

3) When did you 'become' a poet when did poet become part of your everyday life?

 

I first came to poetry through music during my teenage years.  From then on, I have been writing, but I did not feel like a poet until a few years ago, and even now I feel like I walk a line of being a poet and being an academic. 

 

 

4) Where were you educated? Was this important?

 

I left Mississippi for college at the University of Dallas.  My years at UD were probably my most formative years as a writer.  UD is one of those great liberal arts schools that’s heavy on the humanities.  Being thrown into the arts, philosophy, and literature was just what I needed as young Southerner.

 

After UD, I felt let down when I went to graduate school at Louisiana State University.  I received a masters degree there in English and thought about giving up on LSU.  Luckily, I contacted the Comparative Literature department about a doctorate, and they had a space and some money.  Switching programs allowed me to move away from a narrow American/British perspective and look at literature from a more global perspective. 

 

 

5) You are a Southerner by birth, and also an Italian American how do those things effect your writing where is the Nexus?

 

I don’t know.  I grew up with both sides as part of who I am.  On the one hand, I miss the beauty of Mississippi, even though I remember the many reasons that I left.  On the other hand, I don’t feel like a traditional Southerner because of my Italian American side. 

Besides the fact that I read more Southern writers and Italian writers than anything else, I do not know how these two aspects of my life influence my writing.   

 

 

5.1) You are a prolific writer and editor of Moria how do you separate the editor from the poet?

 

Separating the roles of poet and editor has never been hard for me.  As an editor, I switch into reading mode.  If something excites me or interests me as an experimental piece, I usually accept it.  I do the same thing as a reader choosing works that I want to read.  I imagine that most poets do something similar when choosing reading material. 

 

 

6) What is your favorite food?

 

Ravioli, or a nice risotto, or minestrone on a cold day, or my mother’s mashed potatoes—I love to cook, so providing any one answer to this questions is impossible.

 

 

7) Sports Team?

 

Cubs.  

 

 

8) Vacation Spot?

 

Amalfi Coast, or Culebra (an island next to Puerto Rico), or Florence, or Naphlion (in Greece).

 

 

9) Curse Word?

 

Fucking bastard.

 

 

10) What is your opinion of Avant Garde American writing in comparison to other Avant Gardes from other places in the world?

 

Americans writers tend to be overly insular.  They might know a lot about Black Mountain writers, but ask them about major writers like René Char or Antonio Porta, and they know little.  This problem about being concerned with other cultures and languages is, of course, not just a problem of writers in the U.S. 

 

I do not want to sound negative.  Some incredibly good writing is happening in the U.S. right now, and I think being in a major American city is good for writers.

 

 

11) Is it true that what they say about Italians? That Italians have the most style and passion?

 

Of course. 

 

 

Craft Questions

 

 

1) How do you form a poem?

 

I start writing and discover how to form the poem as I’m writing it.

 

 

2) Do you use collage, parataxis cut ups or other tools?

 

In short, I use anything I think the poem needs.  Yes, in the past I have used collage, and I have often thrown in lines from other poets. 

 

Sometimes I will run a poem through a language translator or translate it myself and then rewrite it.  Sometimes I use voice recognition software to copy down what I or the radio says and then I play with the jumble that it produces.  Sometimes I take what I write in my journal over several months and combine the fragments into a poem.  Sometimes I work collaboratively with other poets, so basically I just try to mess with what they send me.  Sometimes I try to write words for music in my head. 

 

Often, I have a word or two floating around my head for months, and when I finally build up to a poem, I try to write what I’m thinking about that word.  If often takes a few attempts to expel the word from my consciousness. 

 

 

3) Is poetry an organic or synthetic process for you?

 

From what I just said, it should be clear that I think it is organic.

 

 

4) Where do you write? Is Ambiance important? Do you have rituals or habits when you write?

 

I usually write at night in my study overlooking 56th Street in Chicago.  I almost always have a cup of coffee at my side.  If it has been a bad day, I’ll change the coffee for something stiffer.  I settle in with my computer or journal and write in blocks.  Most of the time the blocks are sections of a poem.  When I’ve come up with a draft of something, I’ll take a lengthy break, unless my mind is stuffed with words, and then I’ll move on to another poem.  Basically, to answer your question, ambiance is important.  If I’m traveling, I usually look for a quiet place to settle in with a cup of coffee and my journal so that I can write.    

 

 

5) In the balance between found language and created language where does your work fall? Do you use many sources?

 

I don’t feel as if I create any of the language that I use.  I imagine myself more as an arranger of material.  I exist within a language flux and spend my time trying to order words into a structure that I only manage to create as I play.  That said, everything I write has a source behind it. 

 

Then again,  I do use many specific sources.  Almost all of my poems seem to reference Dante in some way, and Homer and Eliot show up in my work frequently.  Wittgenstein, Benjamin, and Heraclitus often appear in almost direct quotation in many of my poems.