ChicagoPostmodernPoetry.Com

Poetic Profile

Odile Cisneros

General Questions

 

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

In Guadalajara, Mexico. I hung out with friends (most 10 years older than me) who were artists, musicians, philosophers, architects and writers. Informal writing and reading was part of that mix. Poetry--mainly humorously baroque and satirical--was often read at our meetings.
 

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

I'm interested in the international avant-garde in general, and in the Latin American or Brazilian contexts in particular. Everything from Russian constructivism to Czech poetism, from Brazilian concretism to Mexican stridentism. Anything that considers form as important as content, in fact, indistinguishable from it. Some poets/authors I like (not in any particular order): Ezra Pound, Haroldo de Campos, Luis Palés Matos, Ramón Gómez de la Serna, Velimir Khliebnikov, Vitezlav Nezval, Régis Bonvicino, Oswald de Andrade, Vicente Huidobro, Fernando Pessoa, Gertrude Stein, José Juan Tablada, Blaise Cendrars, João Cabral de Melo Neto.

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

Did I? I think it was not a voluntary conscious process, but when I started translating some 8 years ago, poetry became the most interesting type to text to translate. Reading, translating, and writing are simultaneous and complementary processes for me. Translating a poem requires a very close and meticulous reading and reveals the inner workings not only of that particular text but also of the language(s) involved.

4) You have translated many famous writers tell us about your process and the work you are interested in.

I like work which pushes the limits of language, is playful, unabashedly experimental while not self-indulgent.

 

5) What is your favorite food?

Quesadillas--any time.

 

6) Sports Team? or Activity?

Capoeira--not too good at it yet!

 

7) Vacation spot?

Not into "vacations"!

 

8) Curse word?

Jezismarjá!

 

Craft Questions

 

1) How do you form a poem? Is poetry and organic or synthetic process for you?

Poetry for me is a construct, a carefully articulated and regulated machine;as João Cabral de Melo Neto would say, a machine for producing emotions. There's something comforting about the perfect self-containment and
self-sufficiency of the poem. Writing is also a balancing act--between the processing of the emotion and the perfect crystallization of the text. I often think of Pound's anecdote regarding the composition of "In A Station
of the Metro"--it's more about taking away than adding.

 

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

My writing habits are haphazard--I go through productive periods and others of inactivity. When my state of mind is right, texts occur almost involuntarily, but they require much reworking, paring away.

 

3) In the balance between found language and created language where does your work fall?

I like to challenge the idea that there's a distinction between the two. The very act of appropriating found language can be seen as a creative act. Duchamp did away with the myth of "creation" close to 100 years ago! It all depends on the outcome and, of course, at some point, aesthetic considerations are highly subjective.
 

http://www.humanities.ualberta.ca/MLCS/department/staff/cisneros.html