by Sari Krosinsky
Daily Lobo
At the UNM Poets and Writers Reading Series last Thursday, faculty member and poet Diane Thiel remarked that Charles Bukowski isn't exactly a bedside read. Well, the same goes for Don McIver.
McIver has two chapbooks, covering a range of subjects from the political to the personal to the letter to a prostitute who works Central west of University. He has been deeply involved in the local poetry scene, hosting a regular reading and participating on the 2002 Albuquerque Slam team. The Daily Lobo interviewed McIver about his poetry and his exploits in poetry land.
Daily Lobo: You have a very straightforward style of writing, without all that flowery language. Why do you tend to write that way?
Don McIver: I'm drawn to direct poems, poems that use simple language to communicate. The challenge for me became how do I communicate my experience in a direct fashion that is real, honest, and poetic. Just because a person can use all that flowery language doesn't mean he/she has anything important to say. I think the catch is to be true to the poem - it'll tell you how it wants to be told.
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DL: What's the difference between writing a poem for the page and writing a poem for performance?
DM: If I read a poem in print, I can usually re-read it as many times as necessary to "get it," while I can't ask a poet to re-perform a poem if I didn't "get it" the first time. Ideally, you'd also want to enjoy hearing a poem multiple times, getting something new each time. But a successful performance poem will leave the audience with something after hearing it once, while a poem on the page doesn't necessarily have to do that. Ideally, all poems should be able to be performed, but then the catch is getting my performance skills up to the level to do the poem right.
DL: What's it like, being a white guy poet in Albuquerque?
DM: To be honest, I don't think being "a white guy poet" in Albuquerque is any different than it would be anywhere else in the United States. I have the same benefits of being a white male that all white males have. I am trained by society not to notice those benefits, but they are there and they are real. There is a very real sense that I can define myself as "a poet," but can someone who is a minority or female do that?
And the question then becomes why can't they? Why is someone's race or gender a burden and/or a badge? In America, there have been 400 years of systematic oppression by primarily white males; to deny that is foolhardy. Likewise, to deny that I, as a white male poet, have a responsibility to correct that situation is to pretend I'm not enjoying the benefits of being lucky enough to be born privileged.
DL: What gave you the idea to start Don McIver and Friends?
DM: In '97-98, there wasn't a venue for longer sets unless you were somebody. The Outsider started this reading of three poets, him, me and Anna Havens, called the Outcaste and I loved it. We did two of those readings but it really was the Outsider's gig, so when the third Outcaste reading came around, I was back to square one, reading my one or two poems at open mics and reading my one poem at a slam.
I happened to notice this new coffee shop, the Blue Dragon, open on Girard. I approached the owner, Bill Feste, about doing a night of poetry and he said, "Sure." I had a two-hour slot but didn't have nearly enough poetry to fill two hours, so I invited some friends to read. After that first reading, with five poets and maybe 15 people in attendance, Bill asked if I wanted to do a reading every month.
By the third month, the reading was really taking off. My belief was that if you gave people enough time, they'd rise to the occasion. You can't really decide if you like a poet after 5 minutes, and not everyone is going to be successful at slam right away, so my reading filled that gap nicely, complimented what was already taking place in Albuquerque.
DL: What made you decide to move the reading from the Blue Dragon to the Tricklock Theatre?
DM: I wanted to find a venue about the size of the Blue Dragon that would allow me to charge admission, because poets deserve to get paid and I wasn't able to do that effectively at the Blue Dragon. Both their productions and my schedule mean that doing the reading there will be sporadic, but when it is scheduled it should be a great show.
Visit McIver's Web site at http://www.donmciver.freeservers.com for more information.
For a list of upcoming Don McIver and Friends shows or poetry slams, visit http://ABQslams.org.
