Contributor Spotlight Interview:
Joshua Gage
Joshua Gage is an ornery curmudgeon from Cleveland. He is the editor of The Ohio Haiku Anthology, the first collection of haiku by Ohio poets in over twenty years. He currently co-edits the horror poetry journal Otoroshi Journal with his life partner, Rowan Beckett. His newest chapbook, blips on a screen, is available on Cuttlefish Books. He is a graduate of the Low Residency MFA Program in Creative Writing at Naropa University. He has a penchant for Pendleton shirts, Ethiopian coffee, and any poem strong enough to yank the breath out of his lungs.
1. Basho, Buson, or Issa? (No saying Shiki, even if that's the correct answer.)
I reject the nature of the question as one based in historical politics rather than artistic merit, and posit that Kikaku or Chiyo-ni are my answers to this question.
2. Who is one person who has been a mentor to you in the short form community?
I would not be the haiku poet I am today were it not for Ferris Gilli’s ragucation. I pissed her off so much with questions and submissions that she would just rip me apart and the send five or six essays she wrote. It was trial by fire, but she almost always proved me wrong and had a clear answer. When I respond to poets as an editor, I often use her as an example of not just how to edit, but how to encourage submitters to grow their work into something I'd accept. There are a few editors in the haiku community willing to do this, and I was blessed that Gene Murtha, who I started haiku with and who really built me up as a haiku poet, suggested I send to her.
3. Publications, where was your first and your most recent?
First publication ever was when I was 18. I wrote these shitty Bukowski ripoffs and sent them to all the journals he had been in. One, Long Shot, picked me up. It was huge as a freshman in school getting snagged alongside Beat and Mimeo icons and heroes. Seriously, this was one of those 80s and 90s indie mags trying to bridge Beat and Mimeo with Punk and Indie aesthetics, and was the HUGEST dopamine hit for immature little me wanting to be a drunk poet.
First haiku publication was bottle rockets 8 or 9, I think. Ask Stanford. 😂 It was about a lamb I saw in Ireland on a bus tour.
Most recent, I think, was Shadow Pond, July 4.
4. Favorite horror movie or book, romance movie or book, writer or film director working in a language you can't fluently speak?
I hate this question. Too many answers to try and narrow down. Especially for an English “major” with a film “minor.”
Horror Film: Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. I love the way the image creates the horror. The plot is cool, but it's secondary to the images and the atmosphere. German Expressionism films really get those deep core horror feelings, and Caligari has always been my favorite.
Horror Book: Just because I recently discussed it and it needs more awareness, Frankenstein of Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi. That being said, I really feel like folks into speculative work really need to look at places like Interstellar Flights Press and see the sorts of things they're doing to promote underground voices in speculative poetry, including horror.
Romance Movie: Okay, my favorite favorite favorite movie of all time is Il Postino. Pablo Neruda is this sort of Cyrano character to this bumbling postman, and not only does it have THE SEXIEST PICKUP LINE EVER but it affirms the power of poetry in the face of all opposition, even grief and death. Such a humbling ending, too. There's a romance plot, so I guess this counts, but there's so much more in this film. Seriously. Put this film on when you want to feel like your poetry has meaning or matters. I will be right over with the Chianti, and we'll grief write together!
Pure Romantic Comedy is Philadelphia Story. I am a Jimmy Stewart, and I understand artists and their egos and pride always wanting to be the Bottom to Titania's drunken lust. But there is a moral honor there, too, which I love. Plus, the scene where Jimmy Stewart shows up drunk on champagne in an improvised whirlwind of chaos to a very sleepy and sober Cary Grant is comedy gold.
Romance Book: The Captain’s Verses by Neruda. I read these with Rowan in bed, and sometimes even they say the eroticism is a bit intense. This is a book whose poetry drips with lust. Go to school on this collection.
Foreign Writer: I already said Neruda, so we’ll go with Otto Rene Castillo. I love a lot of the poets on Curbstone Press because they're so politically active. It reminds me that poetry needs to mean something or do something, or else it's just floof. Castillo's Let's Go! was one of the major collections from this press that really inspired me, and the fact that Castillo and his poetry was so dangerous that he was tortured and burned alive for it says something.
Film Director: Kenji Mizoguchi is the obvious, though I would straight jack shots from František Vláčil. I love long takes, mise en place, tracking shots, etc.--anything that demands the viewer sit with the images, the characters, and just feel with them. Obviously, should give shout outs to Jim Jarmusch for the Cleveland connection, too, but Mizoguchi is so wrought with emotion that it aches.
5. Favorite jazz, folk, blues singer or musician?
Jazz: I don't really know that much jazz, but the jazz I like tends to be bebop and hardbop. I love trios--love, love, love trios--because the simple arrangements create room for masterworks of improvisations. Of the trios I love, The Three Sounds has to be one of the best, so I'm going with Gene Harris. Check out "Willow Weep for Me" and "Black Orchid," but so many great tracks from this trio.
Folk: I was raised on folk by my mother, who was into the early 60s Greenwich Village artists. In high school, when everyone was rediscovering Leadbelly and folk blues artists because of Nirvana's Unplugged album, I was looking at the other stuff on the folkways catalog. I discovered Roscoe Holcomb, and when I heard that opening wail on Moonshiner, I was broken. This voice is brutal, and I wish I could write with that emotion.
Blues: Again, I don't really know that much blues, but what I do know tends to be either folk blues because of Smithsonian, Yazoo, and others, or 40's and 50's blues and R&B because of the gothabilly influence. There's a radio show I used to listen to, Juke in the Back, where the producer "Matt the Cat" would do these lectures on the history of an artist or a song or a label, and I loved those episodes of raw talent, and exploring records that my parents would NEVER listen to. One artist, of MANY, that comes to mind as fun and raw and raunchy is Bull Moose Jackson.
6. Who's a great haiku or senryu poet whose work speaks to you that you’d like more people to be aware of?
Ancient: Chiyo-Ni or Kikaku (see above)
Modern: I think folks ignore the genre work of Debbie Kolodji way too much. People are aware of her work, but haiku poets (and even many speculative poets) tend to overlook these brilliant poems. As a genre haiku author and editor, the fact that Kolodji's skill with scifaiku isn't given the attention it deserves is a crime because she does it so damn well. The mono no aware, as well as the wabi and sabi, is dripping off her poems. If folks aren't reading this, they're missing out on what scifaiku is.
7. Politically if you had the ability to fix one issue via policy changes what would it be?
Basic Human Needs. Every human being deserves healthy food, clean water, safe housing, and comprehensive medical care. There is nothing standing in the way of providing these beyond greed.
8. Describe a pet you treasure/d, your own or someone else’s.
Our Luna is so expressive and quirky, but past tense would be my mom’s teaching partner’s dog Sandy, who I wrote a haiku about, too.
Fun pet story: Haiku poet Jill Callahan (another new voice in the community that could use more attention and awareness, btw) would chat with Rowan and I about poetry, submissions, etc. For the longest time, I could not remember her name because "Jill" is clearly so rare and complicated, so she was always "Shorty's mom" because those ears and that boop! And then I met his sister, and I'm done! DONE I TELL YOU!!! TOO MUCH CUTE!!! So yeah, I know folks through their pets because animals make more sense to me than most human beings do.
9. What season do you feel you write best or most frequently and why?
Autumn and Winter. I have a medical thing that affects my body in heat, so these are cooler and safer seasons.
10. If you could nominate one poem (not your own) from the last year and its poet for an individual Touchstone award, who and what would they be?
I do not believe in nominating for the Touchstones ethically, so I wouldn’t.
11. Who is one historical person whose activism or accomplishments especially inspire you, and why?
I understand Mohamed Bouazizi’s pain, powerlessness, and desperation. I wrote a poem for him, too. You can find it in this free chapbook that I had published with a bunch of others to protest Donald Trump's presidency.
12. What have you learned about writing poetry you wish you realized earlier?
1) The more quality work you read, the better your work becomes.
2) Not everything published or award-winning is deserving or quality. This has always been a problem.
3) Not all quality work will hold meaning for you, and that’s okay.
13. One food, drink, song you adore?
Food: Good, simple meat and sides. With pickles. Cleveland chef Michael Symon loves pickles and says more chefs need to work with acid. I love making homemade pickles and offset smoking some chicken or ribs. That and a whiskey at sunset is a really fun, relaxing day.
Drink: Ethiopian coffee. Or rye whiskey manhattans.
Song: “Country Feedback” by REM
14. In your poems what bird, plant, weather pattern has appeared frequently?
I’m from Cleveland, so lots of birds (crows, pigeons, buzzards, etc.) and bugs (roaches, spiders, beetles, etc.). We have a lot of deer and raccoons, too, especially near the parks where my parents live.
Weather: Snow. Rain. Lake effect snow. More rain. A few minutes of intense humidity. Snow. And that’s before lunch. In May.
15. If you could get a roundtrip plane ticket and accommodations comped to any place, where would you visit?
I want to revisit Ireland, but I also want to visit Iona in Scotland and feel where St. Columcille was. He's my patron saint and name saint, so just to walk the width and breadth of this tiny island and feel the soil beneath my feet, maybe I'd soak something up and get that much closer to the Divine.
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