The Tin Lustre Inner-views

Monday, March 17, 2003

The Tin Lustre Inner-views:

Mark S. Kuhar

andrew: first of all,
mark, thank you for agreeing
to do this interview...


markk: but of course.


andrew: mark, at what
age did you begin writing
poetry? and why did you
begin writing? what
desires, inner-movements
of your soul, made it
inevitable that you write?
have you ever been to the sahara?


markk: i wrote my first
poem when i was seven years old.
i still have a copy of it. i
remember asking my mother if
poets made good money, because
i was interested in getting a
job in that field. she laughed
and suggested that it might be
better if poetry were my hobby.
i began writing because a crack
appeared in the egg. when the
egg cracks, you can either glue
it shut, or break it open & make
an omelette. the name kuhar
means "cook" in croatian. 'nuff
said. i've never been to the
sahara, but i've read "the
little prince" numerous
times, so it's sorta the same thing.


andrew: mark, what
literary figures have influenced
you the most?


markk: obviously
d.a. levy, for
his role as a cleveland-based
poet, a
latter-day beat, but in
general, the beat poets.
that's sort of cliche to say
but it's true. kerouac is
king. ALSO: j.d. salinger.
rilke. kafka. richard brautigan.
bob dylan. turn of the 19th
century russian poets, such as
akhmatova, bely, mandelstam,
khlebenikov, blok, tsvetaeva,
and of course mayakovsky.


andrew: oh, mayakovsky?
but of course!

among the e-poetry community,
are there any e-poets whose
writing you follow regularly
and who are they?


markk: there's this
kid named lundwall who ain't
half bad. i dig the
work of my
cleveland homies, like paul
skyrm, josh gage, vladimir
swirinsky, kathy walker,
katie daley , michael
salinger, ray mcniece, terry
provost and all the others.


andrew: tell me a bit
about the possibility of a
deep cleveland press.


markk: deep cleveland
press isn't officially launched
yet, but it will
start out being a publisher
of national anthologies, and
will ultimately support local
& national poets whose work i
admire.


andrew: i've noticed
that you've added new features
to the site
recently..
are there any other planned
features you'd like to make
readers aware of?


markk: i just launched
a new special section called "water*FIRE*light:
contemporary poetry in the mystic
tradition." i'm all geeked
up about it, because there's
a mysterious alchemy that
occurs with the writing &
publishing of mystic poetry.
it breaks open portals of the
universe that heretofore remain
closed or hidden. it is my hope
that by supporting the craft of
ecstatic expression, it will
release positive-active energy
into the universe as a
counterbalance to the negative-
active energy already flowing
from places such as, OH, the
white house, for instance.


andrew: what are your
thoughts on the possibility of
another war with iraq?


markk: ghandi said that war
is a morally unacceptable
alternative. i think a war with
iraq is being planned by the
G.O.P. to achieve its aim of
enriching its corporate donors
in the oil & energy fields, and
as a diversionary tactic to
cover up a freefalling U.S.
economy, for which the
puppetteers that manipulate
GEORGE. W. BUSH'S strings
have no answer. also, karl rove,
THE MAIN BUSH PUPPETEER, has
crafted a re-election strategy
that is designed to use fear
of iraq & terrorism as a means
to keep U.S. citizens deluded
into thinking they need hideous
thugs like JOHN ASHCROFT &
DONALD RUMSFELD to protect
them. and by the way, all of
this is occuring with mass
media COLLUSION on a MASSIVE
SCALE. i consider PRO-PEACE
citizens to be american patriots,
and PRO-WAR citizens to
be ULTRA-NATIONALIST EXTREMISTS.
i say war is weakness,
PEACE IS STRENGTH.


andrew: markk, when you
think of the word "surreal"
what immediately comes to mind?


markk: rene magritte &
salvador dali.
gertrude stein. TIE-DYE.
chameleon breath.


andrew: how do you
think the midwest, in
particular, cleveland, has
affected your writing?


markk: my theory of deep
cleveland comes into play here.
THE ROADS & BRIDGES, &
THE LAKE & THE RIVER, &
THE STEEL MILLS &
THE AUTO PLANTS, &
THE NEIGHBORHOOD BARS &
THE ETHNIC DELIS
BECOME SPIRIT & INFUSE
YOUR THOUGHTS & IMPRESSIONS &
thus surface in the poems.
& it's something you can't
escape from even if you try.


andrew: in writing
is their anything that is
impossible to describe? does
the writer make the impossible
possible?


markk: our perceptions
are impeded by the infantile
capacity of HUMAN INTELLIGENCE,
which allows us only the limit
of vocabulary to try & DESCRIBE
THINGS which are, essentially,
BEYOND ALL LIMITS.


andrew: what does
the future hold in store
for mark s. kuhar? where
do you see yourself one
year from now, a decade from now?


markk: it is my hope that
i can revise & organize
my own PERSONAL BODY OF WORK,
which now comprises of more
than 1,000 PAGES of POETRY,
in such a way that will allow
me to do a better job of
marketing it. i'd like to
have several COLLECTIONS of
my POEMS published in the future.
i also ENVISION deep cleveland
press as a FUNCTIONAL &
PROFITABLE small press
publishing company. and of
course one day i want my
EVERY WORD & ACTION
to generate a PURE OUTRAGEOUS
ECSTATIC BLISS of white healing
light.

Photo of Mark Kuhar
provided courtesy of
Markk.

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Inner-views 1:17 PM - [Link]
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