Interview with Robert Klein Engler
Interview by L.B. Sedlacek
Robert Klein Engler was born in Chicago. He holds degrees from the
University of Illinois at Urbana and The University of Chicago Divinity School.
His poems and stories have appeared in Borderlands, Hyphen, Christopher Street,
The James White Review, American Letters and Commentary, Kansas Quarterly, and
many other magazines and journals. He was the recipient of Illinois Arts Council
Literary Awards for his poem “Flower Festival at Genzano,” which appeared in
Whetstone and “Three Poems for Kabbalah,” which appeared in Fish Stories,
II. His books are available from amazon.com.
What are your favorite kinds of poems to
write?
I suppose it is a sonnet. I have written an awful lot of them. It has been said
that the sonnet is a dead form. This is usually said by those who can't write
one.
How do you begin a poem?
I begin most often with words that come to mind. I feel that a poem is something
that is given or found. In the past I used to write my beginning efforts in my
note book, but now I have a PDA, so it's easier to go from handheld to computer.
Often the last thing is the title. Every once in a while the whole poem comes,
but other times it is hard work getting it all right.
Do you have a favorite place to write?
Yes, in my bedroom-study. I try to write everyday. I also like writing on the
"L" and in our local coffee shop.
Do you mainly write poetry, or are there other kinds of
writing that you do?
I have other things beside poetry that I like to write. I have a collection of
short stories, a couple of novellas, and I am now working on my third play. I
would like to write a long novel someday, but lyric poetry trains the mind for
short forms, so it will be a stretch. Sometimes, I feel I've gone to the well a
lot and maybe the well is dry.
Do you believe that projects like National Poetry
Month, free poetry books with new cars, etc. help to promote poetry with the
general public or hinder it?
I am indifferent to most of this. I think about it as much as they think about
my work.
Because you have been a department chair and are a
teacher, do you believe a successful poet needs to have a degree in poetry (or
creative writing) or can he/she be just as successful without it?
What is success? Getting an award from an Affirmative Action appointee or arts
administrator with a Gestapo liberal agenda who knows nothing of grace, let
alone, truth, goodness and beauty? It takes two things to be a poet. Talent and
education. You can have all the education in the world or all the awards, but if
you don't have the talent, then too bad.
What do you think about all the poetry publications now
available on the Internet?
Most of the Internet publications are like print publications. Dreadful.
Except those that publish me. (Smile and wink.)
What books, magazines, or websites do you recommend for
poets or aspiring poets?
My books, articles and poems. And those of Gloria Klein. (Another smile and wink.)
Any advice for the aspiring poet?
Two things: remember, poetry does not save the world and, write on!
Would you please share some lines (or maybe a whole
poem) of something you're working on or a favorite poem of yours that's already
been published?
Here is something seasonal I am working on from my poem of the month club:
.CHILD’S PLAY.
A cloud of souls, the mist of all that's gone,
returns to cap with frost the picket posts.
So cold, and still hope burns like iodine.
See now a blanket of white where once was lawn.
December makes our words appear like ghosts.
Who comes in youth again to taste love's salt?
In wintertime desire is cellophane.
Once, boys at school, we played, his hand in mine,
but snowbound forts prevailed, time was at fault.
I scratched his name upon the windowpane.
The tendrils of our heart's desire all weave
an Eden of ice. We eat. Forgive our sin
that leads from wilderness to blank design.
Such tricks, with snowballs up his sleeve,
or hugs for tumbling down the hill, and then,
the glance of God, a fog, so far we fall
into the white and icy glory of His call.
Hold still. The hand of mercy gathers us.
We play again in snow and blue sunshine.
Show me your breath. Exhale. Here's mine.
--Robert Klein Engler
(Copyright Robert Klein Engler)
SELECTIONS BY ROBERT KLEIN ENGLER:
departures, Return to Alexandria: Collected Sonnets,
One Hundred Poems, Shoreline, empty chair by moonlight
Robert Klein Engler's Chapbook:
http://members.aol.com/inkfeather/RKEChap.html
Window Shopping:
http://www.noalibipress.com/poets/issue1/rkengler.htm
Red Beans and Rice:
http://www.drunkenboat.com/db2/engler/redbeans.html
To Gloria or Not To Gloria:
http://community-2.webtv.net/LETTEREX/TOGLORIAORNOTTO
L.B. Sedlacek is Editor of The Poetry Market E-zine (www.thepoetrymarket.com),
Editor of Pop Poets, Contributing Editor & Online Instructor of Muse's Kiss.
M.A. from Wake Forest University. Chapbooks include: …after
Graceland, The Cat and the Carroll A. Deering and Other North Carolina Poems,
Alexandra's Wreck (forthcoming from Kitty Litter Press, Feb. 2002).
Awards include: Honorable Mention for "12 Flamingoes & 2 Clowns
on Horses": Joey and the Black Boots Contest - 2001, Blue Ribbon
Award for "By a Stream in the Summer": S.P.A. - 1999, and Anne
B. Cooke Memorial Award for "The Firefly Dance": Bell's Letters
- 2000. Recent poetry publications include: Anthology,
Doggerel, Poetry Life & Times, The Odeum, Facets Literary Magazine, The
Guild, Blue Collar Review, Beggar's Press, Improvajazzation Nation, Unlikely
Stories, Starry Night Review Literary E-zine, IdioM, Red Owl Magazine.
Recent articles & fiction include: My Legacy, The Charlotte Observer, Life
Insurance Selling, News-Topic, Fluffy Fables, Frugal Simplicity, Frugal Moms,
The Outer Rim, The Unlikely Unknown, Legions of Light, Penny-A-Liner, My Legacy,
Writer's Choice, Ascent Magazine, Duct Tape Press. Produced plays
& staged readings include: Soul Dance, Deciduous Dreams, Cement Trees,
The Obsessed, Chopin is Dead, Gods of Chaos. Reviews include:
Muse's Kiss, The Poetry Market E-zine, Pop Gun, Storyfoam www.thepoetrymarket.com
