It was a couple of months ago that I was watching videos on youtube for Leonard Cohen, possibly Chelsea Hotel No. 2 and after the song played another version of the song began to play. It was by a man with an accoustic guitar putting his unique interpretation on the song. I dived deeper watching several of his cover songs while with my wife for a couple of hours. He wasn’t just covering folk songs. He had covers of Neutral Milk Hotel, even Slipknot, Death Cab For Cutie, Wilco, the Lumineers & more. I wondered why isn’t this guy more known. He had to have been in bands when he was younger. He has a youtube channel, just him, his guitar, his stories & the most dynamic find of all. He has wonderful original songs. He comes across very humble. He’s done hundreds of cover songs & originals for years & just loves playing music. He’s not looking for fame and money it seems. He’s doing this out of the love of making music.
First, I would like to ask how long you’ve been working on your own songs & how do you decide which songs to cover? Frank: I have been writing songs ever since I picked up a guitar, nothing any good, I still don’t think they are that great now but that’s just me , most of the covers I do are requests, I would try anything if asked ,i still do them now but the list exceeds 1500 , so the chances are getting slimmer for those that request them , I was told I should do a Patreon account and people pay for them ,but that would then seem too much like work and i also can’t cover everything ,I’d get stressed out too much ,it’s also not about the money for me I just like what I do right now.
Do you enjoy writing songs more than covers? What are some of the songs you’re most proud of? Frank: I think i like writing my own songs because even if they are vague I know the reason I wrote it , I am not good enough a musician to play a cover exact that is why I simplify them , I have always said don’t let your inability stop you from what you enjoy ,you can only get better,
Who have been your biggest influences, or musically who are some of your favorites? Frank: Basically all the older types like Dylan, James Taylor Ralph McTell , it goes on , I like almost anything acoustic ,but i also like a good song no matter what genre .
Does it take you very long to write a song, and do you enjoy the process or feel hurried to get it done? Frank: Some songs take a few days on and off but they are mostly the ones where I came up with a melody first then try to put words to, others can take as little as 20 minutes for the lyrics as they seem to write themselves , then I just put a basic tune on them , it’s the ones that are started and finished in less than an hour that seem to go down the best.
I have only began listening to your stuff about a month ago, so I haven’t seen every video. Whereabouts in the UK do you live? I have many great poet contributors to my poetry endeavors. It is refreshing to know it still seems relevant unlike in the U.S. as much the arts, the poetry, the music. Frank: I live in a town called Huntingdon ,about 12 miles from Cambridge.
Have you played in any bands while younger? Frank: I have never played in a band and i haver never played live anywhere , I have no desire to either ,I’m not a stage performer I dread the thought , sitting at home with a cat and dog as my audience is one thing ,standing up in front of others is another ball game, I just mess around writing or covering a song post it on you tube and set it free , I also have no desire to record them in a studio despite the requests to, I think I’m a what you see is what you get person.
Do you enjoy poetry or particular writers or authors? I don’t mind listening to the occasional poem but I’m a terrible reader, I struggle to read a book because my mind wanders and before i know it I’ve forgotten what I’ve just read ,thank God for audio books , I can put on headphones and be in another world.
How were you encouraged to try out the youtube process, and did you use any other internet avenues prior to youtube? Frank: I put some very old songs on Soundcloud to begin with , then one day just to see how easy it was I posted a song on you tube ,easier than I thought so kept on posting , I certainly didn’t plan on the reaction i seem to be getting, I haven’t pushed myself in any way at all , it was supposed to be a bit of fun with one or two subscribers.
What have been some of your other hobbies growing up? Frank: I honestly don’t think i had any other hobbies ,I used to work almost every hour i could and the only thing I did in my spare time would have been play the guitar for an hour or two.
Have you done much traveling and where are some of your favorite places you’ve visited? Frank: I have done very little travelling abroad ,a few times to Euro Disney with the family , and a visit to Cyprus to see my daughter ,but I do travel all over the UK I like to go to places then leave the main routes and discover places myself.
Just performing songs my way ,nothing too serious, we can’t all be polished professionals but that shouldn’t be a reason not to sing. if you really want to donate then here is a PayPal link ,i’m quite happy either way . https://paypal.me/pools/c/8uPISeE6aB
About Ron Whitehead: Kentucky Legend & Poet First:
It is hard living the life of just one poet at times.
Always a rush of creativity and ideas to try and stay stabilized,
is not always the easiest task.
So, what would you do if you have lived the life of 1,000 poets?
Ask Ron Whitehead
A Kentucky born, and current Beat Poet Laureate of Kentucky for the years of 2019-2021.
*note* as I was putting together the first edition of the Fevers of the Mind Anthology Mr. Whitehead was the first ever Writer from the United States to represent as a writer-in-residence in Tartu, Estonia as part of an International Literature residency program.
Ron has been a poet, a professor at several universities, has held lectures, workshops, has founded a music & poetry marathon called "The Insomniacathon" which is perfect for all sleep deprived poetry-eaters. For endless inspiration, just attend an Insomniacathon, and walk into a new world where words are the images, and the world outside becomes silent.
Ron has produced the official Hunter S. Thompson tribute.
Ron knew Hunter S. Thompson & has many stories about hanging out with him and other poets from the Beat Generation and beyond.
Ron Whitehead is not just a poet, he is a lead man of "The Storm Generation Band" a band with him chanting out his poetry & lyrics.
You can see him at big festivals, or you might see him at a small bar or coffeehouse in a small Mid-Western city like Evansville, Indiana.
That is where I met and listened to Ron's poetry. He appeared humble, generous, kind, helpful and poetry driven in messages to inspire for a better world.
his website is www.tappingmyownphone.com
Excerpts from an Interview with Ron Whitehead (2019):
Q: Hi Ron, Thanks for granting me this interview for Fevers of the Mind Poetry & Art Digest. First off, I without all the merits that you have see many parallels in our poetry upbringing.
I grew up in a town (not a farm however) in Western Kentucky in Webster County. My father & grandfather grew up on the farms of Kentucky, and I'd always hear the stories. I lived a small amount of time in the city of New Orleans in my early twenties. Maybe, this is where most of the parallels end. You have lived most of your life in Kentucky, so what about Kentucky do you love?
Ron: Hello David. I come from a long line of farmers, coal miners, and strong women. I grew up on a beautiful old ramshackle Kentucky farm. A wild nature boy, when I finished my chores, I roamed the dirt roads, the rolling hills, and the woods. I love Kentucky. It's in my DNA. I've lived and traveled all over the world and wherever I go I preach the Kentucky Gospel. There's no place on earth like Kentucky. Kentucky is the land of freedom fighters and original independent creative artists! It is my land, the land I love.
Q: What influences do you attribute most from having lived in Kentucky? When traveling to other states & countries do you ever run into people that put a stigma on Kentucky, and make unnecessary assumptions about the state?
Ron: When I arrived at the University of Oxford, for studies at the International Graduate School, and knocked the Head of English Literature Valentine Cunningham's door we shook hands, exchanged names, he looked down at my feet, looked back up and said "I didn't know people from Kentucky wore shoes." I stared deep into his eyes and laughing I said "Haha, A smartass. We'll get along great." And we did. ......
Q: After many awards, honors, years of teaching, writing, What would you consider to be the most rewarding?
Ron: All of it. I love and embrace in all of its terrible beauty.
Q: You have edited works of many poets. Whom in particular did you say WOW to, when you were asked to edit their works?
Ron: I never imagined I would edit and publish so many of the world's leading poets, writers, musicians, cultural figures. Lordy, the list is too long to mention here. I edited William S. Burroughs' Remembering Jack Kerouac from prose to poem form and published it. He gave me permission to publish the prose piece, but we hadn't discussed transforming it into a poem, which I did so I could include it in my Published in Heaven Poster series. Burroughs asked me to get a photo from Allen Ginsberg, which I did. When I shipped Burroughs his copies on the poster I was sweating, worried he'd be pissed, maybe even ask me to recall the posters. He loved them. Whew. Major relief!
Q: What is a classic story you could tell, in which you had a long night hanging with Hunter S. Thompson, Gregory Corso, or Allen Ginsberg?
Ron: Oh God! Too many stories, about all three of them. One night, after driving 24 hours non-stop from Kentucky to Owl Farm, Woody Creek, outside Aspen, Colorado, I'm standing in the kitchen with Hunter S. Thompson. He's signing Published in Heaven Posters of He Was a Crook, his Nixon obituary. I told him I was driving straight on, after my visit with him, to San Francisco to have dinner the next night with my friend Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Hunter became reflective and started talking about Ferlinghetti and how much he liked and respected him. He said "I'll write a message on one of the posters for Lawrence and you give it to him tomorrow, Okay?" I said "Okay." Hunter was a deeply reflective person. Despite his sometimes fierceness, he had the soul of a poet.
Q: How long have you been doing Insomniacathons & also can you tell the readers about Gonzofest in Louisville during the Summer. ...
Ron: Kent Fielding and I produced the first ever 24-hour non-stop music & poetry Insomniacathon in 1993 at Twice Told Coffeehouse on Bardstown Road in Louisville, Kentucky. I produced many after that, with Kent, Doug Brinkley, Andy Cook, and others. ....
Gonzofest is a celebration of life and work of Louisville native son Hunter S. Thompson. On December 12, 1996 I produced the Official Hunter S. Thompson tribute, at Memorial Auditorium in Louisville. I brought in Hunter, his mother Virginia, his son Juan, Johnny Depp, Warren Zevon, Douglas Brinkley, David Amram, Roxanne Pulitzer, and a host of others. It was an amazing 4-hour event. The Insomniacathons and Gonzofests are filled with creative energies and expressions. Being part of them always inspires me to create new work. And, from what folks have shared with me, the creative spirit is contagious.
Q: How do you find time to do all that you do and have done & still be generous enough to answer questions for a small publication like this?
Ron: I was born with a high metabolism. I love collaborating with folks all over the world. Boredom is my greatest enemy. Having several creative projects going on simultaneously helps me stay healthy. New creative work inspires new creative work. Mama and Daddy taught me not to look up to or down to anyone. We're al in this together, eye to eye, shoulder to shoulder.
When one of us is lifted up we are all lifted up.
Thanks Ron,
for taking time out of your very busy schedule and answering my interview questions....
Ron: Thank you David! See you at Gonzofest!!
Ron Whitehead bio & links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Whiteheadhttps://www.outlawpoet.movie/ron-whiteheadhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mDPdYrjSN4http://gonzotoday.com/author/ron-whiehead/
links to his books on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=ron+whitehead&ref=nb_sb_nosshttps://www.amazon.com/View-Lawrence-Ferlinghettis-Bathroom-Window/dp/1732209715/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=ron+whitehead&qid=1621453356&sr=8-3
1) Please describe your latest book, what about your book will intrigue the readers the most, and what is the theme, mood? Or If you have a blog or project please describe the concept of your project, blog, website
Stu:My latest book is my third collection of poetry, titled Blue, the Green Sky. I would say the theme is similar to the rest of my work – things that aren’t there, things that you want to be there, the way childhood affects your adult life in ways you never really understand, the vastness of space and the endless quest for an answer to the questions that matter the most. I have moved away from confessional poetry in the last few years and this new book actually contains my most varied work. It has two much longer pieces which I would say are still poetic but constitute a progression of the themes and ideas I always deal with, allowing them to flourish into different styles and themes. Does that make sense? That seems very pretentious.Stu
2) What frame of mind and ideas lead to you writing your current book?
Stu: My mental health has got a lot better the last couple of years, which runs alongside the abandonment of confessional poetry. I have become much happier but also much more curious. am obsessed with death – the ways we die, what lies beyond, whether we deserve to die. To me, the idea of outer space and death have always been linked. When you read that stars are made up of the same basic thing as humans, you can’t help but be inspired. I want to believe that when we die we go somewhere beautiful. I want to believe that I deserve to go somewhere beautiful, and inthe last few years I have begun to understand that if that place does exist, I need to work a lot fucking harder at my life. I am not religious, just confused.
3) How old were you when you first have become serious about your writing, do you feel your work is always adapting?
Stu: I started writing as a way to cope with things I didn’t feel I had a handle on. I am an ex-addict and someone who has suffered greatly with mental illness. So my first attempts at writing were, I think, the same as a lot of peoples. Catharsis disguised as verse. Something screamed inside me and the only way I felt I could handle it was by writing. This was probably ten years ago now, maybe a little more. So that was when I discovered what writing could be. In terms of progression, I’d like to think I have got better. Beyond that, I think it is just wonderful that we can write things down and people will read them.
4) What authors, poets, musicians have helped shape your work, or who do you find yourself being drawn to the most?
Stu: Huge fan of Andrew McMillan. I have worked with him in the past and he is not only incredibly talented but extremely lovely. His first two books, Physical and Playtime, are classics and the two best books I own. When I first read his work, I felt like he was writing specifically for me. About me. Poetry and art is subjective and I wouldn’t say there is a league table of poets. But if there was, he’d have won the title by Christmas. Music wise, I love folk music, specifically 60s and 70s folk rock. I listen to almost anything, although I cant listen much to deep house anymore because it reminds me of the embarrassing amount of drugs I used to do.
5) What other activities do you enjoy doing creatively, or recreationally outside of being a writer, and do you find any of these outside writing activities merge into your mind and often become parts of a poem?
Stu: Jigsaw Puzzles are my latest obsession. I tend to become obsessed with things. I love reading of course. At the moment I’m working through the Discworld series which is fun. I first read them when I was too young to understand the satire, so reading them again has been great. I do watch some television, but mainly nonsense programs like Battlebots or Bob’s Burgers. I used to watch 2 films a day but I live 10000ft up a mountain and we can’t stream anything. So it’s crap TV or nothing. We have two dogs, one a puppy, so we walk a lot. Its a 35 minute round trip to the mailbox here. Stupid really but once it snows its impossible to get up the drive.
6) What is your favorite or preferred style of writing?
Stu:I like free verse. I dislike rhyme or constraint. I started out writing haiku and tanka which was a great way to learn about making the most of a few words etc. but now I just go for it. I dont often edit. I am writing my second novel at the moment and I find a routine is useless for me. I just sometimes feel like writing. I can write 4000 words in 2 hours or I can go a week without opening the laptop. My life has got a lot less chaotic in recent years but I like to think I will never have a writing routine. That is one step too far.
7) Are there any other people/environments/hometowns/vacations that has helped influence your writing?
Stu:I have traveled all over the world. So I write a lot about the places I have been. My current writing project which I mentioned above is half travelogue, half gay love story. I guess both those things are important to me. I’m not gay. Just confused. I also write about childhood a lot and how we see things differently when we haven’t been exposed to the strains of adult life.
8) What is the most rewarding part of the writing process, and in turn the most frustrating part of the writing process?
Stu:Someone messaged me on Twitter a while back telling me they read my work when they were sad and it helped. So that is definitely rewarding. But I am human, so I also love when people retweet my work or buy my books. My wife is an amazing writer so when they like something I have wrote I know I am on the right track. In terms of frustration, I don’t tend to get frustrated with my work too much. It comes or it doesn’t. But again, I am human, so when I spend time writing something and I feel people have not engaged with it to the degree that I feel it deserves, that is a negative. I don’t submit my work much (2 or 3 times a year) so rejections aren’t something I have to deal with much. Not because I am a good writer but because if you don’t submit you don’t get rejected.
9) How has the current times affected your work?
Stu: I feel like I was really well equipped for the pandemic. I don’t honestly miss anything except maybe eating out. So my life hasn’t changed a great deal. I feel like I have been more productive than some people during the lock-downs. I have written well over 100k words split between projects. So I would say, weirdly, that I am thriving personally. I have also started a lit project, Bear Creek Gazette, which is a fake newspaper set in a fake town. Its been brilliant to see the responses and submissions for it. People have really got behind it. Its weird and sometimes offensive. Which is what people crave when times are hard. Well, its what I crave anyway.
10) Please give us any links, social media info, upcoming events, etc for your work.
Stu:My book is out later this year, in one of the J months, on Broken Spine Arts. You can follow me on Twitter, where I basically live, @stuartmbuck Bear Creek Gazette has a website. Its welcometobearcreek.com and the Twitter is @bcgazette
1) Please describe your latest book, what about your book will intrigue the readers the most, and what is the theme, mood? Or If you have a blog or project please describe the concept of your project, blog, website
Samantha: Thanks for the opportunity to share! My website is samanthaterrell.com and my forthcoming book is entitled “Vision, and Other Things We Hide From” which is a collection of poetry that asks the reader to delve beneath the surface of everyday life, to discover what lessons lurk there.
2) What frame of mind and ideas lead to you writing your current book?
Samantha: The entire purpose of my work is to enable the reader to tap into their own emotions and drives to shed light on the way they view the world. My hope is that by encouraging self-awareness, we can all strive to be better “neighbors” to each other. Two areas specifically, frame almost all of my serious work to that end – those two areas are emotional integrity and social awareness.
3) How old were you when you first have become serious about your writing, do you feel your work is always adapting?
Samantha: My work is definitely always adapting but I believe I stay true to the voice which has always been with me. Before I knew how to read and write, I “wrote” long scribbles on any paper I could find. At about age three, I remember getting in trouble for “writing” one of my stories on piano sheet music. In school I always enjoyed creative writing and won several essay contests. However it was at the end of my college career when I began to pursue poetry writing in earnest.
4) What authors, poets, musicians have helped shape your work, or who do you find yourself being drawn to the most?
Samantha: I have always enjoyed folk artists because I was raised on heavy doses of James Taylor, Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie. I appreciate the poetic nature of their work as well as underlying social messages. Bands like U2, R.E.M. and Natalie Merchant became my favorites as a teenager for the same reasons. I love all forms of poetry – traditional and contemporary, from Longfellow to Billy Collins; from Emily Dickinson to Louise Glück.
5) What other activities do you enjoy doing creatively, or recreationally outside of being a writer, and do you find any of these outside writing activities merge into your mind and often become parts of a poem?
Samantha: I read whatever I can get my hands on, and have a passion for social issues which often influences my work. (My degree is in Sociology, rather than English Literature and I worked in Disability Services for several years after college.) My husband and I have always enjoyed spending time in nature. We enjoy taking our sons camping, hiking, fishing, kayaking, etc. It has been a blessing during Covid lockdown that we haven’t had to sacrifice our family recreational activities. Nature is definitely also a great inspiration for writing!
6) What is your favorite or preferred style of writing?
Samantha: Hmmm…It’s difficult to answer this one! One drawback of not having an English degree is not knowing literary terminology. I have tried to self-educate, and obviously I know the difference between haiku and free-verse, but there are times I feel I lack the vernacular to describe my own work. Perhaps this keeps me from putting my style in a box, and allows me the freedom to write as I wish! Generally speaking, I’d say I write approximately half and half rhymed and unrhymed poetry, and I often use a first-person voice although I try not to overdo that as I understand it to be bad form. Personally, I dislike poetry that strings words together so loosely it seems like word salad. I want my words to resonate with my readers, not leave them confused. Therefore, my style is a bit more direct than some publishers and poetry critics prefer, but I don’t believe it’s so direct a reader feels bullied. No writer will appeal to all publishers and I’m not a person who tries to be someone I’m not. As writers we have to take rejections along with successes.
7) Are there any other people/environments/hometowns/vacations that has helped influence your writing?
Samantha: I think I might have covered that one in some of the other questions. My family is an inspiration and support to me. I sometimes write about my boys – hopefully not so much as to embarrass them. 8) What is the most rewarding part of the writing process, and in turn the most frustrating part of the writing process?
Samantha: Rewarding – finding appropriate publishers. Frustrating – trying to find appropriate publishers. See question #6!
9) How has the current times affected your work?
Samantha: I’ve probably used the extra time to focus more on my writing and re-prioritize. Covid is definitely a hindrance to everyday life, and the suffering of the world has influenced many of my recent poems.
10) Please give us any links, social media info, upcoming events, etc for your work. Samantha: Thanks again, Fevers of the Mind! My website is samanthaterrell.com and I’m on Twitter @honestypoetry. My book “Vision, and Other Things We Hide From” is due out from Potter’s Grove Press on March 9 th
Samantha is a widely published American poet whose work emphasizes issues of social justice and emotional integrity. Her collection “Vision, and Other Things We Hide From” is forthcoming from Potter’s Grove Press. Samantha and her family reside in Upstate New York, where they enjoy kayaking on still waters.
Bio: Samantha Terrell, author of Vision, and Other Things We Hide From (Potter’s Grove Press, 2021) is a widely published American poet whose work emphasizes self-awareness as a means to social awareness. Her poetry can be found in many fine publications, and her work has been featured on Sunny G Radio Glasgow, Dublin-based Eat the Storms podcast, and “The Open Collaboration” all-acoustics show (Bristol, U.K.). She writes from her home in upstate New York, where she lives with her husband and their two sons.
Bio: Samantha Terrell, author of Vision, and Other Things We Hide From (Potter’s Grove Press, 2021) is a widely published American poet whose work emphasizes self-awareness as a means to social awareness. Her poetry can be found in many fine publications, and her work has been featured on Sunny G Radio Glasgow, Dublin-based Eat the Storms podcast, and “The Open Collaboration” all-acoustics show (Bristol, U.K.). She writes from her home in upstate New York, where she lives with her husband and their two sons.
Feet swing above a blue tiled wall of a piscine / sans l’eau as if the world has cried up all the water on the planet.
I rest my head on your shoulder and you lean in /to my support as if we were both armbands to each other.
Somewhere behind a day I made into a memory / in my mind you fake swim in that pool of dried tile / cracked sunshine
and our laughter reverberates between the stain at the bottom and the gulls flying overhead / in circling sways
in case we chose to be bait for their beak.
Behind us / a taxi rides away / and we are left to decipher how life drowned in that place / sans rêve.
Sometimes we sleep to dream / other times we slip our feet into the emptiness / to dream of what we might have found
in its place.
Feet swing above a blue tiled wall of a piscine / sans l’eau et on ferme les yeux / to lean into that which isn’t really there.
At Least in a Cup of Coffee We can Hold a Caramel of Comfort
In the kitchen / breaking noise before dawn you grind grains into something more sippable, stilled / under a shadow of something unsettling,
I shift position / too naturally / while still snoozing, setting my sleeping skin into that soft spot your body has since shed
as your tongue lets the caramel of coffee tingle across taste buds / slowly changing
in that kitchen / swallowing simple warm things in the morning / before day comes to choke us.
Knowing how Long to Leave Wool in the Water
Spring has left us shy.
We flirted like sheep / cute / clumsy constantly caught before coming / folding a season into forever.
Words come / cumbersome you can only swallow so much of a wave of seductive / before you drown.
Sheep don’t swim / wool doesn’t do well in hot water. Be careful with the laundry.
Spring has left us shy.
We never unfolded another season / no more flock to the flirt, you do / or you die / the tide isn’t ours to play with.
Sink / swim / shrink /drown / and I was never good at lengths length of time / length of hold / length of hope.
Sheep need a shepherd / or get washed away.
The Dissolving of Emptiness
I lay down this lake of loss / hope for soil to soak up sorrow, by side sedge / wedge myself up / all this waste, bury what turned base at the bottom / this bed no longer silken sheets / but sludge / to be swept
under / asunder
I lay down this lake / this lough of loss / lost, waiting for the tide to wash over /the emptiness to dissolve, waiting for time to refine me / re-find me as buoyant
Please describe your latest book, what about your book will intrigue the readers the most, and what is the theme/mood?
Damien: There is certainly a flow of connecting colours throughout the collection; rickety reds, shades of blue, scarlet rising, grazing greens, purples clouds and cerulean skies. I like painting as a pastime so that often trickles out through the pen. I love wandering around galleries to see the tales painters captured on canvases and wondering how to capture them onto pages. Black is only shadow is a line that comes up more than once in the collection and I think that is where its identity lies, an acceptance of the darkness and a hope that it will not be forever, a line chanted like a mantra to get through to the next burst of light. The collection is not necessarily about easy moments in life but I hope the reader can appreciate the rise after each fall.
2. What frame of mind and ideas lead to you writing your current book?
Damien: I had my first panic attack a few years ago and many of the poems in this book stem from that, looking for ways of remaining light and bright and bouncy while accepting, concurrently, that state of anxiety, fear and sometimes loss. I was searching for balance, we cannot always remove the darkness or the weight or the panic and so I wanted to find a way to hold both at the same time so there was not always a fight between the two but an acknowledgement of each other.
3. How old were you when you first have become serious about your writing, do you feel your work is always adapting?
Damien: I wrote when I was a kid, a cathartic release before I knew there were people called therapists. But I had a dream of being a fashion designer from a young age and therefore the attention was always focused on a degree in fashion and a life in the industry which overshadowed the writing, even though it was always there. When I moved from London to Amsterdam in 2006, I began to focus more on writing and that was when I started my blog deuxiemepeaupoetry.com, a combination of poetry and photography. I think there was something about the ease of life in Amsterdam that made it possible to do more than one thing in a day, London, for me, was far too demanding for that. A few years later, my grandmother passed away and I was asked to write and deliver her eulogy and that was the first time I saw people really listening to what I had to say and relating to it and from that moment it changed, as if she instilled in me a confidence that this was something to be explored and needed time to develop. Looking back now at notebooks from childhood and even early poems on my blog, my style has changed completely. I started off by telling whole stories and have now fine tuned that into telling a story, not the whole, not always the complete truth, but exploring their essence.
4. What authors, poets, musicians have helped shape your work, or who do you find yourself being drawn to the most?
Damien: When I was 23, I lived for a year in a one bedroomed, viewless-windowed apartment in Le Marais in Paris with an Irish girl who played piano and Irish drinking songs in bars around the city but late at night, or after Sunday strolls through the Jewish quarter and lugging home sugar-laden treats from the bakeries on rue des Rosiers, she would play me her favourite Joni Mitchell songs before we put the album Miles of Aisles on repeat on our little Cd player. Later it became the Tin Angel and Blue albums on my Walkman, sitting at the table after coming home from work at the bar at 3am, playing Solitaire and listening to her paint words over cords, about living in places and missing others, kissing men and moving on. The influence from Joni has never strayed.
5. What other activities do you enjoy doing creatively, or recreationally outside of being a writer, and do you find any of these outside writing activities merge into your mind and often become parts of a poem?
Damien: Photography is something I love. I can take over 100 photos a day, just trying to capture things that might get overlooked, a twig on a lump of concrete, a bag in a tree, a shell sinking back into the sand. I also use those photos a reference points later when writing, the visual falling into the structured lines of a poem. Painting is also something I enjoy though it takes much more time but it is the same thing as writing, taking a blank page or canvas and putting a mark down onto it and following the flow of that first mark. Cooking or baking are the things I do as much as writing because I find it so relaxing; hours, days spent in the kitchen is a dream for me, listening to music or a podcast and smelling the flavours come to life is incredible. And then there is the eating.
6. Tell us a little about your process with writing. Is it more a controlled or a spontaneous/freewriting style?
Damien: I write every day, whenever I can. When I lived in Paris it was on the way to work on the metro, during lunch breaks, at night on terraces of cafes, always in between the job or the duty or the relationship. Now I write constantly, all day. The earlier part of this year was very much taken up with a fictional novel I am now sending out to publishers. During the first lockdown in Ireland, which began in March, just before our famous cancelled Saint Patrick’s Day, I had two main focuses- the garden and its 45 trees that needed chopping with an old rusty hand saw and poetry prompts on Twitter from both the Cobh Readers and Writers group and Catherine Ann Cullen, an Irish Poet, who ran a daily poetry prompt, the pair of which resulted in me writing over 300 poems in about 4 months, after which I focused on the next collection which will be a full poetry collection about my life spent living with Paris, a combination of poetry and photography. So it really never stops. My phone is never far from my hand to scribble down lines that come into my head that will be worked on later, I am very forgetful so never like to lose a thought that might become a treasure.
7. Are there any other people/environments/hometowns/vacations that has helped influence your writing?
Damien: Paris definitely, I moved there when I was 22 and it changed who I was, suddenly I was completely alone for the first time in my life, in a larger-than-life city, a formerly shy child who’d never studied a word of French. I grew up there and so it will always have a huge influence on my identity, my life and my writing. Now that I have returned to Ireland, this little island has become the influencer. In earlier days, I spent so much time trying to get away from this place and the shy child it still wanted to identify within me but now, coming back after 23 years, it is a foreign object and I am enjoying examining all her sides while she accepts me now for who I became and has given up looking for the shadows of my former self. Family come in and out, of course, in terms of influence, I recently had a short story in the No.1 Irish bestseller A Page from My Life, an anthology of short stories published by Harper Collins Ireland and my story was about my Mother’s first experience in shopping at the supermarket chain Aldi. It was a comedy piece which made it a welcome change from the more serious tone of most of my poetry. And then there is always the constant rise and fall of relationships which ignites the pen. I write a lot about love and all that lies in between beginnings and endings. Torture can be exquisite, on the page, at least
8. What is the most rewarding part of the writing process, and in turn the most frustrating part of the writing process?
Damien: For me it’s that sense of achievement, when you find the right words, the right order, the right atmosphere and you read it back and it pops and you just want to jump up and say yes- I did it. The most frustrating? Having to do it all over again.
9. How has this past year impacted you emotionally, how has it impacted you creatively if it all?
Damien: I have never written so much as I have this year. As I mentioned I wrote over 300 poems during the first lockdown thanks to Poetry Prompts on Twitter while also editing my novel. I moved back to Ireland with a dream of setting up a writer’s retreat on the west coast but, at first, I said I’d stay at the family home for a few months to make up for being away for so long. Then Covid hit and it is now one year later and I’m still in that family home on the east side of Ireland. I think I’ve left this village about 6 times in the past 9 months. It has been an extremely strange year from being basically housebound, which is not normally in my comfort zone, to also being a non-stop year of writing, being published, winning writing competitions, starting a podcast and interviewing other poets as part of a series on my blog. I was given the rare opportunity this year to focus solely on writing and am thankful that I will not look back at this year as a wasted opportunity
10. Please give us any promotional info for your work, social media, blogs, publishing company info, etc that you’d like to shout out.
Damien: My bog is http://www.deuxiemepeaupoetry,com where you can buy signed copies of my debut chapbook Eat the Storms in the bookshop there. My publisher is www.hedgehogpress.co.uk For details of the podcast check out www.eatthestorms.com I am on Twitter as @deuxiemepeau, Instagram as @damiboy and @eatthestorms and Tiktok as @eatthestorms
When did you get the idea to start the “Eat the Storms Podcast”?
Damien: I first came up with the idea of the podcast as it came close to the launch of my collection and I realized that because of lockdown restrictions I would not be able to have a normal book launch in a library or a bookstore and there would be no interaction with people. The focus would have to all take place on social media platforms and I was already on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and had a pretty good following but I wanted to find more ways to get my voice out. I started by using TikTok to make short video poems and then someone suggested a podcast but I was worried about setting it all up on my own as I’m not the most technologically minded person even though I’ve used computers for 25 years in terms of creating patterns for clothes but then I discovered the app and podcast platform Anchor which let you produce your own podcast and it was so simple and easy that by the next evening I had the first episode already recorded with jingles and introductions and pauses. It started as a platform just to share poems from my debut collection Eat the Storms, but that changed immediately as I realised everyone was in the same boat, all looking for outlets to be heard and so I opened the show up to have guest poets each week and it had taken off from there and it is showing no signs of slowing down as the audience is picking up more listeners each week so I am very happy to say that I was able to offer connection in a time when we were being told to stay away.
2. What have you found most interesting in the poets that you have interviewed? Are you ever surprised by what the poets have to say when on the podcast?
Damien: For me, personally, I think the most interesting thing about the podcast and having guests on is hearing poems that I know I’ve already read myself, read to me by their author and hearing their original idea instead of my understanding because of the tone of their voice, or a giggle or a pause when perhaps I had missed that moment of stillness that was so vital to how the poem would be. When you hear a poet read their words I think that brings us to a whole other level of understanding
3. How do you scout out a poet to have on your own show?
Damien: Sometimes I have themed episodes which makes it easier to put the content of the show together, like the LGBTQ+ episode that recently went down a storm or the Irish episode I am currently planning. At other times it’s just a question of who’s in my line of sight, who’s the most popular name of the day on Twitter that I happened to hear of, who were the people that I dreamed of taking part and so I just drop them a little message and cross my fingers. Sometimes, with age comes bravery
4.Where can one find episodes of “Eat the Storms”?
Damien: At the moment Eat the Storms, the poetry podcast, is on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Breaker, Pocketcasts and of course Anchor. A new episode drops every Saturday around 5pm but all the shows are there to listen to whenever life needs to be a little more poetic
5.Who helps you with the promotional vignettes for the show? I feel like I’m about to go into a “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” style show, but with the souls of poets instead of Rich people’s homes.
Damien: The promotional vignettes for this show are all homemade, its me with my camera positioned somewhere halfway into the sand and resting against a shell while I walk across the beach or me with a tiny tripod because I don’t want to look too much like an idiot or in the garden, or a field or down a country lane or me and the back bedroom here in the family cottage that has been home to my family since 1904. I don’t have any extra help, I’m a fumbling, giggling one man show trying to figure it all out and occasionally calling on the 80-year-old mother to focus the camera.
Fevers of the Mind 