Background Information andInterview Questions, 2008
The following is information taken from a recent interview conducted in 2008. These details should give you a good understanding of my writing, my calling and my own personal contributions to the world as a poet and artist.
For additional details and information, you may email me here: bartoluciano@pacbell.net
Hey Wes, Great. Wow, very in-depth and thorough. Ok, I will answer these and actually, there are such great questions here and some responses that might help others, would you mind me posting this interview in a blog so others can read it? I get lots of inquiries from aspiring writers and poets, and this interview will actually answer a lot of their questions. It's a good exercise for me to do, so here goes. Feel free to ask for more details where you might need it...
You're 40 now, how old were you when you first took up creative writing, and what first inspired you?
I have been writing my whole life. As with many writers, a kid lost in books of fantasy as a child. I first started connecting with poetry in the chapter headings and bits of poetry scattered through these books, mostly the heroic fantasy writings of CS Lewis, JRR Tolkein and Robert E. Howard. I became those characters and in time developed a real respect for the poetry there - the ability to share a story or give a taste of an upcoming chapter in a small space. I started journalling, writing creative phrases on scraps of paper and heading all my short stories and miscellaeous writings with little poems. It wasn't until high school, though, that anyone noticed my work or encouraged my writing. I had a phenomenal english teacher encourage me, and even though I went onto UCLA to study aerospace engineering originally, she said I would become a well known poet or novelist one day. I guess Mrs. Perry knew how to spot desire in a young heart, haha. I always kept journals and those same scraps of paper, and when the desktop computer came along, I started organizing them into my master catalog back in '86. It was just a hobby, but I think I got a few pieces published here and there in the Daily Bruin and other college rags, mostly hidden in the other "official" writing I did as a reporter and contributor. I went into advertising and copywriting as a career and used my writing gifts to help clients tell their product and service stories. Headlines are like little poems, you know, haha.
At what age did you publish your first set of works, what inspired you at the time not only in your writing, but to take the steps to have your work published?
I wrote a lot of poetry in high school and may have gotten into the school paper, got a few miscellaneous things into my college pubs, but not until I was in my thirties did I submitt a few things and get published. It took way too much work to submit and get paid nothing so I gave up. It wasn't until my thirties when I learned to do websites, that I created my own poetry website and started sharing my poems over the net directly with family, friends and fans of my work. I built up quite a following through emails and my website that way, then when I got on Myspace a couple years ago, with its bulletins and blogs, my readership really soared and the "chap books" I had put together myself (as a graphic designer that was relatively easy to do) really started selling. After talking to some other publishers and seeing how little money you made on each book sale, I decided to start my own publishing company and sell my books over the net directly. Since then, I have brought other poets into my company, written for nationally distributed authors and continue to add new books all the time. I get reviewed quite a bit now and am pretty highly rated on blog anod other poetry sites. I try to drive everything back to my website and my myspace page. Again, the margins and fan base management work out the best that way. I now have seven of my own books, with hundreds of other products from framed poems to t-shirts, text message distibution and even screensaver programs with my work displayed that way. My popularity has also helped promote my traditional artistic work as a painter, graphic designer and editor.
Did you find yourself first loving to read poetry, and then starting to write, or did your love of writing poetry cause you to take interest in other people’s writing?
Kind of both, as described above. My interest in wrting motivated me to study the works of other poets over the years. Frost, Keller, Keating, Shakespeare, Browning and so many more. I have always been very spiritual personally too, so I read a lot and pulled wisdom from many religious texts. One of the books I read all the time and encourage others to do to is Bartlett's Familiar Quotations. It helps you get familiar with writings from many different sources and authors in a short time and also to let the "lessons of the ages" sink into your writing. A lot of my writing has these lessons weaved into it.
Since you were first published, have you seen your style or inspirations change now that your writing is more public, and, do you find you still write for yourself first, knowing that many people will enjoy reading your work regardless?
I always try to improve my writing style and scope of work, but I also realize that we must each develop our own style and passion. I do try to include a bit more broad-scope lessons and discoveries in my writing, mostly about finding your own passion and following your own dreams, because that has been so much of my own learning process in life - as with most people pursuing artistic careers. I do write personally a lot, though, and my readers always comment on how I create that personal relationship in my writing, as though I am speaking directly to, or even from, the reader. I try to take a step back and write more third-person, but the first person perspective always feels more genuine to me. I always tell people to follow their own heart and write in their own style. I think the more focussed on your own style you get, the better you are at doing what you love. I write constantly and have no concern that people will be turned off to my writing. My spirituallity tells me that what I do is right. My writing has evolved to be so much about helping others and healing that I do focus on being positive. Hope, love and faith. These are my tools : )
What poets did you find yourself attracted to when you first fell in love with poetry? What was it about their writing that captivated you? What kind of poetry do you enjoy reading now and who writes it?
Because of all the heroic fantasy I read as a child, I really connected with Renaissance and Elizabethan period writers, but I became a history buff too, so I can appreciate poets as ancient as Homer, Sappho and as culturally diverse as Rumi. The shelves of my bookcases are filled with the works of the world's greatest poets - Chaucer, Shakespeare, Browning, Keller, Tennyson, Whitman, Longfellow, Blake, Keats, Frost, Marlow, Eliot, Sandburg, and many others. For me, poetry has always been the most compelling form of writing because of its brevity and refined nature. The greatest poets make every word sing and include many different meanings in their pieces. And when the structure gets lost in the reading, that is truly beautiful. I have always been drawn to the poets that follow form and structure closely too, mostly because I admire the additional challenge of form. I can also appreciate the memorable element that form adds to a piece - like how the ancient bards used rhyme schemes and repetition to help them retain the stories and poems that they shared. You can see my appreciation in the forms and structure of my own work. That also allowed me to transition to song writing and music production too (the forms in song writing are different and more simplified, but some of the same tenets of being original, real and compelling cross over). Though I write some open verse material on occasion, most of my work follows the tighter structure of Shakespeare's iambic pentameter pieces with ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG or my own preference - ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GHGH, with an additional stanza added sometimes. I concern myself less with the number of beats, as with just keeping the line lengths about the same to maintain the flow. I also think with readers' shorter attention spans today, they are more willing to appreciate the shorter pieces with definite structure over longer open verse pieces. I hear a lot of feedback to that effect. Today, I read the poetry of a lot of my contemporaries. I think it's important to keep poetry modern and approachable. I used to write using Elizabethan language, but quickly realized most people can't relate. You will occasionally see a thee or thine sneak in there, though : )
What is your favorite all time poem written by another poet and why?
That's an impossible question to answer. I enjoy reading the works of many poets and my preference changes with my moods almost everyday. But you can't go wrong reading Shakespeare or Frost. Again, some of my contemporary poets that write new stuff everyday blow me away. Check my top friends list and my publishing company authors for those. And my wife is actually an amazing poet herself, though she tries to claim she isn't, haha.
From the many poems of yours I have read, I notice your rhyming scheme and syllable count stays pretty consistent. You have 12 line poems, with lines A and C, and B and D rhyming, with about ten syllables per line. What poets influence you to write in that style, and why such consistency?
I think I answered this one above, but Shakespeare was definitely the man who defined a style universally recognized. I do broaden my styles somewhat, but Shakespeare's sonnet format is so natural to me now I can write a piece in that form in five or ten minutes for the original drafts. And I have found my best work flows out like that. Focussing on the content and not just the form is best, I believe. Tighter rhyme schemes also make you polish your work more and examine word relationships you may never explore if you just write in blank verse or open form. I also try to tie in intra-line rhyme schemes and forms that flow similarly from one line to the next at the beginnings. I wrote some specific tips on "writing a good poem" according to my preferences that I share with other poets that ask. These include:
1. Have one central theme
2. Focus on a common sentiment
3. Include interesting details that develop the storyline
4. Use a consistent format/meter throughout
5. Use language in a new or unusual way - metaphors, irony or details that are unusual or compelling
6. Make symbolic connections and develop them throughout
7. Convey a lesson or elicit reader reaction
8. Make sure it "breathes" - raw and real
9. Avoid cliches and predictable or forced rhyme
10. Speak from the heart about something you know well
11. Create an ironic or compelling title
How do you build your poems, do you usually have a separate thought or idea per four line bracket that create your story and develop the poem‘s meaning, or do you have a continuous stream of thought that resolves itself by the end of the poem naturally?
Most of my poems start out as a title, something to grab the reader's attention, much like a headline on an ad. Sometimes, though, the title comes through from the writing on a specific topic. I try to stay open to creative ideas at all times and "play in my subconscious" a lot. So ideas come from many sources, movies, books, conversations and a lot from correspondence with friends and fans all over the world. I always have a pen handy and jot stuff down - in the night, while in the shower, while driving (that one has gained a lot of appreciation from other divers over the years, lol). During the writing process, I do always try to create a beginning, middle and an end to my poems -
"this is the idea, here are some more details, here is the conflict, and here is the conflict resolution"... usually translated directly into the four or five stanzas I write in. I try to keep my stuff short and accessible, again for the rushed reader today that has just a minute or two to appreciate some poetry. A lot of my readers say I write poetry for people that don't like poetry, haha.
Was your writing more liberal early in your writing career, or did you always find yourself sticking to template?
My original writings were random thoughts, scraps of sentiments written in unusual ways and journalling entries written mostly about or from my different fantasy characters. I developed my own style over the years. My earlies published works were even more structured than they are today, using ABAB ABAB ABAB formats. It was fun and challenging, but gets a bit repetitive for the reader when they read a whole book that way. Most of my readers now can recognize my form of ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GHGH at a glance.
What advice to you have for young poets today, who have dreams of being published, yet have no defined style or consistency to format of their writing?
Write constantly, carry a pen and a journal or at least scraps of paper whenever you go. Read and watch stories all the time. Absorb like a sponge. Turn off reality tv and watch movies - they have a defined beginning, middle and an end and the production qualities are maintained by hundreds of people. Read the great poets, imitate their lessons and their styles. Test out different styles until you find one that works for you. Take classes on poetry. Go to poetry readings and poetry book signings. Perform your poetry in front of others. Develop a pen name and even an alter ego if it helps you write more openly and take criticism more easily. Ask others what they think of your work and how they would suggest you make it better. Become a fan of poets that will correspond with you and develop your own fan base beyond your own family (normally giving you no helpful feedback at all : ). Keep a rough catalog of all your work in one place, preferably on a computer, so you can access your original thoughts to put them together into new poems and refine them constantly. Ask someone else to read your stuff out loud and see where they have difficulty understanding or putting your thoughts together. Make your own "chap book" and sell it to others, even if you have to nearly give it away, or give it away (a chap book is a collection of 35-50 poems usallually formatted on an 8 1/2 x 11" of 8 1/2 x 14" page, in landscape format and folded in half, then stapled in the center to make a book - great starter book cause most poets can format and print them on their own equipment, or at the local printshop, or at their office after hours : ). Blog and create your own website or web page through sites like Myspace and many of the writer websites now that allow you to create your own page for free. Offer your readers something regularly, like new blog postings of your work all the time (I post a Poem of the Day and over 50,000 people a year now stop by to read my blogs and daily bulletins). This creates a feedback loop that will keep you motivated and help you refine your work and find your style. Submit your work to contests and publications and websites that solicit materials. Don't waste your time and money on vanity press publishers, though, like Poetry.com that just solicits everyone and sells you overpriced compilation books that don't get read by anyone but their paid staff, and your mother who had to pay eighty bucks for a book worth twenty at best (no offense to Poetry.com that encourages people to write, but does little to create writing careers). Submit your chap books to reviewers and publishers that publish poets. Buy the book "The Poet's Market" and take the advice written in there. Oh yea, and get a real job, cause poetry is a very difficult career to make money at, unless you like low wages and lots of travel to obscure coffeeshops, bookstores and miscellaneous venues. I always tell poets the same thing as I tell aspiring musicians - "Follow your passion, but be patient and get used to working for like a buck an hour. It usually take twenty years to become an overnight success." There are always exceptions to this, but unless you are related to someone already famous or win American Idol (they need one of those for poets, by the way), it will be a tough road. You can do well publishing your own work and selling directly over the net, though, as I do today. But even I don't make that much... at least not until Oprah decides to have me on : )
You have published works that range from inspirational, to love, to erotic. I can say that I have not read many poems of yours along the lines of heartbreak or pain, which I do find in most poets’ work. How do you find yourself so positive and upbeat in your writing, and was there a time when you found yourself writing about more depressing subject matter?
Actually, you just identified my personal contribution to the world of poetry. Hope, love and faith are my guiding forces in poetry. There are lots of people that write angry poetry, so I try to keep mine positive almost all the time. But you will see depressing themes, difficulties and death running through much of my work. I believe, personally, though that life is about overcoming these adversities and transcending. Personally, I see Jesus Christ as as much a role model as a savior. Poetry allows us a unique way to inspire others and lift people up. I think that's why my work has become so much about healing, through love, forgiveness, strength and acceptance. The best comments I hear are about how I helped readers find strength and hope - to love again, to endure and even to live. I have helped many people through health crisis, drug addictions, heartbreaks and even attempted suicides. I actually had one woman tell me she took an overdose of pills and laid down to die, then caught sight of my book I had sent her free of charge, read some of it and made herself throw up the pills she had already swallowed. It sounds pretty fantastic, but I met her and verified what she had said actually happened. And she is one of the richest women in the world, at least financially : ) We all get depressed and down sometimes and I write about that stuff too, but my calling is to lift others up, so that's 99% of what I share with my readers. I'd like to see a program or venue for positive poetry on a national or international scale.
What has writing done for your inner well-being? Most people never find the kind of outlet for their feelings, thoughts, and emotions that writers get to enjoy.
My poetry defines me and allows me to turn my life "inside out". You can see my experiences, feel my emotions, and walk through the valleys of pain, sorrow and hope with me in my writing. I encourage everyone to do it. It's the best form of self-healing you can do, whether you share it with the world or not. But sharing it with others completes a creative loop and a healing process that I think is amazing. Even when I feel down, I can go to my computer, read some correspondence from friends and fans and find meaning in my life and healing just a few keystrokes away. The internet is an incredible tool for writers and fans alike, connecting them as never before.
In respect to the previous question, how has that molded you into the person you are today?
I am a poet, beyond the artist, parent, friend and human being that I am at every other moment. I have faced death a few times and am convinced that God kept me alive so I can share the gifts He has given me with others. I won't go too far into my own religious beliefs, but I believe the voices of other poets often speak through my poems. It's not unusual for me to sit down and type a piece from beginning to end in a few minutes and then have the strange feeling of not even recognizing the piece after going back and reading it a minute later. Readers often say they are shocked by how my writing speaks of their immediate experiences and I just explain it by saying I am an empath. Again, I won't go too deep into the creative process, but every great artist, writer or musician will attest to this experience of being "in the moment and out of your body" when they create.
This I have to ask: Now that you are published, and have been for quite some time, you are used to writing knowing your work will be read by the masses. If you were isolated on a desert island, and your work was never to be read again, would you still write the way you do now, and could you find the same satisfaction in your work?
Writing is something I do because I can't resist. Even when I try to take a break, the ideas and words come to me all the time. I have not experienced writer's block in years. Sometimes I can write as many as ten new pieces in a single day. And sometimes I wish I could shut it off, but it's not possible. It's like opening a floodgate on creativity. Once it's open, it comes through with a force of it's own. I'd love to spend some time on a desert island. I have no doubt I would come back with a couple more books, or be sending poetry out in bottle and hollowed out coconuts, haha. I will always seek a way of disbursing the energy and product of my writing, though. I think that's part of the writing flow - it must flow away from you to allow room for the new ideas to come through. And yes, I amuse myself, mostly because much of my writing has a feeling of being from somewhere or someone else anyway. Here is one of my pieces explaining my own personal "psychosis"... that I recommend to everyone : )
Do What You Can't Not Do
You will find something in your life,
That you simply cannot ignore,
Something that fills your mind,
Draws you to your own ocean shore.
It will be a gift no other understands,
Most precious and perfect for you,
Given in it's own time by God's hands,
To become one day your deepest truth.
So listen to your silence inside,
For the beauty that calls to you,
Let your own light shine with pride,
And do what you can't not do.
© bartoluciano
(I wrote this poem in two minutes and never refined or polished it because it seems so perfect as is, including its structural "flaws")
Ok, I hope that answers your questions....
Find your passion. Follow it to your conclusion. Breathe. Laugh. Be.
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