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SFR: What motivated you to sell your flower shop in 1998 and take your "first step in becoming a full time poet," as you stated in your book
How to Make a Living as a Poet
? GG:
I had been a florist for 18 years, but I always wanted to do something more masculine. So I figured a poet would be a good occupation. We bought the shop with the goal of being able to travel. I worked there for 18 years but I owned it for seven. During that time, the goal was always to be able to sell it and travel around the world. It was kind of like my wife's and my plan. Being able to do it was amazing. I had been doing poetry since 1980, but it was a solid step towards becoming a professional and being able to make my living.
How does it feel to be a full-time poet and be involved with poets like Gary Snyder and Anne Waldman?
I got to read with a real hero of mine, Gary Snyder, at the Tucson Poetry Festival, and got to know him a little bit. That was great. It feels wonderful to accomplish a goal, but it's hard to make a living as a poet. I probably have five different projects up and running. It feels great. This is my 26th year of writing poetry, so a large foundation has been made. With a lot of contacts, traveling the country and building a network with the poetry slam, I am able to tour and do readings.
Which poets have influenced you the most?
I started writing because of Lou Welch. He was Gary Snyder's roommate in college. Most people think they don't know any poetry by Lou Welch, but almost everybody knows the famous lines that he wrote: "Raid kills bugs dead"-he wrote that when he was an advertising copywriter, then left Chicago and moved to San Francisco and became part of the Beat Generation. He is the one who got me started with writing, and he's also the stepfather of Huey Lewis.
How did you get involved with slam poetry?
I went to Chicago for a florist convention. I was wandering through the blues festival there and saw a flyer for a poetry reading by Gwendolyn Brooks. I went to that and started talking to people. They suggested I go to the Green Mill where the poetry slam happens. I went that night and met Mark Smith who started the poetry slam. Because of this big event that happened during the day for Gwendolyn Brooks, there was only one person who signed up for the slam that night. They said he was going to automatically win, in advance, but he said, "I want the audience to judge me up or down, whether I win or lose." So my first experience with poetry slam was seeing someone, solo, compete against themselves and lose. About half a year later, I was working with a group in San Francisco and we had a chance to do the first National Poetry Slam where cities came together and competed. So that was my start. I continued to work with Mark and now, almost 16 years later, he's part of the Alzheimer's Poetry Project.
Tell me about the Alzheimer's Poetry Project and how it came to be.
I got a grant from Poets & Writers Magazine while I was working in a facility in Northern California, where my flower shop was. There was a guy in the group whose head was down and he wasn't able to participate at all. I recited the Longfellow poem, and when I read the line, "I shot an arrow in the air," his eyes popped open and he said, "It fell to Earth, I know not where." For that moment, he was back with us, and had skipped past a part of the brain that wasn't damaged by the disease. It was a real heartfelt moment for me, as a poet, to see how poetry could go out into the community and be of use to people. Since then I have pursued it on my own. About two years ago I started to get funding through New Mexico Literary Arts writing grants. This year I was awarded the grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. I'm also starting the project in New York, Washington, DC, Chicago and Los Angeles.
What do you think Ginsberg, Kerouac, etc. would think about contemporary poetry like slams?
I know what Ginsberg thought about it, because I got to ask him. He said that a poetry slam is a fun poetry game. He saw it as that. When you go to a reading, and there are hundreds of people there and they are enthusiastic about poetry, most poets are going to think that's a good thing.
You teach poetry at Desert Academy. What poets do students respond to these days?
The students love Sage Francis and Saul Williams. Last year we took the class to New York City and performed at the Bowery Poetry Club. They got to meet Sage Francis and Saul Williams. One of the kids went up to Saul Williams and said, "Would you come out on the sidewalk and freestyle with us?" It was very sweet. He declined, unfortunately.
How did you get involved with the jazz trio Vibe?
The Vibe tour was sponsored by Pontiac. I had done another tour for a corporation, Grand Marnier. They wanted someone who had experience doing national tours. They chose me to be the poet for the tour. It was fantastic, a dream come true for me. I love jazz and those guys were great. I also work a lot with Michael Kott, who is a cellist in town. We have a DJ from Switzerland, DJ Luca, and we recently put out a CD with Michael Kott's cello and my poetry.
Do you think that the Internet has, or will have, an influence in the literary realm?
The kids in the literary class I teach at Desert Academy have a blog [
]. It's allowed us to immediately post poems in a very inexpensive way and people can access them easily. The other thing that's happening a lot is that people are creating online poetry workshops. My radio show, PoetryTalk on KSFR, is broadcast over the Internet. And lots of poets are doing PodCast-I think it's an amazing use of the technology.
