All the treasures in Ali Baba's cave: Joe Milford's Poetry Show

You know the frustration of being "interpreted"? Like you say "Huh, the sky is blue" and you are suddenly "really observant" "have your head in the clouds" "depressed" "stating the obvious" "a lover of the now." 

As with Anne Fiero, who interviewed me at WKCR (see my Interviews tab), he shows me my poems are not mine. Not to overstate or sound as if I Uriah Heep-like see myself as a humble vessel or servant. I'm not humble in this regard and I don't have the confidence to believe I'm among those chosen by goddesses, muses, shining lights of God's beauty to get the point across.

The point?  That's the point here.  Interviewer Joe Milford sees all sorts of points to my work, all sorts of ideas, weaving, insights and, to simpliy, I am awed and impressed.  Joe is all the treasures in Ali Baba's cave and knows a universal Open Sesame for art.  (He mentioned he was teaching the Arabian Nights in a world lit class.)

As with the WKCR interview, last night's conversation is archived in my lovely "Interview" tab above which I hope will always be available on my My 3,000 Loving Arms and also here.

Search the Joe Milfore Poetry Show's archives. I am the least of these.

Podcast: WKCR, Sarah Sarai interviewed

In July (or so) this year, on a rainy Sunday I took the 1 train up to the offices of WKCR at Columbia University.

The day alternated downpour and sprinkle. Occasional radiance. I didn't think of it at the time, but this was the neighborhood, looking over to the blue-shining Hudson between brick buildings and mossy strips of Riverside Park, that had me creating ways to describe a cloud a few years ago. I'd been freelancing in the university Trustees office.

This Sunday I left enough time to stop off and arm myself with iced coffee; the afternoon was muggy and compliantly hot (cold and muggy?) and I rattled ice cubes as I climbed stairs to the studio. Anne and I chatted. She surprised me by naming poems she'd like to hear from The Future Is Happy. She'd clearly prepared. Nervous and new to interviews I asked for a few retakes of poems I stuttered through. Indulgent and then businesslike, Anne got me talking.

"The deal of it is" (as I write in "A Clairvoyant Cartography," one of the poems Fiero requested), she's smart and funny and a dream interviewer.

From her Web site: Anne Cammon Fiero "curates a literary edition of the weekend radio show Studio A on WKCR FM New York, featuring contemporary works of poetry, fiction and new music in a choreographed, experimental format that transforms the written and spoken word into engaging cultural programming."

This will get you to Sarah Sarai as podcast. The undisguised link is http://www.annecammon.com/audio/Sarah_Sarai.mp3

Happy listening, friends.

Sarah

from "A Clairvoyant Cartography":

The deal of it is
Aristotle wrote it was heart
and not brain cranking think power,
a clairvoyant cartography of mind and body.

from The Future Is Happy (BlazeVOX)

My First Interview Airs Monday, July 26, 9:30-10 p.m.: Expect insight and giggling

Writer Anne Fiero interviewed me this afternoon for her radio show "Arts and Answers" which airs on the Columbia University station, WKCR 89.9 FM.

We talked and I read about ten poems, a mix of work from The Future Is Happy and newer poems.

Anne is a wonderful interviewer. Her insights into my work were lavishly interesting. She drew me out. When I'm nervous I can be terse, but her questions engaged me and I had much to say, even if I was occasionally flummoxed. Flummoxation can be charming.

Anyway, I was interested and hope you will be too.

If you aren't in New York or won't be home at 9:30 Monday night (July 26) (WKCR 89.9 on your radio dial) the interview will be archived soon thereafter at http://annecammon.com/radio_shows.