Michael Schiller, Poet

I began noticing Michael Schiller’s poetry some time ago, following his blog - The Forward Earth, I would wait for his next poem, often-times delighting in the photography too.

Eventually there was a book - Something in Another City and I realised it was time for me to ask Michael if we might not ‘chat’ a little, via the internet.  He kindly agreed and here is our conversation ... 

Since when have you been writing your poetry and how much of a role does your photography play in the creative process?

I started writing things down and calling them poems early in 2006. I had joined the navy at a late age and was experiencing a lot of feelings and exploring new philosophical considerations that I wasn’t sharing with anyone. The first time something came to me that I felt inclined to write down, it was entirely formless and without prescience. It happened again and kept happening long enough that, gratefully, writing became something I did. It soon became a way of making something more of my philosophical, and literal, wanderings and observations, than just unacknowledged landmarks in my periphery. I use photography in a similar way. It helps me latch onto scenes and conditions that offer more than I might observe in the moment. A few of my poems have been inspired by perusals of my photo albums.

And looking back, do you see an evolution in your style?

I can say I have something of a style now, which wasn’t so in the beginning. Occasionally, I’ll do something a little experimental, meaning against my norm, but my preference is to write with a rhythm, but without a preset construct; without stanzas or word counts, and only when I have something to say.

How do you let go of your poems, decide that they’re done and press publish?

I find it very easy to publish them, because I’m eager to have that final awareness of having created something. Of course, it very often turns out to be less final than I assume. Fortunately, I always have the option of further editing, and it’s not as if readers are thronging at my storefront. On occasion, I’ve been known to permanently un-publish something I had posted for the satisfaction of creation. I am able to recognize and admit when I need to shelve the materials and hope to find a better arrangement for some of them in the future. The ones that failed to take a polish didn’t make it to the book.

Are you influenced by anyone ... be they poet or writer or someone else?

Like most amateur poets, I have a Kerouac fixation. I love his work, and though I don’t try to imitate it, it helps me to trust my ability to be spontaneous, and remember that I write better when I don’t get caught up in choosing pretty words. Sometimes when I don’t have the words, I clear my head and wait for them to come. They always do; and yet I continually forget that.

When are you at your writing best ... in sadness, in exhilaration, or with a muse present or imagined to be present?

I think sadness and melancholy inspire more of my work than any other emotional state. But some of my favorites, like World Music, come from a feeling that is closer to joy, but carries the weight of profound sadness. It’s hard to quantify. It’s like the metaphysical home and fountainhead of poetry. I only experience that in special moments when observation and introspection join hands.

The names Square Traveler and then Forward Earth – where did they come from? And how did you come up with the title for your book?

I always longed to travel and always liked the idea of taking on The Traveler as my moniker. But I didn’t touch it until I had actually been somewhere, which didn’t happen until I was in the navy. Then I felt it could be justified, but I wasn’t satisfied that it was distinctive enough. It needed a modifier to be original. I heard that a popular singer-songwriter referred to himself as a square, and without knowing for sure what he meant by it, I thought of what it could mean for me. It’s very similar to the original slang sense of the word, the meaning of which suits me. It suits me just fine. I’ve never considered myself to be just like everyone else, or objected to having my differences observed. I’m not a fan of everything I’m supposed to be. I don’t hear the pop of the culture. The sign of the times wasn’t posted for me. I am a square and I prefer to be.

The Forward Earth was originally used in a poem that was dedicated to Jack Kerouac. My favorite prose piece of his is ‘October in the Railroad Earth’. When I decided to dedicate something to him, I asked myself what could be my own version of that. I was in a naval command that is based in a foreign country, Japan, and that is referred to as being permanently forward deployed.

‘Something in Another City’ is a phrase that came into my head one day when my ship was pulling into Hong Kong. I don’t remember precisely what I was thinking about, but there was something I hoped to find there, and I was thinking that if I wasn’t successful, maybe I could find something in another city. That phrase struck me as independently poetic, with any number of potential meanings and implications. It stayed in my head until I had to do something with it.

You blogged for a time and that’s how I found you – why did you start? How much inspiration and encouragement did you get from the blog world and now in Facebook, is it similar?

I had a blog for a year or so and wasn’t using it, because there was no news in my daily life. When free-style poems had been plopping from my brain for a week or so and numbered in the teens, I decided to post them along with some black and white photos. In a fairly short time, a couple of people discovered the blog and left me some flattering comments. That fueled my desire to write and to share my work. I found a forum for that purpose, which brought me more of those treasured compliments and kept me creating and growing. Facebook is different. On my blog, I indulge an inclination to present myself as stoic and mysterious. On Facebook I allow myself to joke and to share things that amuse and otherwise entertain me. It’s my online venue for fun and casual interaction, not artistry.

Favourite authors is always a question, who are yours? I’m also curious to know what style of writing you most prefer reading.

I’ve already mentioned Kerouac. Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mark Twain and Toni Morrison are probably the top authors whose work left me wanting more. Beautiful prose is one thing, but I’m a big fan of imperfection: the spontaneous and largely unedited mad rants of Kerouac; the flawed grammar and unschooled language of the characters of Twain and Faulkner; the crude everyman quality of Bukowski. I also love the existential meanderings of authors like Camus and Sartre. I’m still discovering all the greats.

Do you have any inspirational figures in your life?

My best friend, Sarah, believes in me unwaveringly and without reserve. She inspires me to create and try new things when I’d just as soon not bother. She’s also very intelligent and talented in her own right.

What do you do in that other life where you make money and live or is that too nosey?

I earn my living as an office worker in an unglamorous field. Half of my reason for joining the navy was the opportunity to finally get a formal education. That’s a thing unheard of in my family, so there was never an expectation of it, or any preparation for it. But I love to learn and want more out of life than I can obtain under the current circumstances. I’ve made some progress toward my Humanities degree. As for my social life, it’s nonexistent. I have issues with social anxiety, and I take no interest in the the things most people do, like clubs and the bar scene, and never seem to come across people here share my interests. I’m a tourist in everyday life.

And traveling, you have traveled far and wide. Where has been your favourite place so far?

My favorite place so far was Sydney, Australia. It’s a gorgeous city, much like an ideal version of an American city. Every time I turned a corner there, I saw something beautiful, in the architecture or scenery, that made me wish I could live there.

Which place you would like most to visit or return to?

Japan was home to me for three years, and I miss the country and its wonderful people every day. I always dreamed of traveling Europe and have spent almost no time there, so I continue to dream of it. I’m most drawn to Italy, but there’s no place on the continent I wouldn’t be thrilled to be.

Preferred mode of travel, as in are you a backpacker, a hotel or resort, outdoorsy and country or city, beaches or rivers ...?

I’m not bold enough to backpack. I’m drawn to major cities and prefer to stay in a hotel, though it doesn’t have to be anything fancy. Of course, I also love the countryside and I’m absolutely in love with the sea. I would love an opportunity to travel the oceans as a civilian.

World-weary

I’ve scuffed my boot soles
On the streets and boardwalks
Of the largest cities in the world,
Been foreign and peculiar
In a range of abstractions,
Spreading my gibberish
Across borders and oceans,
Up and down skyscrapers,
To monuments ancient and new,
Echoing through valleys
And across red rooftops,
To ripple in silver pools
And undulate in obscurity.
And now I’m ready
To fall asleep to the music
Of crickets resonating
Under floorboards;
To yawn and wipe the dew
From porch rails for a place
To sit with my coffee
And the fauna waking
With elemental ambitions;
To walk in a town so small
That everyone will wonder
Who the hell I am.
 
- Michael Schiller