 THT |
On The Hyper Texts and Other Matters |
| Poetry L & T: | Mike Burch is Editor of The
HyperTexts (THT) and now our Resident Poet at Poetry Life and Times, so
we’ve taken this opportunity to give this illustrious web site poetry
magazine and its editor a full cover page for this month’s issue. When
did you get started on the THT project, Mike?
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| Mike Burch: |
I started The HyperTexts in 1999.
We began with the work of poets like A. E. Stalling, Annie Finch,
Harvey Stranbrough and Richard Moore.
With a few exceptions, we’ve added at least one poet every month over
the last few years, so we have quite a selection of poets for our readers
to choose from now.
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| Poetry L & T: |
Well you are already very well established and a
web site review of THT by Laurel Johnson Mid West Book Review,
with a full outline of contents can be found under your section
Essays and Assays. [Look for author]. Indeed THT has so many features it’s
difficult to know where to begin as they are all so inspired.
If I might hazard a guess Mysterious Ways seems to be at the heart of
THT and perhaps yourself as a poet.
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| Mike Burch: |
That’s a fair assumption.
Frankly, I got tired and bored of reading poem
after poem about flowers, social affairs and poetry readings.
I thought it would be interesting to challenge poets to tell us what
they think about the really big questions: life, death, the afterlife,
God, infinity. Over the last three years, as I’ve learned to “pray in the spirit”
(by which I mean reaching out to God’s spirit with my own, rather than merely praying
with words), I’ve seen miracle after miracle occur around me, and this has led me to
believe that I’m not a bit of animated dust, but a being in God’s own image.
God is spirit, not flesh, and therefore it is our spirits that are in his image.
So now I’m interested to hear what
other poets and artists think about such things.
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| Poetry L & T: | I noticed in the section "The Masters", you state your strong preference for ‘ the poem as epiphany’ as well as a tendency to favour oriental and ancient Persian writers in the Sufi tradition, such as Hafiz and Rumi. |
| Mike Burch: |
Yes, I’m much more interested in “communion” than “communication.”
For me a really good poem involves one or more ephiphanies, which come as
lightning bolts of realization. A good example is Whitman’s
“A Noiseless Patient Spider” …
A noiseless patient spider,
I mark'd where on a little promontory it stood isolated, Mark'd how to explore the vacant vast surrounding, It launch'd forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself, Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them. And you O my soul where you stand, Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space, Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them, Till the bridge you will need be form'd, till the ductile anchor hold, Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul. The epiphany is that man’s soul is like a spider – flinging forth thoughts like gossamer threads, waiting for them to catch somewhere, so that he can build a bridge, evolve, continue his never-ending journey. This is the communion of poetry that goes beyond mere communication. This is the power of epiphany to jolt the reader of out his shoes, to change his perception and even his life. |
| Poetry L & T: | Again in "The Masters", you attempt the perilous task to outline Then and Now Romanticism in poetry in the English Language, as well as invite nominations. A wonderful guide in my opinion even to the non novice, are there any particular favourites of yours there, we can feature for our readers today, or is that asking too much? |
| Mike Burch: | That mini-essay/outline was one I enjoyed writing, especially the bit about the first troglodyte poet who put the “ah!” in stars! My favorite poem on the page is “Tom O’Bedlam” (if any reader hasn’t read it, they have not yet experienced the best poetry has to offer). The final stanza of “Tom O’Bedlam” is almost akin to reading Don Quixote in a few seconds. Some of my favorite shorter poems include:
"My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold" by William Wordsworth
My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky: So was it when my life began; So is it now I am a man; So be it when I shall grow old, Or let me die! The Child is father of the Man; I could wish my days to be Bound each to each by natural piety.
"The Sick Rose" by William Blake
"Music When Soft Voices Die (To --)" by Percy Bysshe ShelleyO Rose, thou art sick. The invisible worm That flies in the night In the howling storm Has found out thy bed Of crimson joy, And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy.
Music, when soft voices die,
Vibrates in the memory-- Odours, when sweet violets sicken, Live within the sense they quicken. Rose leaves, when the rose is dead, Are heaped for the belovèd's bed; And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone, Love itself shall slumber on. |
| Poetry L & T: |
THT has also gone into publishing together with your colleague poet Canadian Joe Ruggier, also appearing
in our feature poet section in this month’s edition.
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| Mike Burch: |
Yes. Joe Ruggier is an amazing man
with an amazing story. He’s sold over 20,000 books,
most of them poetry books that he’s sold door-to-door.
I met him when he expressed an interest in publishing my poetry.
He had called Esther Cameron, the editor of The Neovictorian/Cochlea and
actually recited my poem “She Was Very Strange, and Beautiful” over the
phone to her, after which Esther put him in touch with me. Joe once called
me to tell me that he jumped out of his seat on a bus upon reading a line
from my poem “Auschwitz Rose.” For me as a poet it was quite touching and
thrilling to have someone like Joe respond to my work so enthusiastically,
and when I found out that Joe
was available for book projects, I felt very comfortable working with him.
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| Poetry L & T: | It’s certainly an
impressive list of contemporary poets and their works that you feature.
I suppose you are always on the look out to for new writers seeking an
opportunity to find a literary public to appreciate their work.
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| Mike Burch: | Absolutely.
We’ve published well known poets, and we’ve published poets who were,
more or less, unknowns. The main purpose of THT is to bring poets and
readers together for those moments of communion and epiphany that make
poetry so unique among the arts. Music and visual arts can convey
emotion, but only words put us inside another person’s thoughts. Poetry
is the highest order of words, and therefore the highest order of
thought.
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| Poetry L & T: |
Thank you for your contribution and this interview, Mike Burch. |
