Interview: Ricardo Maldonado
Wednesday, 10 August 2011
In certain poems, I find a passion and excitement that creates an irresistible aura; as if the poet invokes an art that reaches––and destroys––the rigidity of the written word.
In all the poetry I’ve read of his, Ricardo Maldonado exudes such a passion. With writing reminiscent, in parts, of the exuberance of American transcendentalism–certainly, America! America!–Ricardo couches his electric work in philosophical, grave subtexts.
Certainly, there is a seriousness that extends beyond the work, here.
Ricardo Maldonado’s online presence is low, though his work is impressive. Look for more from him in the future, and check out his writing here and here. Find him on Twitter here.
Excerpt:
Interview:
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Writers—poets especially—seem to be created in either tumultuous or peculiar environments of youth. (Most recently, Jhumpa Lahiri.) Did events in your childhood inspire you to write?
RICARDO MALDONADO
At mass, in fourth grade, we were made to sit—in our white polos and grey slacks—by a statue of Christ, asleep in a glass cage, post-crucifixion—now and in infinity, a corpse, I thought, bathed in red light from the windows. As a child, I was often subject to a sense of confusion over the state of his body, and feared that I would die too.
I dreamt of it and my mother would play the keys on my Casio whenever I awoke, and her tenderness and love—her mercy–would calm this fear. I remembered this after my father’s death. I was unprepared. My father—how incomplete he seemed—an oak—how inscrutable inside the coffin—his fingers stitched together. My first line of poetry read “When you go away.” For some reasons I think I am still writing that line.
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You’re not easily found on the web, but you’ve got work in or upcoming in wonderful journals: Diagram, Boston Review, Denver Quarterly, Blue Letter…What’s up with the low profile?
RICARDO MALDONADO
I would want to say that publication takes time, care; that I would want my work to appear where it is honored—it has been, I am grateful—that my work is not suited for every journal. For the past four years, after Columbia, at the 92Y Unterberg Poetry Center, I have learned from other poets, and also from my friends (my teachers) to be patient and precise.
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The Internet has encouraged a new generation of the avant-garde, the “Conceptualist Poets,” who employ computational logic to produce “Uncreative” poetry, a conglomeration of preexisting texts. They argue that by removing the egocentricity of authorship, they shape language in new ways. Is there anything valid to this theory?
RICARDO MALDONADO
Our age asks for its own formal inventions and conventions—for example, my most recent work borrows from Walking with Dinosaurs, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen. My poem “America! America!” references President Obama’s Inaugural. We are what we peruse. We are what we stream. The act of writing is too particular to allow and welcome conceptualist definitions. The web may have changed how we think of books and the page, but I see no difference between conglomeration and the forms of antiquity—early examples of centos, for example, can be found in the work of Homer and Virgil. Meaningful poetry, regardless of camp, reflects a critical engagement with the texts of the world.
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A new branch of neurology—dubbed Neuroaesthetics—has begun to define artists by virtue of their unique cognitive functions; e.g. writers are typically schizotypic. This science suggests—and in some cases proves—that writers are writers because of biological processes rather than divine inspiration. If, in the future, the exact makeup of a writer is determined, will the art lose its status?
RICARDO MALDONADO
Conversations about the mind of the poet at work, as he/she discovers a given subject, as he/she invites the reader into that process, feel more appropriate. A discourse that envisions poetry as mere biological process seems inadequate.
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What of human experience does poetry more ably document: Its tragedies or splendors?
RICARDO MALDONADO
Pure tragedy or splendor feels unpoetic—I am beginning to find grey areas most interesting. The human mind is able to inhabit various emotions and psychologies simultaneously.
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Your poems favor brevity—stanzas are usually coupled, and clipped. What do you favor about this form?
RICARDO MALDONADO
The short poem funnels and/or concentrates a great deal of frenetic energy. I recently asked my students to write the poem that scared them the most—concision, in my mind seems to fulfill that request, although I am trying my best to recognize and honor the psychological impetus and requirements of a longer poem.
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“America! America!” your recent poem in Boston Review, seems to speak for the American outlier, “confus[ing] the gods”. Certainly there is a turn from those gods to the natural (the “fluttering trees). Do you describe a certain social climate in this poem?
RICARDO MALDONADO
President Obama’s Inaugural provided the germ for “America! America!,” with words giving birth, or, rather, mutating into others. As a Puerto Rican—a citizen of two minds and two languages—I am curious about what America stands for and what is has to offer—in the current climate: the usual stories of frustration.
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What’re you working on now?
RICARDO MALDONADO
I’ve been revisiting Cavafy, O’Hara, Larkin, and Vallejo, learning from my students and my colleagues, learning how to write about the future and how to forgive.
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