Anthony DeGregorio Q & A with Eastern Iowa Review
Chila: Your essay is stunningly beautiful. Give us a two-line summary of the contents of "It Takes a Train to Cry: Lament for an American Dream."
Anthony: (Thank you for saying that!) It’s a pensive memory piece about loss and distance and change, in both external and internal landscapes. It is a vision of the nation, dreamlike but concrete, using the physical act of travel and observation, often filtered through very personal associations.
Chila: You stated that you've attempted the lyric essay for several years. I feel you've accomplished it quite well with this one. How have you prepared for this work?
Anthony: (Thanks again. I could get used to these comments!) Well, I have mostly written poetry, and I have attempted in many cases (maybe too many) with prose to employ the same approach. In poetry each word (hopefully) must be able to justify its existence and be the best/strongest word the writer can come up with. There should be nothing unnecessary that isn’t pulling its own weight, and hopefully adding levels. The words should be supercharged. ("Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree.” Ezra Pound <http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/e/ezra_pound.html>) I think maybe he said it much better.
Chila: How has poetry informed your ability and / or desire to write the lyric essay. Some say that without the first, it's quite difficult to accomplish the second well, and I would have to agree. Further expound on this for a moment.
Anthony: For many years, poetry was pretty much the only thing I wrote, and it remains what I like to write most. Whenever I began writing anything, it was always a poem; however, the piece sometimes just seemed to wander off/develop into an essay or a story. I don’t think there was always a conscious decision to incorporate or juxtapose the poem and lyric essay. The two are part of writing and intertwined, to me at least. This particular piece was first written as a poem, but I kept going back to it, unsatisfied. It had a number of lives as a poem, prose piece, poem, prose poem, essay, etc. I don’t think there’s really much mystery. So much of what I’ve written for the past couple of hundred years or so was approached as a poem if for no other reason than that’s what I am most comfortable with and like best. Some essays and subjects lend themselves more easily to poetic language than others, although poetic language is never completely out the picture.
Chila: You've had a full and varied life. Do you often draw off of people, incidents, and experiences you've had when developing new poems or essays? What would you say is the best way for us to do this while still maintaining a lyrical emphasis? I find it's not an easy task - to combine narrative and lyricism - but it can be done. Perhaps describe your process. In the essay you supplied us, you did this very well.
Anthony: I think writing just about always involves drawing off everything from one’s life. But sometimes it’s merely a sentence or a few words, or even one word
that comes into your head or that perhaps you overhear somewhere. And then this leads to other connections as you begin writing things down or even just thinking about them. Again, for me the process is just trying to write a good poem, and sometimes that poem grows and changes and develops into something with ideas that were not the original intention. And that intention was just to harness, or be harnessed by, whatever idea, thought, words, images, feelings, memories, or overheard remarks that may lead somewhere if you are willing to follow.
Chila: Current writing projects we can look forward to?
Anthony: I am hoping to put together collections of poetry and prose.
Chila: Your essay is stunningly beautiful. Give us a two-line summary of the contents of "It Takes a Train to Cry: Lament for an American Dream."
Anthony: (Thank you for saying that!) It’s a pensive memory piece about loss and distance and change, in both external and internal landscapes. It is a vision of the nation, dreamlike but concrete, using the physical act of travel and observation, often filtered through very personal associations.
Chila: You stated that you've attempted the lyric essay for several years. I feel you've accomplished it quite well with this one. How have you prepared for this work?
Anthony: (Thanks again. I could get used to these comments!) Well, I have mostly written poetry, and I have attempted in many cases (maybe too many) with prose to employ the same approach. In poetry each word (hopefully) must be able to justify its existence and be the best/strongest word the writer can come up with. There should be nothing unnecessary that isn’t pulling its own weight, and hopefully adding levels. The words should be supercharged. ("Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree.” Ezra Pound <http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/e/ezra_pound.html>) I think maybe he said it much better.
Chila: How has poetry informed your ability and / or desire to write the lyric essay. Some say that without the first, it's quite difficult to accomplish the second well, and I would have to agree. Further expound on this for a moment.
Anthony: For many years, poetry was pretty much the only thing I wrote, and it remains what I like to write most. Whenever I began writing anything, it was always a poem; however, the piece sometimes just seemed to wander off/develop into an essay or a story. I don’t think there was always a conscious decision to incorporate or juxtapose the poem and lyric essay. The two are part of writing and intertwined, to me at least. This particular piece was first written as a poem, but I kept going back to it, unsatisfied. It had a number of lives as a poem, prose piece, poem, prose poem, essay, etc. I don’t think there’s really much mystery. So much of what I’ve written for the past couple of hundred years or so was approached as a poem if for no other reason than that’s what I am most comfortable with and like best. Some essays and subjects lend themselves more easily to poetic language than others, although poetic language is never completely out the picture.
Chila: You've had a full and varied life. Do you often draw off of people, incidents, and experiences you've had when developing new poems or essays? What would you say is the best way for us to do this while still maintaining a lyrical emphasis? I find it's not an easy task - to combine narrative and lyricism - but it can be done. Perhaps describe your process. In the essay you supplied us, you did this very well.
Anthony: I think writing just about always involves drawing off everything from one’s life. But sometimes it’s merely a sentence or a few words, or even one word
that comes into your head or that perhaps you overhear somewhere. And then this leads to other connections as you begin writing things down or even just thinking about them. Again, for me the process is just trying to write a good poem, and sometimes that poem grows and changes and develops into something with ideas that were not the original intention. And that intention was just to harness, or be harnessed by, whatever idea, thought, words, images, feelings, memories, or overheard remarks that may lead somewhere if you are willing to follow.
Chila: Current writing projects we can look forward to?
Anthony: I am hoping to put together collections of poetry and prose.
I'm thankful to Anthony for sharing such a lovely essay with us. Only the best to him in the days and years ahead. - Chila
Anthony DeGregorio has a master’s degree in Writing from Manhattanville College where he has been teaching a tutorial in expository writing since 1998. He has worked in various capacities for the Department of Social Services for far too many years. His poetry, short fiction, and essays have been published in several dozen journals. Most recently his work has appeared in Allegro Poetry Magazine, Boston Literary Magazine, Chronogram Magazine, and Unbroken. He also has a poem scheduled for publication soon in The Aurorean, and another of his poems was a finalist in the recent Naugatuck River Review’s annual narrative poetry contest, and will appear in that magazine this spring.
Anthony DeGregorio has a master’s degree in Writing from Manhattanville College where he has been teaching a tutorial in expository writing since 1998. He has worked in various capacities for the Department of Social Services for far too many years. His poetry, short fiction, and essays have been published in several dozen journals. Most recently his work has appeared in Allegro Poetry Magazine, Boston Literary Magazine, Chronogram Magazine, and Unbroken. He also has a poem scheduled for publication soon in The Aurorean, and another of his poems was a finalist in the recent Naugatuck River Review’s annual narrative poetry contest, and will appear in that magazine this spring.