B M S: I used to think - and I probably still do -
that all art, including poetry, is essentially
religious in nature. I'm not talking about churches or
codes of ethics or bibles and born-again christians.
I mean something that is essentially spiritual. Do you
see art in these terms? If so, why, and if not, why
not?
RZ: No not all art. Much art is propaganda... like
the stuff produced by the Nazis, and it's difficult to
see the spiritual in street-long portraits of the
various dictators that have haunted us for so many
years, and the verses that have been written in their
honour. Or in those awful portraits of aristocrats
that hang in galleries the world over... or The Last
Supper; sentimental and anaemic... Tribal art and
naive, yes, redolent with spirit... and urban
poetry... the last few hundred years... there is I
think a kind of secular spirituality. I don't really
want to talk about Verlaine and all, and Wilde, and
later the Beats... they've been written about so much
I almost don't care. But there's an obvious
spirituality running through that link to the past.
William Carlos Williams, yes and Lorca, and oh so
many. As for my own stuff... it's an attempt to cut
the top off god's head, to stop time, to see from
outside time... to see things as they are... from
beyond blood flesh and mind... without neurosis and
preconceptions... yeah to see what's in god's head...
(laughs)
B M S: A poet I know recently referred to you as one
of the great unknown love poets of the fin de siecle.
What's your reaction to this?
RZ: [Shifts position, remains silent for two minutes
longer than is comfortable] Well... I agree that I'm
unknown. Uhhhh... is there a kind of barb in there?
Some sarcasm...?
B M S: No, no. Not at all. (laughs)
RZ: The fin de siecle? Verlaine? Rimbaud? Decadence? Art for art's sake? If I accept that statement as a compliment it's because... ok, yes, I can see where he/she may be coming from with regard to the use of simple language, a need to point to the sacredness of
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