B M S: Yes, he was a featured poet here at PERFORMANCE
POETRY. He can be found in the Links section of PP.
RZ: Right. Well... performance poetry helps to subvert
this oligarchy, but some aspects of the 'performance of
poetry can be disconcerting. Like who will be the
first ventriloquist poet? And performance poetry can
be suffocatingly reverential so that anyone with any
kind of a name gets repeated encores even though they
were awful; or it gets so distorted and "unliterary"
and loud and crude it only hurts. Maybe it's only an
English phenomenon, but I've noticed a lot of poets
are cripplingly self-deprecating and apologetic and
there's a sort of embarrassment about being an artist,
any kind of serious artist, so everyone's a clown.
Having said all that, yes, performance poetry is here
to stay. I don't think it's essential to the survival
of poetry though.
B M S: To what extent are you aware of "a voice" in
your poetry? How important is the voice in the writing
of a poem?
RZ: Voices. So many voices and impostors. Finding the
true voice... takes time. I think you become kind of
possessed by the true voice, the one you trust. But
you have to at least flirt with the others, go with
them a way into potentially unhealthy alleys. The true
voice is always present, though. It's sometimes
drowned out by the others. You know you're listening
to the true voice when the page fills quickly with
words and there is a balance to them. You feel it in
your body and the objects around you become
self-illuminated, and nothing other than what they
are. There's a sense of surprise and gratitude when
you read the words again the next day.
B M S: Have you written in any other forms besides
poetry, and with what results? Ever had any interest
in writing plays?
RZ: I've written children's stories; one was broadcast on BBC radio and later included in an anthology they produced and removed on second printing for being politically incorrect. The rest I've thrown away except for one or two which are yellowing in the apartment somewhere. As for the theatre, I've never
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