Michael Grover  is experimenting with being a full time Poet for the first time in his life. He dwells in his laboratory somewhere in Redneckville, Florida (Bush, and Klan country), where he experiments with words, sound, and prints his chapbooks. He tries to keep a low profile, and stays away from the confederate flag flying, gun toting locals. He does gas up the car and drive to the booming metropolis of Port Saint Lucie, where he hosts readings twice a month at the local coffee shop.

DB. How did you come to live where you are now, in Southern Florida?

MG. I was born in West Palm Beach, raised in the Lake Worth area. I moved to Los Angeles for a while and then to Philly. I was having problems in Philly and it was getting to the point that someone was going to get hurt. I did not want to get hurt or hurt anyone. I had friends in Philly who wanted me to stay with them but I figured maybe it was time to come home and try to apply some of what I learned out in the world to help here. I kind of live in the country now in Stuart just north of West Palm Beach. A lot of Dubya stickers, a lot of confederate flags. I am hosting a reading twice a month at a coffee house and Port Saint Lucie and trying to do good things.

 
DB. When did you first start writing?

MG. I've been writing ever since I can remember. My father saw it at an early age and always tried to encourage it by giving me books of poetry by Ginsberg and stuff. The thing about it is in South Florida there never was much of a literary scene. To express myself I ended up doing my own zines and stuff and getting my writing out that way.

DB. What kind of things did you write then?

MG. I listened to a lot of angry music, Metal and punk rock. I think I started out writing cheesy lyrics. Then in high school I had projects to write stories and I realized that was all in school that I was really good at. So I started writing short stories too.

DB. When did you first become published?

MG. I was in Los Angeles probably 1998. The first magazine I was ever published in was Alpha Beat Soup. I had submitted like 4 or 5 times and he tried to help me all he could. So I followed his advice and finally got accepted. I remember just thinking it was just another thing, no big deal. My friend Whitney came over that night and started freaking out, "Michael do you realize some people try their whole lives to get published and never get published? This is a huge thing." I guess it was. Shortly after that I won the prize for the best poem in the San Gabriel Poetry Quarterly. To this date that is the only poetry prize I have ever won except a couple of slams. I don't really try that hard though. I think competition is a lot that is wrong with the world.  

DB. At what point did you start describing yourself as a poet rather than a
writer?

MG. When I moved out to Los Angeles in 1997. That was the first time I ever participated in a literary scene and it was a good one. I met this guy Sean at this reading my girlfriend went to in this guy Maurice's living room in Glendale. He told me about Larry Jaffe's Poetic License thing. This was before it moved to Hollywood. It was in Pasadena. Sean honestly changed my life. He lives in Turkey now and says he'll never come back to America. Anyway I took part in a great literary movement that got ignored. We had some great writers and performers there. It was Larry that gave me my first feature. I started working on that and I just never stopped working. Also I was heavy into Bukowski back then and reading Bukowksi and Fante then walking around Hollywood and Los Angeles had a profound effect on me.

DB. What kind of effect?

MG. Everything just came together in Los Angeles. Like I said Larry Jaffe gave me my first feature, I believe that was in 1998. I got really excited about it and started rehearsing everyday and writing new poems so I could surprise people. That was one of the first nights he had moved it to Hollywood at the Moondog Café. There were two features that night, I was reading with a woman that was supposed to blow me away so I read first. After I read she just threw her hands up in the air and said, "I can't read." and walked out. After that Larry never had anyone read before me in a feature. He used to have me lead off the show to set the mood and get the energy pumping on the open mic. Those were good days. In 1999 The Outlaw Bible Of American Poetry came out and that really changed the way I wrote and looked at poetry. After that I started getting books by the individuals in there like Bob Kaufman, Amiri Baraka, D.A. Levy. I was really going then. 

DB. You seem very politically inspired.  How did that start for you?

MG. My dad is a Union Electrician and is a socialist so I was always raised to have a political conscience. I have studied poets who have died at the hands of authority. I have studied poets that have been chased around, harassed, run out of their countries. There was only one choice for me to make.

DB. I recently read "Poem Written Upon Reading an Academic Review," where you
speak of your love for jazz.  Do you play anything?

MG. No I used to be in a couple of punk bands in Florida where I screamed a lot. You probably never want to hear those. I was just taught when I was in LA that poetry and jazz are connected. I had a friend that I worked with that got me into Mingus. I guess he was the first jazz that I really got into. My friend had the documentary where he shot the shotgun at the ceiling. We watched that a million times. A close friend from Jaffe's reading Thome Selby used to bring over a bunch of   jazz and we would sit and drink beer all night in my apartment and just talk jazz, poetry, politics, whatever the night led to. Then we would hit the all night taco stand at like two in the morning. I miss those days. I just play jazz when I write. It helps with the flow.

DB. You spoke about, "the poetry of jazz" in that poem.  Could you explain that
a bit?

MG. Uh, I think I covered that in the last question, but I could add that jazz and poetry are both spontaneous, and both create their own structure as individual instances.

DB. Do you have a personal belief in what constitutes poetry?

MG. David, I am not gonna climb out on that limb and try to say what defines poetry. Poetry is spontaneous. It changes every time. I will say this. There is a natural energy that comes out when you write a poem that workshoping and academia tries to take out. I say leave it in there. It makes it exciting. And maybe that is why so many people find poetry so boring. It has to come from the soul, man. It has to be blood. There is a newer poem by Bukowski called "So You Wanna Be A Writer?" read that.

DB. I have read that one by him.  You’re right, that encapsulates it very well. 

DB. Would you describe yourself as a social person?

MG. Nope I am an anti-social person. If a person is cool we'll get to talking, but I don't open right up. I'm not one of those people that feel that I have to know everyone, or everyone has to like me.

DB. Are your friends a diverse lot? 

MG. Yeah, I have a few close friends here in Florida. They are mostly writers and dissidents. I'm always the kind of guy that keeps a few close friends rather than many vague ones. That's just me I guess. I'm a pain in the ass. Ask anyone who's lived with me. They'll tell you. I guess I still have friends in LA. They are writers. I got an e-mail from my ex in LA yesterday. Kinda random. She pops her head up now and then. She's a writer.  

DB. What kind of things do you enjoy besides writing?

MG. I like doing creative stuff. Web design. I do a site with two friends back in Philly. I like to chill. Watch movies and stuff. Drink beer but not too often. I read. I do political stuff. Try to stay active.

DB. Who do you like to read?

MG. The poets that I am into are more from an oral tradition. I think that's how I developed my style. A lot of my stuff is better to be heard than read. I mean Bob Kaufman did not even write his poems down for the longest time. He just performed them off the top of his head. I remember once in LA I was reading Amiri Baraka and my friend Thome told me I have not experienced Baraka until I have seen him read. And he was right. I later saw Baraka read in Philly and it blew me away. Those are the type of poets I seem to be drawn to. As far as stories. I like stuff that makes me laugh. Like Vonegut, or Paul Beatty. Tuff or White Boy Shuffle are hilarious.   

DB. Who would you say has influenced your writing? 

MG. I believe poetry is meant more than to just be read, as most people believe. Poetry is also meant to be heard in the author's voice. People like Baraka, I did see Jack Michelline one time in LA before he died. Roger Bonair-Agard, and Guy LaCharles Gonzales. I saw them both feature at Jaffe's reading and I was blown away. Saul Williams. Just people that show me that poetry can be well written and performed well and with energy.

DB. Have you ever researched anyone who inspired you?  What would
you say you took away from that research?

MG. Bob Kaufman was an interesting person to research. I just read what was in the Outlaw Bible, the preface to Cranial Guitar, and Whitman's Wild Children. But I think writers live interesting lives. I once read a biography on Mingus, between that and reading his book which was semi-autobiographical he lived an interesting life and had an interesting death. Nikola Tesla he is an interesting subject to study.

DB. Do you prefer to do readings, or do you prefer the written word?

MG. I would much rather do readings. I do not feel my work translates well on the page. I do have a couple of new chapbooks that I believe are mostly non performance pieces that were meant to be read.

DB. Do you travel much to promote your poetry? 

MG. I'm not a rich man. I am pretty proletariat. I have never really toured anywhere. That takes money. When I lived in LA I used to take the Greyhound down to San Diego and do features for Rayn Roberts. I would crash at his place, and he would take me to the bus station the next day. I guess that is the closest I have ever come to touring. I know poets that do tour. They have money though.

 
DB. Do you consider yourself a successful poet?  What do you think that entails?

MG. Though it seems over the last year I am becoming more recognized, and my poetry is starting to evolve into what I have always envisioned. I have always told myself from the beginning the minute I think to myself I have become a successful poet there is no more room for progress and I had bout as well take the big dirt nap. So I try to stay pretty humble and focus on the fact that I can always get better. That's just me. To answer the second question success is defined by each person individually and I think I just defined it for me.

DB. What encourages or discourages you about the state of poetry these days?

MG. Encourages, the fact that the world seems so ugly but there is still so much beauty out there. There are still people struggling to do their thing.

Discourages, self promotion. In this age of Def Poetry and myspace there are so many people out there that are so big in the ego, and they sell themselves off to be the shit. Cool kids that maybe their friends will publish their lame stuff to make it seem valid. In Philly I ran into a lot of people who did shows that were like guard dogs watching who they let in. Jealous of anything better than them, they just act like you don't exist and that is discouraging. I have taken a couple of them on, but it really was not worth it. If this person wants to do a phony political poetry reading and act like you're not a political poet, there is really nothing you can do about it. I think the word is denial.

 
DB. What would you tell someone who was interested in becoming a poet?  What
encouragement or advice would you leave them with?

MG. That poetry is not about what you know it is about unlearning. And the path of academia is the path of death. They suck the life out of you and make you a zombie. It is very hard to do your own thing in this world of conformist, but it is also the only path worth taking.

DB. Thanks for your time.

MG. Thank you David for your interest.

Last update : 06-05-2007 17:22

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