'America Plops and Fizzes' An interview with poet, Andrew Rihn (Mickey Z.)

[Tace]

Mickey Z. -- World News Trust

Jan. 29, 2011 -- Some guy named Percy Shelley once said poets were the "unacknowledged legislators of the world." So, I'm thinking maybe Percy's been hanging out in Canton, Ohio, with Andrew Rihn, author of the inventive new poetry collection, America Plops and Fizzes from sunnyoutside press.

Poem #8 from the collection:

Sometimes
the best things
in life
are broken.

Rihn's no Ivory Tower purist or coffeehouse boor. Sure, he's the got the English degree from Kent State and six chapbooks to his name but as he told me, "My politics are reflected in my writing. Much of my writing deals with working class issues." Putting his values into practice, Rihn has run creative writing workshops in a domestic violence shelter and currently volunteers reading manuscripts for a non-profit (Reentry Bridge Network) that connects prisoners with the performing arts. (Reentry Bridge Network publishes four books per year of prisoner's writing.)

#33:

Tests
are more meaningful
without answers.

"The concept of 'responding' is a central one in my writing and activism," explains Rihn and the 50 poems in America Plops and Fizzes, to me, read not only as "response" but also as a provocation to respond. Described as deviating to the "edge of formlessness," Rihn's latest collection (and the excellent, complementary artwork by David Munson) seems to build a momentum as you read through it -- the poems sneaking up on you, gaining steam, daring you to stop and contemplate... and perhaps even take action?

#41:

What is
the poet's
equivalent
to the sparring
partner?

"Being a writer is such a privilege," says Rihn, "and the ability to respond is just one of the ways to fulfill the responsibility that comes along with it."

Our conversation went a little something like this…

more

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