By: Patrick Moran
Nora Roberts Interview—Claire E. White 2021
Take us through a typical day in the life of Nora Roberts.
My slow—Terrestrial eye 1448
Intent upon the vision 78
Babbles the Bee in a stolid Ear 216
To own the Art within the Soul 855
The Soul selects her own Society 303
with confidential moan 1440
I can’t tell you—but you feel it 65
As if my Trade were Bone 496
Upon the Floors of Fame 1009
There is no Frigate like a book 1263
A Frail Aristocrat of Time 991
It keeps the nerves progressive 1128
The Truth must dazzle gradually 1129
Those Evenings of the Brain 419
Until it bend as low as Death 833
Or other thing—if other thing there be 738
Charles Bukowski Interview—Phil Taylor 1972
Did you ever meet anyone interesting at the race track?
Those fair—Fictitious People— 499
Burglar! Banker—Father! 49
The Fop—the Carp—The Atheist 1380
Each Life Converges to some Centre 680
Some Wednesday Afternoon 1097
Like Sailors fighting a Leak 1136
I bet with every wind that blew 1215
The Booty and the Sorrow 1464
Three times, Tis said, a sinking man 1718
Plucks at a Twig of Evidence 501
Through the strait path of suffering 792
We lose—because we win— 21
Salman Rushdie Interview—Jack Livings 2005
Do you have to restrain yourself from saying, it means this?
Act 1
The satyr’s fingers beckoned 9
This little Hound within the Heart 186
It was the limit of my Dream 756
Deeper and deeper grew the stain 152
The Woods exchanged a smile 74
Have I the Art to say 701
Her breast is fit for pearls 84
Act 2
Night is morning’s Canvas 7
I meant to tell Her how I longed 718
To take my Chance with pain 574
Bliss is, but Bliss, and Breath but Breath 172
Never mind my breathless Anvil 109
It intimates the finer want 726
The Loneliness One dare not sounds 777
Act 3
Embarrassed—not afraid— 17
I thought that nature was enough 1286
Those thirsty lips to flagons pressed 121
The Noon unwinds her Blue 710
Body! Then real—a Face and Eyes— 1492
Better will be the Ecstasy 207
I taste a liquor never brewed 214
Act 4
Her favor is the best Disdain 753
A brief Campaign of sting and sweet 159
How soft this Prison is 1334
Throw open wide to me— 1360
Take my flowers—pray 32
Her lips of Amber never part 737
This dirty—little—Heart 1311
Act 5
Let Us play Yesterday 728
The Heart—to stimulate the eye 743
When a lover is a Beggar 1314
Her steady Boat be seen— 798
Frigid and sweet Her parting face 1318
Too late for striving fingers 90
You and I the Secret 22
Patrick Moran is the author of five collections of poetry and the editor of an anthology of contemporary Scottish poetry. He teaches creative writing at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
Interview with the Poet:
Cathexis Northwest Press:
How long have you been writing poetry?
Patrick Moran:
I have been writing poems for about 35 years.
CNP:
Can you remember the first poem you read that made you fall in love with poetry?
PM:
"These" by William Carlos Williams
CNP:
Who are your favorite poets? Any specific poems?
PM:
Heather McHugh, W.H. Auden, Emily Dickinson
CNP:
Can you share for us a little bit about your writing process? Any specific rituals that get you in.
PM:
Yellow legal pad, fine point pen, and a bee in my bonnet about writing or words or a poem.
CNP:
How do you decide the form for your poems? Do you start writing with a form in mind, or do you let the poem tell you what it will look like as you go?
PM:
Denise Levertov has an essay "Some Notes toward Organic Form"; Get out of the way of the poem and let the form emerge organically.
CNP: Any advice for poets who have yet to find their voice?
PM:
Be patient. Poetry and Prose are a long-distance runner's race.
CNP: What is your editing process like?
PM:
Brutal.
CNP:
When do you know that a poem is finished?
PM:
It's like catching a pencil when it rolls off your desk and your hand reaches out instinctively to catch it.