Chris Crittenden (Owl Who Laughs)
Age: More than half way to death, but varying
Location: Small fishing village, fifty miles from a traffic light
Education: PhD in philosophy
The Writer
What is your ultimate goal as a writer?
My ultimate goal is to be heard, which stems from never being heard as a child. Because of this psychological origin, I will never achieve my goal. Like Sisyphus or the Red Queen, I toil in the shadow of the absurd. The irony is, that works.
Do you see writing as a career?
As a noun, “career” can also mean speed. That works if applied to pulse. “Career” is also neat in the sense of “to rush” when merged with its semi-synonym “careen.”
Do you write full-time?
I’ve written thousands of poems in an obsessive, heart-exploring quest over a dizzy path of years. Money and the poetic pursuit don’t dance well together.
What is your greatest challenge as a writer?
Go into hell and swing back through frissons into heaven, in terms of every corner of my soul and how it twines out of conformist boundaries to be touched by many beings and things–to be raw in this gauntlet, and still function.
The Work
Tell us about your work in Crack the Spine.
I’m touched and honored that CTS took two poems, “Guitarist” and “Calling In Sick.”
What inspired these poems?
I often strive to crack open masks and move deeper. Sometimes this means darkly celebrating the mask in question, if that makes sense.
How long did it take you to complete this piece?
Some of my poems take years of revisits. I write so much, and edit so often, genesis gets blurry. My repertoire is a time-defying boil of revenants and ghosts.
Tell us about another project you are currently working on.
Artist Kenny Cole recently chose to collaborate with me on an anti-war themed gallery show. It is a massive project involving 246 surfaces, and scheduled to appear in the University of Maine Museum of Art in Orno, starting on January 17, 2014. I am so grateful and jazzed that he is incorporating my poems into the canvases! It is titled the Parabellum Project, and you can get more info here.
The Methods
How often do you write?
I write five or six poems a week, one a day. I am not only desperate to be heard, I am desperate to be heard by myself.
How do you react to editorial rejections of your work?
The weight piles up on me, sheaf by sheaf. I was very strong at the beginning, but damage was done to my mental muscles; and yet they have regenerated over the years, and are decent again.
How do you react when one of your pieces is accepted for publication?
It is often psychoactive in effect. It depends, somewhat, on the where and why. Let me take this moment to say that CTS is worthy of rapture!
What is your usual starting point for a piece?
Angst, outrage, mania, lust, beauty.
What is your best piece of advice on how to stay sane as a writer?
You won’t be “sane” by society’s (dys)norms if you are a true poet. Love the extreme emotions that come to you, without getting too attached. Find spirit guides that protect you–or imagine there are such beings in a very deep and efficacious way. Seek counseling, if necessary. Have outlets. Exercise. Eat well. Appreciate yourself. Celebrate. Laugh. Don’t embrace self-destruction as your vehicle. Be good to others, nurture relationships. Read the book, 100 Secrets of Happy People. Sorry to go on, but this is the most important question of the interview.
The Madness
If you could have dinner with one fictional character, who would it be and why?
Any character who is ethically good and can show, beyond wise doubt, that beings exist who are the secular equivalent of angels.
What makes you laugh?
Sometimes I laugh instead of cry because poets have a dangerous way of opening their heart and if I always cried, the result would be madness. This is a strange kind of laughter, but still liberatory. My blog is called “Owl Who Laughs.”
What is the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen?
Maybe an experience I had, rather than a visual: an epiphany that changed how I look at people, animals, nature. Everything. Also, I honestly believe my wife’s beauty is without parallel, because beauty grows with love over time. She’s a brilliant, healing artist.
Rain or sunshine?
Embraced, either way.
Cats or dogs?
Bello and Bouli!
Beatles or Rolling Stones?
Morisette or Chapman?
Additional Reading on Chris
My blog: Owl Who Laughs
It is a true honor to be interviewed in CTS, thank you, Editor Foley!
I was impressed by how much terrain Owl covered in a short span of words, and how startling the words themselves were. Very cool.