Meet this week’s wordsmith…
Douglas Collura
Age 58
Manhattan
The Writer
How long have you been writing?
About forty years.
Do you see writing as a career?
More as a necessity, like breathing.
What is your ultimate goal as a writer?
To write each poem from a place where I both control it and it steers itself, as if I were sending a bicycle sailing down a hill and then running alongside to make sure it stays upright.
What is your greatest challenge as a writer?
To keep the bicycle upright.
The Work
Tell us about your work in Crack the Spine.
“Cracked Buttons.” Summary: Doorman annoys General Patton and regrets it.
Is there a main theme or message in this piece?
1.) A good doorman is irreplaceable 2.) Don’t get shot.
What inspired this work?
The intimate yet formal relationship between apartment dwellers and building staff.
How long did it take you to complete this piece?
It was created and revised over a six-month period.
The Methods
How often do you write?
Daily.
Where do you write?
Wherever I am. Even when I’m doing other things, my imagination always seems to be working on a poem, waiting for the rest of me to catch up and tune in.
How many drafts do you generally go through before you consider a piece to be complete?
There is no standard. Recently, I had a poem published that I had rewritten and revised hundreds of times over a five or six year period. It had to work itself out.
The Madness
What is your favorite book?
Among too many to name: Lawrence’s Women in Love, Eliot’s Middlemarch, DeLillo’s White Noise, James Tate’s The Ghost Soldiers.
Who is your favorite author?
Among too many to name: Pound, Alice Munro, Adrienne Rich.
Who would play you in the film of your life?
The character actor Lou Jacobi. For a taste of his marvelous craft, check out the YouTube clip “Little Murders – Judge.”
Rain or Sunshine?
Lamplight rising over reading chair.
Beach or Mountains?
Pavement squares wedged up by roots.
Shakespeare or Tennessee Williams?
Brando in “Julius Ceasar.”
Additional Reading on Douglas
I can be viewed performing on YouTube at a couple of the Annual Alternative New Year’s Day Spoken Word/Performance Extravaganzas in Manhattan (2013 and 2012).” Also, my poem, “Living the Life of the Great Buster Keaton,” was the 2008 First Prize Winner of the Missouri Review Audio/Video Competition in Poetry and can be heard at here.
Very impressed with your output, but didn’t know you were a feature for IAWA. It must have been before I knew them.
You were right about “Brooklyn,” another gorgeous movie!
Have fun sailing your bike! You’re really going to some incredible places!!
Regards,
Fran Lombardi