This episode of Cartwheels on the Sky features the poems and process of Mendocino Coast poet Gordon Black.
Born in Detroit, Black is a second generation, of Polish background, American. His father was a firefighter, later Battalion Chief, and his mother a social worker and theater director in stage and radio productions, and in his words he “was expected to succeed!”
He says he stumbled out of Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan with an M.A. in philosophy and pointed advice to go “get a job”.
“It took decades and luck to turn that degree into some steady bread and water, and I have been a happy adjunct as a professor in philosophy at Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC),” says Black.
He arrived on the Mendocino Coast in 1972 and engaged with the nascent poetry community and turned from extended prose efforts to “the stand up / sit down of completed poems, written and rewritten until the creatures fly without further assistance.” He has been doing live radio during much of that time, programming classical music for KZYX, Mendocino County Public Broadcasting, and has been involved in the annual Mendocino Spring Poetry Celebration for sixteen consecutive years.
“I owe my own development in poetry to all my fellows in the regional scene, so I try to help keep it going,” credits Black.
This podcast aired live on Saturday, June 5, 2021 on 88.3, KGUA FM Gualala.
Link to hear archives of Dan Robert’s long running
Rhythm Running River radio show as mentioned in Gordon's interview:
http://outfarpress.com/and this is Gordon’s “page” poem as referenced in the show:
LACONIC TOWEL
forms and motion
gone
bright sun
loads color
signals hope
fold away
too much meaning
attend me
not I you
my life
turns away
trying to close circles
rub my blood
royal blue
make my hands
worthy
push sculptured mums
into flanks shoulders
if I fail to return
hang there
to be lowered
Gordon Black