Under the Radar

An Interview with Le Hinton

Harrisburg poet Le Hinton has just published a 94 page book titled "Waiting for Brion" with Iris G. Press. Let's see if we can't get him to answer a few questions for us.

Megaera: Alexandra Hartman helped you with layout and design. You also quote from Snow, and dedicate a poem to Marty Esworthy. How much have fellow Pennsylvanian poets influenced you? What's it like living in such a thriving poetry community?

Le Hinton: Central Pennsylvania is an amazing place to live for a poet, and I cannot help but be influenced by the poets around me. With post-reading socialization, e-mail, and plain old one-to-ones, many of us talk about what we are trying to accomplish with the current thrust of our work or a particular poem. There are so many readings in the area that it's not uncommon to attend three or four in a particular week. In the variety of styles, from Marty's po-mo to the impressionist pieces of Alex to the indefinable qualities of Rich Hemmings' work, there are local poetic influences that have found their way into what I've written. Currently, Alex and I are in love with the work of Mary Ruefle, Tony Hoagland, and Dean Young and have spent our conversations on their work and its place in ours.

M: Tell us about Gustave Brion whom you reference in the title.

LH: Gustave Brion was a 19th century realist painter. He is obviously not well known. In reading some of Vincent Van Gogh's letters to his brother Theo, his name appeared as a painter whose work he appreciated. Brion's historical fate, as a less than minor painter, though appreciated by someone whose name most Americans now recognize, struck me as somehow applicable to the artistic struggle that most of us have in wondering if our work is of any value. Though I love so much of Van Gogh's work, I wonder where Brion would be if he had gotten rid of an ear and had the good fortune of having a popular song written about him.

M: Some of your poems are structured similarly to a villenelle. How is it different writing a form poem vs. free verse?

LH: For me, I find that in writing a poem with a form, the poem doesn't seem to wriggle around and want to go somewhere else. Usually I have the complete idea of what I want to write, and then simply execute the idea. With free verse, many times the poem writhes around and wanders off somewhere else on its own. The finished piece may not resemble the idea that I started out with.

M: I notice some of the poems in this collection are collaborations. What's it like working with other poets?

LH: It's like great lovemaking. Each person willingly gives up part of himself/herself to create a third entity that, at its best, expresses itself clearly. I've been able to do this by e-mail, but you have to know your collaborator and his/her work and style to be fully successful.

M: Many of these simple, yet enigmatic poems have surprise endings which are quite delightful. I also enjoyed the refreshing optimism of such phrases as "most days are perfect if you look closely enough." Do you concider yourself to be a generally optimistic person?

LH: It depends on what day you catch me, but generally I'm optimistic about the world and other people. I'm not so optimistic about me and my life.

M: Are relationships a major influence for you?

LH: The mood of relationships are what I now try to capture. My personal relationships don't appear in my poetry that often anymore. When I initially began to write, like many poets, I wrote about me and my relationships. Now, as I have said at a couple of readings, "More and more, I write about myself less and less."

M: This book spans a wide range of subjects from love to mortality, race and philosophy. How do you decide what to write about?

LH: I don't really decide. The poem somehow decides for me. I see, hear, taste, or feel something, (I don't smell much anymore) that moves me, and I take fingertips to keyboard. The book covers quite of number of years, so there are various styles, subject matter, and passions.

M: At the end of "For Rich" you write "i am a page poet." You mention having a cleft palate. Is this why you prefer not to read your poetry outloud?

LH: Yes, not quite, and not any more. Having been born with a cleft palate contributed to my natural shyness and introspective nature. Although surgery corrected the defect when I was 17, I remain less outgoing than most people I know. However, like many, I have a varied background. I come from a culture where spoken word has had a primacy, but I also have a degree in English. So there is a part of me that relishes the spoken word and embraces it, but another part which acknowleges that the work has to stand on its own as a piece, independent of its perforrmance. Now I try to blend both. A third stream poet. By the end of this year, I will have been featured at seven readings and will have written more than I have in years.

M: How much of "License" is actually poetic license?

LH: Some. :)

M: Favorite color?

LH: Black on most days.

"Waiting for Brion" is available from the author.