Wayne Schlepp
is a founder-member of the Cobourg Poetry Workshop. His most recent
chapbook is Tomorrow Is Not Coming.
A Brief Biography:
I was born 78 years ago. After my initial appearance on earth, I
grew up in the prairies which was, and is now even more for me a
separate and distant world. I did an undergraduate degree in Math
and English, upon completion of which in 1953 was inducted into
the army and immediately died, leaving behind an exciting life of
painting, writing, dramatic arts and the wonders of thought, liberated
by a haphazard but devoted reading of Alfred Korzybski. In that
state of (non-)being I was put through the Chinese course in the
Army Language School, got married, lived in Japan for three years,
had a son, spent seven years in the University of London doing two
more degrees in Chinese and, for about 30 years, taught Chinese
and Mongolian at the Universities of Wisconsin and Toronto.
On-Line
with Wayne Schlepp
What
brought you to Cobourg?
Mad
flight from 20 years' life in the city.
When and
Why did you start writing poetry?
I began
in my undergraduate years and wrote because it was there to be done
- everything was an open and inviting avenue at that wonderful time.
How would
you describe your poetry?
There
is first a large body of experimental stuff; this gives way to much
grousing and some satire, a bit of humour; later on, poetic statement
that uses nature as a vehicle and, overall, a great body of stuff
that should never have been preserved, but which now force-feeds
nostalgia, the support and prop of advancing age.
What kind
of process do you go through from idea to completed poem?
I have
quite a bit that stands as the initial inspiration dictated, but
most of what I write has been subject to revision, sometimes quite
extensive, depending on the uses I intend to make of it.
Any particular
inspirations?
Now, nature
most of all; second to this I would say that social idiocy is an
exceptionally compelling inspiration, and of course, there is that
shady element called "personal".
Your thoughts
on the Cobourg Poetry Workshop...
Yay!!!
Anything
you'd like to add?
Yes: 2+2
= 4, but only in the mind of man.
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