What are your thoughts about reading your poetry in Cobourg at the POW! Festival?

It's a thrill to be selected as a presenter in this exceptional poetry festival conceived and organized by James Pickersgill. I am a member of the local Cobourg Poetry Workshop and live in Cobourg. As well, I have assisted James with bits and pieces of this festival and appreciate the tremendous effort he has put into pulling this all together. He has gathered poets from far-and-wide and that only adds to my excitement at being a part of this celebration of poetry.

Please tell us about your most recently published book and also a little about any other books you've had that "saw print."

My most recent, and only, full collection is Islands in the Shadow published by Hidden Brook Press and released in December of 2008. Apart from writing some poetry, I also do book design and layout for The Ontario Poetry Society. This is a hobby for me and so, I also produce my own chapbooks. So far I have 10 chapbooks. They are always "in print" because I make them on my handy-dandy home computer. You can read all 10 of these chapbooks on my personal website and hear me read many of the poems by clicking on the associated audio icon.
Go to: http://www.inkbottlepress.com/justpoems.htm

At POW!, do you plan to read pieces from your book (or books)?
Do you plan to read new, unpublished work?

Yes to all of that...

How would you describe your poetry?

This is a tough question for me so I will simply repeat what others have said. The following are blurbs from my book Islands in the Shadow.

These poems do what poems best do; they evoke places and times forgotten and familiar. I think them aloud. I hear them in the mind's ear for they are in that fine tradition where poetry has more than meets the eye. - Eric Winter

When he is heard at readings - and when his images are seen on the page - the way he makes words work causes you to know that Mark Clement sees the creation of poetry as artisanship. Vocabulary, grammar and just about all the devices known to 'the poetic race' are wielded with a dexterity that tells us Mark would refuse to settle for the title wordsmith; with "Islands in the Shadow," he aspires to be nothing less than a master craftsman. - James Pickersgill

Since Robert Frost, there has not been anyone like Mark Clement for encounters with the natural world. His adventures and returns make visible a uniquely detailed, precarious landscape of the mind that we couldn't discover without him. - I.B. Iskov, Founder, The Ontario Poetry Society

When did you start writing poetry and what prompted it?

I started writing in highschool and that was a long, long time ago. My first poem was published in the 1958 highschool year book. Following that early start, work and family life overtook me and I did not start writing again until the late 70s and have written intermittently since. After retiring in 2006, writing and participating in the world of poetry has become almost a full time job. What prompted that beginning? I have no idea!

What inspires you to put pen to paper / fingers to keyboard?

Inspiration can be a phrase, a moment, but most frequently a reflection on the natural world. As a consequence, a large portion of my poetry uses descriptions of nature (trees mostly) to somehow understand and describe my rubbing up against the world.

As an aside, I haven't put pen to paper for 20 years. I got my first computer in 1980 and my use of paper, other than printouts, has pretty much dropped to zero.

Can you describe (a little) your writing process in creating a new poem?

Once I get an idea, an impulse or a workshop exercise, I sit and usually write the entire poem. As I proceed, I go back and adjust and do that continuously until the 'end'. I often sit and stew on it after it is 'finished' and make edits as the 'stew' cooks. The poem then is 'put away' for a day or two. After the flavours have mingled, I look at it again and usually make small edits. The poem usually gets presented in a workshop and I listen carefully to any comments that could be used to add 'spice' or remove any 'uncooked' elements.

I am a compulsive self-editor and will revise poems that are years old.

The POW! Festival is built on the notion that poetry should not be relegated to an existence as "a niche art form" that the average person doesn't care about.
How do you respond to that?

Poetry is no different than music or painting. There is a wide range of styles that appeal to the wide range of human sensibility. Poetry can be academic, classical rhyme, free verse, rap, performance style, children's verse and even 'gibberish' in the form of sounds that the human voice is capable of producing. (e.g. The Four Horsemen). If one searches the internet, poetry of every type and all levels of quality can be found. I would dare say that one could easily find a million poems presented on the page for reading or as 'word music' for the ear. All of this tells me that poetry is of the people for the people. Any 'niche' that might be assumed for poetry can only be described in the context of a particular style. There is no 'average' person just a range of 'persons' with stylistic preferences.

The difference between books, the internet and a 'Poetry Festival' is that the 'Festival' brings the poet/listener together so that poetry can relive its ancient oral tradition.