ROBIN BLASER

an INTERVIEW WITH ROBIN BLASER i originally did for The Poker...

i remember the night before the interview (and the night before he was to give his talk "Language Is Love" at Naropa (2005)) i went back to Naropa's Sangha House dorms and devoured Blaser's Nomados chapbook The Irreparable, reread The Practice Of The Outside (in the photo below Blaser is signing his essay in my copy of The Collected Books of Jack Spicer) and speed reread parts of The Holy Forest...i was nervous and i wanted to be as prepared as possible for the interview...and after he agreed to talk the last thing i wanted was to waste Robin's time...i probably prepared a bit too much as reflected in the stiffness of some of the questions (esp. at the beginning)...but Blaser went ahead and riffed anyways...i'd done interviews with poets before, but had never experienced anything like the very tangible buzz i experienced with Blaser sitting in that little cottage classroom at Naropa on a warm Saturday morning...for the brief time i knew him he had such a large presence, his energy was singular and addictive: the gravely timbre of his voice, his deep infectious laugh, his beautiful clothes (seriously! the man could dress...), his deep commitment to history and lineage, his complete generosity, i don't know, as corny as it might be to say, he truly sparkled like no one else and i feel extremely lucky to have met him...we ended up talking for at least an hour and half, with David patiently waiting outside for us to finish...the interview linked isn't quite reflective of the conversation we actually had...in editing i tried to make it as linear as i could...but our conversation was anything but linear...i probably had to edit out 20% just to make it publishable (it was un-publishable in a rhizomatic, meandering and chatty GOOD way...but not for a magazine with limited space)...but i think that was Robin, he wasn't really interested in doing an interview, rather he made me feel like he was really interested in having a conversation...and it meant the world to me.

after the interview had been published Robin told me that he was very happy with the way it came out...that i'd done a good job of putting shape to our conversation...i felt good about that...that made me happy.

you'll be dearly missed Robin, Rest In Peace...