Spot the Difference: Latest Maia Logo Unveiled!

Hello! Our favorite brilliant designer/stylist/photog extraordinaire, Takashi Matsuzaki, has unveiled his new Post-Christmas Maia Header & Logo design! See if you can spot the difference! Here we are, waving to all our readers! Takashi likes me better named after Goya's Nude Maja (La Maja Desnuda for our Spanish-speaking fans like Holly & Brooke!). Felicia's spelling of my blog name is just too pedestrian for NYC sophisti-cats like Takashi!

And here we are with our favorite new Fendi Spring Collection purses. Nothing like a handbag....

...so here we are, just boppin' along, swinging our new Fendi Fashion Bags in the latest spring colors (lipstick red & coral), the dernier cri of the fashion universe....

Hello there Yellow Bird! What's your name? Are you a Fendi Fiend? Do you want a purse of your own? Hope you like our new creation. It's blue and white and FRESH--a perfect start to a fresh new year, just for you! Till tomorrow...Love, Maia.

Dolce Misses the Big Apple

Dolce has been forlorn lately. She spends a lot of time staring off into space, or on the internet, looking up air fares to Florida and New York. It's been sooooo cold here in Michigan and even though she has a nice fur coat, she still shivers after a few minutes outside in 17 degree temps! But let her fret...I'm the one Felicia takes on trips because I fit so well in the carrier...and those nasty airlines just raised pet fees to $300 round trip! Felicia is writing a letter to Northwest or Delta or whatever they call themselves now. Why do they charge almost the price of a regular ticket when they cram me under the seat like the free carry-ons? And Felicia is worried that with the newly doubled high price, people will start smuggling their animals aboard and dogs will suffocate or overdose on tranquilizers! She's going to write a letter to the airlines. Enough's enough! Till tomorrow...Love, Maia

Poet Robert VanderMolen Proust Questionnaire

I received this missive from Dr. Larry TenHarmsel, former Dean of the Honors College at Western Michigan University [see photo in Jan 3 post]. He was writing in response to my promise of Bob's answers to the Proust Questionnaire, a parlor game popularized (though not devised) by Marcel Proust (see above), 19th C French essayist.

Dear Maia:

I look forward the the "Proust Questionnaire," wondering what in the
world it might be.

Sample questions:

1) When's the last time you spent three months in bed drinking warm
tea and eating Madeleine Cakes?

2) Have you ever written 900 pages about a time you walked or drove
home by a different route than usual?

3) Does your household staff help dress you when you're preparing
to go out socially?

4) Can you make quick choices among verb forms -- imparfait, passé simple, passé composé and plus-que-parfait??

5) Have you ever eaten a Big Mac?

Larry

Well, in answer to your query, Dr. TenHarmsel, here is the original Proust Questionnaire (see below), as completed by our featured writer, Robert VanderMolen, interviewed by Felicia today, and in the previous three posts! Not quite as clever as YOUR version, but so it goes! And kudos to the professor for knowing that Proust's famed dessert of choice is called a Cake, not cookie!


POET ROBERT VANDERMOLEN (above) ANSWERS PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE

1. What is your idea of perfect happiness? I suppose, a good relationship.
2. What is your greatest fear? Being homeless.
3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? I can't think of any [laughs]. I really don't deplore anything.
4. What is the trait you most deplore in others? Lack of loyalty is one I've always deplored.
5. Which living person do you most admire? I can't say I admire anyone that much.

6. What is your greatest extravagance? Don't really have any. I do have a lot of shoes and boots.
7. What is your current state of mind? I'd say placid. I'm not working today.
8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue? Boy, that's a good one. Overly moralistic.
9. On what occasion do you lie? Only not to hurt someone's feelings.
10. Which living person do you most despise? Currently, George W. Bush.
11. What is the quality you most like in a man? Honesty and loyalty.
12. What is the quality you most like in a woman? Same.
13. Which words or phrases do you most overuse? "Goofy."
14. What or who is the greatest love of your life? That's a trick question. My wife, Deb, of course [see photo, below]!

15. When and where were you happiest? I'm not an unhappy person. I've always been happy.
16. Which talent would you most like to have? Well, I would prefer to be a better public speaker.
17. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? I don't know. No idea.
18. What do you consider your greatest achievement? My writing.
19. What is your most treasured possession? My cottage [see below].

20. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? Poor and homeless, I guess.
21. What is your favorite occupation? Writing.
22. What is your most marked characteristic? Perserverence.
23. Who are your favorite writers? Kerouac. I like Faulkner. I like Virginia Woolf.
24. Who is your hero of fiction? Nick Adams.
25. Who are your heroes in real life? Don't have any.
26. What is it that you most dislike? Hypocrisy.
27. What is your greatest regret? Can't say as I have any.
28. How would you like to die? In my sleep.
29. What is your motto? [Asks Michael, Felicia's son.] Go Army, Beat Navy.

Bob will be at the AWP Conference from February 11-14, 2009. Bob's book, WATER, above, can be ordered on Amazon.com. Back to more Doggie Life on tomorrow's Maia Chronicles!!

Poet Robert VanderMolen Interview Pt.II

Today's post features poet Robert VanderMolen (above, with Felicia, left, and writer Vicki McMillan), discussing his latest collection, Water, published by Michigan State University Press. I, Maia, usually write this blog but every now and again, Felicia insists I volunteer to let her do it! But I did serve coffee and cookies to the 1995 NEA Fellowship-award-winner! I also presented his Newfoundland, Sophie (see photo, below), with a gift (see photo of Bob holding Doggie Cologne), that I understand was happily received! (See also Jan. 2 and Jan. 3 for previous posts with Bob.) Felicia continues Part II of the interview, below.



Let's talk a bit about one of your poems, specifically, Whispering, in Part 2 on page 36.

Whispering
The susurration at night grows malicious
As it should--the marsh is now marinas--
In that mixed light, gulls standing on pilings.
Soft maples where the streets end,
Ducks gliding, fish nipping the surface.
The water moils. Everyone was once
Young and lonely as well, when hairstyles
Were different. Too many miles on him,
The woman remarks, in the soda fountain
Off the short deck above water, insects
Spinning the hanging bulbs. He's not
That old, says her companion. My point exactly,
She replies

Would you care to discuss that poem (above) for your readers?

It's self-explanatory. Besides, I don't like dissecting my own poems. I'm with Robert Frost on that. It's always bothered me--people who want the poems explained to them. A poem speaks for itself. But I was thinking of Saugatuck when I wrote it.

One thing I've always noticed about your poems is how the last line often punctuates the rest of the poem, sometimes summing it up, making the reader pause, or perhaps think about the possibilities. And in 99.9% of your poems, there's no period on the last line.

I think in Water there is only one poem with a period at the end, "1966." Kleinzahler insisted I put a period at the end. [Felicia wholeheartedly agrees with Kleinzahler.] I generally don't put periods at the end. I don't see the point, so to speak. In fact, I don't think I ever did--I just looked in some of my early books. No periods.


Do you have an ideal reader?
I’m not sure about that anymore. I used to think it was someone in my generation, from my peer group, but I don’t think that way any more, I’m not convinced of that any more. Blogs that mention me now and again are by younger poets, such as the blog by the poet Richard Lopez [www.reallybadmovies.blogspot.com/].

You were born and grew up in West Michigan, went to MSU, and live in the same neighborhood as many of your family members—even your cottages are close by. Do you think you could be a poet anywhere but West Michigan?

I could be a poet anywhere. The only reason we settled in Grand Rapids is because it was the only place my wife could find a job after graduate school. We didn’t return here on purpose.


Where would you live ideally?

I like Michigan, but if I could afford it, I would live somewhere else in winter. Maybe San Francisco.

How long did it take to get Water published?

Well, I sent the manuscript to MSU Press on Dan Gerber's suggestion [author of A Primer on Parallel Lives, available on Amazon.com]. I heard from them about six months later. A year from then, it was published [in January 2009].

[Felicia holds up Water.] It’s a lovely book. Whoever designed it did an awesome job. How did you decide the sequence of poems?

I didn’t. I spent months trying to put it together. I couldn’t figure it out. Then, Martha Bates, the editor at MSU Press, spent three or four months deciding. She’s a genius. I couldn’t do it for the life of me, but she figured it out. I gave her 120 pages, and she broke it down to under one hundred, and divided it into four sections. The whole thing makes sense, but I couldn’t figure it out. It’s amazing to find an editor on your wavelength. A good editor makes or breaks a book.

WATER is available on Amazon.com. Tomorrow: Interview, Part III: Bob Answers the Proust Questionnaire!

Poet Robert VanderMolen Interview

When Bob comes to the door for The Maia Chronicles interview, Dolce runs to greet him, followed by Sacha. Felicia sits down with him in the family room, and Maia brings coffee and cookies. (Maia's impressed by Bob's latest collection, Water!) When Felicia begins her questions, she has her Blackberry on “record” as a backup for notes, but soon turns it off. For the most part, Bob is a man of few words—fitting for his medium. He is also modest: never mentioning, when questioned about his bio, the NEA Fellowship he was awarded in 1995.


To begin, why don’t you tell me about your writing schedule and habits.

I write when I have time to write. I use pen on legal pad. Edit on the computer.

How old were you when you began writing poetry? Do you still have your first poem?

I was fifteen. I have my first poem somewhere. And I just never stopped writing poems after that time. After high school, I went to Michigan State University on a writing scholarship where I wrote fiction and poetry. Richard Ford and Carolyn Forché were also at MSU while I was there.


Tell me about your travels and work, during and after graduating from MSU.

I took my first trip in 1964, hitchhiking to Naples, Florida. I slept on the beach for two weeks. When I was in college, I’d hitchhike two to three times per year to New York City and hang out until my money was gone. In the sixties and early seventies, I hitchhiked and drove to the west coast. I worked in Montana at my friend Craig Sterry’s ranch [see photos, above with Sterry, and below], and at his neighbor’s ranch. I spent time in Seattle, lived in San Francisco, Mendocino, and Brookings, Oregon. I also spent some time in Georgia at Ossabaw Island near Savannah, at an artist’s colony. And I went to the MacDowell Colony for three months in Petersborough, New Hampshire. And for half a year, I worked for a traveling tent circus in Canada, called the Royal Brothers Circus. I did all the promotions, advertising. I was the advance man. I went to the towns in Ontario, Quebec, The Maritimes, and Newfoundland, where the circus was going to be, and put up posters. Then I wound up as an English instructor at Grand Rapids Community College, called Grand Rapids Junior College, back then. I taught for three and a half years. I got sick of teaching English composition, wasn’t married, no responsibilities, so I quit and drove to San Francisco for the umpteenth time. I had friends there. Then I came back, lived in East Lansing, and met my wife, Deb. I was in my early thirties by that time.

Did any other writers influence you?

William Carlos Williams, and Ezra Pound. And later, Frank O'Hara, Lorine Niedecker, John Ashbery. I cut my teeth on them. I found people I was comfortable reading. I liked the way they did things.

How would you describe your poetry?

[VanderMolen thinks a moment.] I don’t know. Mini-narratives, I suppose. I basically write about relationships between people.


In addition to your work being published in the London Review of Books and Poetry, among other books and periodicals, you also wrote a memoir called "My Football Career," for the book Thin Ice [Eerdmans Publishing, 2007]. How did that come about?

Reinder VanTil [editor at Eerdmans Publishing] came up with the idea, and Gordon Olson found the historical information. I met Gordon Olson [former Grand Rapids City Historian] when I was on the board of the Historical Commission. Then a group was formed. The group included Hank Meijer, Larry TenHarmsel, John Otterbacher, and me. They asked me to contribute.

What living writers do you admire?

I like so many people, it’s hard to narrow it down. August Kleinzahler, Dan Gerber, Tom Lynch, Jim Harrison [see links on Jan 2 and 4 posts], to name just a few.


Who are the writers and artists you hang out with?

[VanderMolen laughs.] Well, again, Dan Gerber, Augie Kleinzahler, Craig Sterry, Jim Harrison, Tom Lynch, artist Jack Smith [see Jack's portrait of Bob, below], and Rendezvous Gallery owner Duane Mead, when they’re in town. Then there are so many from here in West Michigan—Gordon Olson, John Otterbacher, Larry TenHarmsel, Reinder VanTil, Miriam Pederson, Patricia Clark, Ron Torreson, Vicki McMillan, Diane Herbruck, Diane Wakoski, Judy Minty, Greg Rappleye, Jack Ridl…[see photo, above, L to R: John Visser, Bob VanderMolen, Gordon Olson, John Otterbacher, Larry TenHarmsel, Reinder VanTil]. There's a lot of talent in this area.


WATER is available on Amazon.com. Tomorrow, Part II of the poet Robert VanderMolen Interview!

Poet Robert VanderMolen's New Collection: WATER

Kicking off 2009, The Maia Chronicles will take a literary turn, with an an article on poet Robert VanderMolen! Felicia insisted on conducting the interview herself! But she said I could serve tea and cookies. Today's post introduces Bob, and his latest tome, WATER. More about life as a writer to be featured in The Maia Chronicles over the next few days.


Michigan poet Robert VanderMolen [above] has published many collections since his original Blood Ink, including Breath, Along the River, Circumstances, and The Invisible lost Book of Ocean Fish. His latest is Water, published this January by Michigan State University Press.

Critical acclaim has been profuse: "I had an extraordinary experience with the new Robert VanderMolen collection, Water, reading it one poem a day in the morning with the attention that fine poetry deserves. Poetry is ultimately an obsession of our soul life and VanderMolen easily makes it into the current top ten of my own restoratives. He is a 'seer' in the oldest sense."--Jim Harrison, author of The English Major and Legends of the Fall.

"Good duty to celebrate Robert VanderMolen's gifts--these poems full of careful camera work, dark and cinematic narratives from one of our finest wordsmiths--each (to borrow Frost's word) an "adventure."--Thomas Lynch, author or The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade.


And: "Robert VanderMolen's poetry inhabits, geographically and imaginatively, a particular region: the Grand River Valley and the lake country of Western Michigan. The poet mixes naturalistic detail with disembodied conversation, broken narrative, excavations of local history, and memory. And erotic current runs through it all. It is a heady mix: dreamlike and haunting, and very singular, almost as if one were overhearing a conversation between Edgar Lee Masters and John Ashbery, half-lit, in a cabin outside Saugatuck on a warm spring night. There is nothing quite like it in American poetry and, to my mind, no poet now at work more interesting."--August Kleinzahler [see above, pictured with Felicia and Bob and the late Paco, in 2000], author of Sleeping It Off in Rapid City.

WATER is available at Amazon.com. In the next few posts, we will learn more about VanderMolen as he discusses the writer's life and takes a Proust Questionnaire. Stay tuned....

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009!!

Dolce and I just returned home from The Big Apple, where we met our friend, talented stylist and photog Takashi , to welcome the new year! We had dinner at his favorite restaurant, Kanoyama, and then watched the ball drop in Times Square. It was COLD!!! But we know 2009 is going to be so much better than last year, even if 2008 was the year the wonderful Dolce was born! Thank you for the great time, and for our photo, Takashi! You're the BEST!!! Love, Maia