An Interview With Mark S. Kuhar by David F. Hoenigman

Mark S. Kuhar (markk) is a writer, poet, editor, publisher, artist and songwriter. His poetry, fiction and nonfiction have appeared in many print and online publications. He has published three chapbooks: “acrobats in catapult twist” (2003); “laughing in the ruins of chippewa lake park” (2004) and “e40th & pain: poems from deep cleveland” (2006).

His work has appeared in the anthologies “An Eye for an Eye Makes the Whole World Blind: Poets on 9/11” (Regent Press); America Zen (Bottom Dog Press); “Action Poetry” (a LitKicks publication); “Cleveland in Prose & Poetry,” (League Press); ArtCrimes #21; Trim: A Mannequin Envy Anthology; Infinite Tide (Studio Eight Books); as well as in “The Long March of Cleveland,” “Ornamental Iron,” “Mac’s turns a New Trick” and “Anthologese the Next,” among others published by Green Panda Press. He was a featured poet in the book Cleveland Poetry Scenes.

He has read his work on WCPN, National Public Radio’s Cleveland affiliate, and he is the founder of the deep cleveland poetry hour, a live monthly spoken-word event. he is also the proprietor of deep cleveland llc, www.deepcleveland.com, which includes deep cleveland press, a small-press publishing company, and deep cleveland junkmail oracle, a literary e-zine dedicated to the spirit of legendary cleveland outlaw poet, artist & underground publisher d.a levy.

He holds a BA in English, with a specialization in Creative Writing (1980) from Ohio University, Athens, Ohio.

David F. Hoenigman: What projects are you currently working on?

Mark S. Kuhar: I am currently revising a new book of poems entitled “mercury in retrograde,” working on two long poems: “a cleveland obituary,” and an auiobiographical piece entitled “1552 skyland.” In addition, I hope to edit and publish a 10-year retrospective covering the best deep cleveland junkmail oracle “poem o’ the week” poems that have appeared on www.deepcleveland.com over the past decade.

David F. Hoenigman: Can you tell us a bit about deepcleveland.com?

Mark S. Kuhar: deep cleveland is my online literary enterprise, consisting of deep cleveland junkmail oracle, an online literary site; deep cleveland books, deep cleveland press, and the d.a. levy center for progressive poetics, among other things. It’s a popular stopping place in cyberspace for those interested in poetry about cleveland. Believe it or not, many people are.

David F. Hoenigman: When and why did you begin writing?

Mark S. Kuhar: I wrote my first poem in the second grade and never really stopped. It was and is a primal urge. I pretended for a decade or more while in my 20s that I was a playwright, scriptwriter, novelist and short story writer, but then i came to my senses and returned to my true identity as a poet.

David F. Hoenigman: When did you first consider yourself a writer?

Mark S. Kuhar: I first considered myself a writer when in college, my creative writing professors gave me positive feedback on my work. it was a sort of validation that what i was doing had merit and appeal. before that i hid all my work away in a box and refused to feed or water it.

David F. Hoenigman: What inspired you to write your first book?

Mark S. Kuhar: I had piled up more than 1,000 pages of poetry, an ongoing collection that i call “chasing father midnight.” I was asked to do a collection of my work for three beers and a hedgehog press, and bingo, my work went into print.

David F. Hoenigman: Who or what has influenced your writing?

Mark S. Kuhar: it’s a cliche to say it, but my work was influenced by the Beats. But I also count among my influences turn of the 20th century pre-revolution Russian poetry, sufi mystical poetry and the 1960s and 1970s song lyrics of Bob Dylan. One of my primary influences is d.a. levy, the champion of the cleveland street poets of the 1960s, he who made cleveland his canvas, he whom cleveland killed.

David F. Hoenigman: How did Cleveland kill d.a. levy?

Mark S. Kuhar: Well, d.a. had a mission to recreate cleveland into a sort of midwestern oz, full of bright colors, enlightened people, art, poetry, love, beautiful visions and spectacular satisfaction. Unfortunately the powers that be viewed him as an anarchist hell bent on usurping the status quo at its roots. It was conservative fascism at its finest. The blowback caused him immense consternation, which finally manifested itself as suicidal tendency, which he ultimately acted upon.

David F. Hoenigman: Can you tell us about levyfest?

Mark S. Kuhar: To celebrate levy’s legacy and work, we gathered together as many of his friends and fellow poets as we could round up, and along with a group of local poets, spent an evening reading his poems, telling stories, running a mimeograph machine and drinking wine. A fine time was had by all.

David F. Hoenigman: How has your environment/upbringing colored your writing?

Mark S. Kuhar: I was brought up in a rural environment, but all of my relatives lived in the city, so i had these two fascinating and conflicting viewpoints to play off against each other. The city was such an alien environment, it charged my perceptions, then made me notice things back in the rural environment that i may have never noticed without the urban experience. I became a watcher and listener, and those are two good traits to have when you’re working as poet.

David F. Hoenigman: Do you have a specific writing style?

Mark S. Kuhar: I’m a stream-of-consciousness freeloader, a word surfer, an alphabet collector. i allow the words to to roll in and then either use them as a point of departure for further development or let them live as born.

David F. Hoenigman: What genre are you most comfortable writing?

Mark S. Kuhar: Poetry is my true love. I like to do short-short stories, but I find great appeal in manifesting a moment of meaning in an economy of words, which I can do best with a poem.

David F. Hoenigman: Is there a message in your work that you want readers to grasp?

Mark S. Kuhar: Our lives are an interconnecting chain of magnificent moments, many of which fly past unnoticed. each of our chain of moments exists on a similar energy frequency as the next person, and thus, we are all one.

David F. Hoenigman: What book are you reading now?

Mark S. Kuhar: “Shut up, Stop Whining and Get a Life” by Larry Winget, the collected poems of Walt Whitman, and “Seymour: An Introduction” by J.D. Salinger, among others.

David F. Hoenigman: Are there any new authors that have grasped your interest?

Mark S. Kuhar: I’m so behind trying to catch up with the old authors I have not had much of a chance to grasp someone who’s work is emerging.

David F. Hoenigman: What is the most misunderstood aspect of your work?

Mark S. Kuhar: I I find great appeal in staging absurdity and nonsense in my work, but it would be a mistake to confuse absurdity for absurdity’s sake with absurdity for profundity’s sake.

David F. Hoenigman: Any memories of particular works: the writing of, feedback, the thought behind…etc.

Mark S. Kuhar: I was once wrote a poem called “the raving liar,” which ended with the lines: i’m only going to say this once: i’m a raving liar, i’m a raving liar.” Those last lines came to me in a dream in the middle of the night and I woke up and wrote them down.