Joe Lisowski
Erie, PA
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Stashu Kapinski, the guy who wrote these poems, is a sometime bum living in my skin. He doesn't get out much, but when you hear (and smell) him, you know he's noone else. He's pissed about a lot of things--being out of work for so long, the steel mills in Pittsburgh closing down, getting old, the price of beer, you name it. But he hasn't given up. There are still moments when he feels like the King of Polish Hill.
After 10 years as Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas, Joseph Lisowski is now teaching at Mercyhurst College North East along the shores of Lake Erie. If you look real hard, you can find him sticking on the web in spots like Thunder Sandwich, Niederngasse, Serpentine, Wired Art for Wired Hearts, Born Magazine, The Isle Review, Free Zone Quarterly, etc.
poetry editor New Works Review |
• What do you do for a living?
Right now I teach 9 courses of Freshman English a year at local college along the shores of often frozen Lake Erie. It keeps me in beer money (if I only drink domestic draft). Before that, I spent 10 years in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands teaching literature and creative writing, and selling enough stories and poems to keep the family liquor cabinet modestly stocked.
• Who are your favorite artists?
I'm taking the question literally and will stretch my memory to list favorite artists as I became aware of them, I mean, those who I made it a point to seek out their work and rest in it for a while. First was Rodin; as a high school kid I really grooved on "The Kiss," and other hunks of stone. A fascination with Gauguin quickly followed and, strangely enough, Drurer. Blake's illuminations then really throttled me. For a couple years I did a study of Paul Klee, writing poems/letters to his works. Then I discovered the art of Chinese calligraphy and was fortunate to have an excellent teacher, Sin Ying. Also, I really got to love her watercolors. For maybe 10 years I worked with T'ang Dynasty poet/painter Wang Wei. Every few years or so, I go back to Blake. Lately, I've been taken with the collages of Joseph Pizzat, and I'm starting to look at more Native American art.
• What influences you to write about/how you do?
Tough question. I'll limit my answer to poetry and now. I found the voice of Stashu Kapinski, a crusty, old, irreverent, long unemployed steelworker who, in spite of the ugliness and despair surrounding, still refuses to call it quits and cash in his chips-maybe because he has so few of them left. Stashu's an amalgam of the characters I grew up with in the Lawrenceville section of Pittsburgh and the incidents he speaks of are what I've experienced or observed. I don't know yet what to make of Stashu's mentor, Kazu who is a kind of almost too old to breathe, social and spiritual anarchist. Just last month Stashu made a new friend, Steel City Steve who is sorta "educated." I'm curious as to how he'll fit into Stashu's world. I really like Stashu and have completed 3 full-length, unpublished poetry collections of his stuff-STASHU KAPINSKI GETS LUCKY, STASHU KAPINSKI IN A FAMILY WAY, and STASHU UNDONE. The fourth, STASHU DREAMS OF GLORY, should be finished in June. (Hint, hint-anyone out there interested in reading/publishing(?) any of these manuscripts?)
• Where do you see the underground writing scene in 25 years?
The same place I expect to "see" everything else: the world wide web. Already I think the "underground" has taken a firm hold (yeah, ok, pun intended) on cyber space. It's reaching more people more quickly. And because of ease of access on the web, maybe the literary establishment will be motivated to pull the poker out of their collective ass and see the light.
• from cait - re-enact your wildest fantasy that you haven’t carried out yet - and tell us about one that you have carried out that you didn’t want anyone to know about – til now.-------be Xplicit
I know that this is going to disappoint you. Quite a while ago, I taught all kinds of English courses at the Virginia State Penitentiary, a maximum security institution that also housed the frequently used electric chair, affectionately referred to as "ole Sparky." A lot of my students were "repeat offenders," by that I mean they took several courses from me. Over the course of 5 years, I got to know some of them quite well (incidentally, during that time none of these guys even got close to getting parole, in spite of the excellent instruction I provided in my Speech courses where we rehearsed their appeals). I clearly remember one guy, Yahya Waheed, confiding in me one day saying among other things, "this is the place where everybody's fantasy comes true. And they're all bad." I had seen enough of their writings, drawings, paintings, plays to know fully well what he meant. Fantasies for me? No thanks. Sorry, cait.
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