I told my e x I wanted to wr . t
e d to do th at.
he said, I don't know; the movie s i e my
d
n
A
e
r
ir
u
own Ag
�t it off, and I wrote the poe m "Killing FJo�r :,ealJy
d 5
P ( nell) came to re ad in D etroit, and I s w d a�d
goo .
ho e
Kin
then
e
n
on
e
th
day
nd
I
Y
sai
A
it.
w
�1 m
d,
t
ed
lik
th
y
ha
all
re
h
that,� t�
ahead and write the Aguirre poem! Now I;e el!1
o
g
in
o
g
I'm g
and. it has turn e d out to be for al!y
esearch th e m ,
r
d
n
a
o
rne
do g
e nJOY i·t w he n I want to write
ally
ctu
a
I
n
'
i
L g·
a P oema
.
.
easurable ,_h
l
was
my
b
story
i
e
st subJect in h·
P
fig ure. H
'
about a historical co
·
t
uld sa� I ':�s gi 1-Led' i·t y�u ca1: be giftedigih
1
e ss you
u
I
o
o
g
':h
5
· I wanted a dynamic, hv1ng and flowing history, and�
��:�1ih
he quality I bring to the se mo�ologues that ?eal i h
nt
decided I _w a

f�;

w

Gd

at's t
Wt
.
ha
1t
would
what
e
v
be
say
en
to
e
f
li
ke i th·is
.
h1. stoncal t·igures. I lik
'
I e ve n have Oppenheimer say that in
happ ened instead of that.
from the hypothesis, what zf?
·
the poem, that all scientists hstart
l
b
·
10
1
h
oo
e acher told m
ogy
t
sc
hig
my
that
thin
e
e.
g
That's som
HFR: In your · opinion, has there. been a change in �he �ramatic
monologue from Browning to B1dart? Are the voices 1n your
p ms different from each othe r or do you see them all as one
�:e? With Browning, even though he 's suppose d to be working
: different voices, it seems like the same voice. With your
poetry, it doesn't. This_ is a compliment, or me ant to be; it seem s
that the voices are vaned.
Ai: I see them as characters, personalities, and they're aH
different to me. I guess it doesn't always work, you know. And
I'm sure the writer, the monologuist, can't always kee p his or her
voice out. It probably slips through. But I try and keep my own
opinions out. I'm not · sure I actually feel that way about
Browning, that all of the m sound alike , specifically. You know
the problem might be that he may have used irony just a bit too
much, dramatic irony. It's like a tone of voice, and if you use that
tone, then it does sound the same, over and over. And that stands
out sometimes to me as a weakness. I mean, it can also be a
strength, b ecause I use it too. That's certainly a method of
working with the monologue that I think is still viable today, but I
try not to use it too much. Te aching this dramatic monolo ue
g
co_urse [at ASU], has been good for me bec
ause I haven't had to
think abo ut my work aesthetically
before, just occasionally. It
forced me to go back and try to
trace the origins for me, and I did
12

-

.

y u

ow? It's like I don' wan�

t
o kn
s 0 th t
i
h
t
r
g
in
o
d
'
want
to
s
ay
n't
that I Wr � esttic:t
uld
�
�
wo
I
.
uc
ie
myself too
ologue
s , and th y
mon
e
writ
.
I
k
e
dea rn oraJ
spea
o
t
o
.
s
y
tr
I
1 ,A,rv1th
poe
·
caugh t m some mor al d'I
rnrn a 1n
ten
e
of
1
are
O
h
w
s
�
characte
eY'r
s out for them selves, o ·
e
r
O work thing
t
g
n
yi
e
tr
still
x
p
J
their
for
a
s
ctions.
ctin
make 1- ustification
themselves or
.
an th'ing.I'm not th
I don't go into a trance orautoymat·c wn·t·ng, at kind of Wn. te
_ r.
,
and I don'
1
1
work. No
t
It s real\ h ard
ho are _dictating to_ me or anything like tha�h1'.lk
�hese are .pirits w
e, setting up and hypothesiz n . I Ill
I
hav
what
th
wi
ng
k
i
or
i· g .
1ust w
R: H 0 w about a particul ar example. Conside ring
y0
· ound, was it strange or difficult to write a poem ab Ur
Hf
ackgr
b
out
Custer?
• t finished a poem on Custer.I started it over a year a 0
Ai.• 1 JUS
8
.
·
m March and J couldn't quite get the voice. I thought it was a
'
i le B'ig Hom, bu
· e dun·ng the L'tt
great idea to set it sometim
t to
.
�ercenary
a
who
him
ke
fig
ma
and
d
ht
forwar
s
him
al
bring
l these
n
s
t
s
Belfa
mention
an
he
d
line
a
in
ke
L
g
use1esS battles, li
,, os A eles,
0 e . . . 1t wouldn'
"...a few bullets, a few arrows short of h
. 1;1
t
have worked for me-for some reason I didn t want to leav e him
in the past. I felt it would work if I could bring hi� forward to
today. That was my dilemma. And I re_ach:d a �omt w here it
wasn't working, and I just got fed up with it. I said, ah, it's not
going anywhere; I ca1:'t do i�..A�d suddenly last °:onth, I sat
.
down and said, I'm going to finish it.Almost all of It IS new, but
what I kept is that basic stuff that he's a mercenary now.It opens
after Little Big Hom, and everybody's been slaughtered, and he's
walking around a nd looking at the mutilated corpses. He talks
about his wife; apparently his wife white-washed him as a person.
He was a womanizer and all this wild stuff.
One reason it didn't bother me to write about Custer, even
though we have Choctaw blood, is because my mother's fami
ly
comes out of that same American frontier.That was so
wild, even
wilder than you would think. I guess there wer
en't a lot of white
women around, and I know from my ow
n personal background
that there was a lot going on betwe
en the sheets that was not
written down. So when I read
he had this· black laundress, and
�aybe a baby by an Indian
woman, I thought it was really
.
interestin
g. I read this in Son of the Morn
ing Star by Evan S.Connell
14

city
Back in th at
ed air
of rni1dew
ed tree trunks,
arl
n
g
d
n
a
stone
·there's a
,Nith a date ,
sornevJhere
a Hme,
e on it.
and 1ny nam
rt
A sequined hea
arrow.
pierced by an

d.
A few drops of bloo

"Woman On a Table," 1987
Gelatin Silver Photograph, IS"xIS"

69