Reader Meet Author: David Stone

It may have been the fact that I was airborne and leaving Chicago, but "Under The El" by David Stone really came to life for me. It was probably more the pace and the imagery, but at the time it felt like I was actually riding on the El again and not on an airplane. Although he no longer lives in Chicago, he clearly understands the city and holds all the various elements that make it what it is in high regard. Stone was born in Chicago and studied philosophy at University of IL, and as you will find out he has a great deal more to say about the city he loves.

+
crystals
+
streetcars
erode
&
glass crashed
& split nuclei
in Chicago.

electric wires
scorch skin
& propel
steel pins
inches deep
in a field of brick.

"Under The El" is an epic work and is now available for Propaganda Press. Recently, David was kind enough to answer a few of my questions.

Orange Alert (OA): As a Chicagoan I was instantly sweept up in the pace and imagery of "Under The El", do you feel it would also translate to someone living in Texas or Oregon?
David Stone (DS): I think that people who live in or have lived in big cities would relate more to Under The El. There is a more of a sense of expansiveness in the west than the east and the midwest. I think that some people in Texas or Oregon, despite some of the dissimilarities with the urban environment, may relate to the sense of language in my poetry.

OA: You clearly look fondly on your time in Chicago, what has taken you away and do you see yourself returning?
DS: I have been very inspired by my proximity to the tomb of Poe in downtown Baltimore. In 1996, my son became a music student at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and I relocated. My mother,brother and sister live in the Chicago area and I return for visits. I was in town for my niece's wedding a few months ago. A permanent move would depend on the circumstances.

OA: Of all that you list in this epic poem what do you miss the most about Chicago and why?
DS: The neighborhood that I described,Lincoln Avenue, the Lincoln Park area, is fixed in my imagination as it was in the early 1970's,when I read poetry there. My primary venue was the Kingston Mines Cafe on Lincoln Avenue at Fullerton.

OA: The title page of the collections says that there is a version of 'Under the El' pending translation in Serbia. How did that come about and why Serbia?
DS: My ancestry is eastern European. There is a very strong avant-garde movement in poetry and the other arts in Serbia. Open World,published by Dob Kamperelic in Belgrade, publishes my poetry and that of other Americans who are involved in mailart. I have translated poetry from the Serb language for two poets; Ivan Glisic and Branko Acimovic,both of whom have appeared in my Blackbird anthology.

OA: What was your expirience with Propaganda Press and Leah Angstman like?
DS: The work of Leah Angstman with Propaganda Press is tremendous because she does a beautiful layout and the press produces attractive,professional books at prices anyone can afford and she brings the work out to the poetry reading public.

OA: What's next for David Stone?
DS: My second book with Propaganda Press is pending for 2010; The Bloodhound Works. I am currently working on a cycle of poetry about Chicago in the 1950s. I was a child in the 1950s living on the north side of Chicago in the area of Kedzie and Division Street. It is interesting to try to relate my scattered recollections from childhood to the overview of events at the time that I was not aware of: the Cold War, the McCarthy witchhunt,the beginning of the Beat revolution. Carl Sandburg wrote his Chicago cycle almost a century ago. Some of the things he referred to about Chicago are still true. I am currently working on a new poetic vision of the city.

Bonus Questions:
OA: If you could sit down to coffee with anyone (alive or dead) who would it be?
DS: It would be interesting to have coffee with Baudelaire, the founder of modern poetry,the first poet to hang out in coffeehouses.

OA: What type of music do you enjoy and who are a few of your favorites?
DS: I like jazz, I like rock from my era, I like some classical music. When I was a philosophy student at University of Illinois, Chicago in the 70s, I wrote a paper on Beethoven's 9th Symphony. I am still fond of Beethoven.