POETRY TALKS: An interview with Tony Zick

Tony Zick is a poet and student living in southeastern Michigan—no, not Detroit. While his studies at Eastern Michigan University keep him on his toes, he continues to write and perform his own poetry. He has competed with the Ann Arbor Youth Poetry Slam team and was featured in HBO’s Brave New Voices documentary series. The National Youth Poetry Slam Festival featured one of his poems in the Speak Green competition sponsored by the Sundance Institute. According to his mentor Jeff Kass, “(Tony) read a poem called ‘The Pundit’ in Washington D.C., and [he had] the audience rolling with laughter, and Joshua Bennett, one of the foremost youth poets in the country, would shake his head and say, ‘this guy’s brilliant.’”* Currently, Tony balances family, school, and work, drawing inspiration for his poetry from personal experience and his imagination.

MCW: Hi Tony.

Zick: Hi, Renee. Thank you for interviewing me today.

MCW: Of course. Out of curiosity, as a slam poet, has a poem ever gotten you into or out of a fight?

Zick: (Laughs) No. Never.

MCW: Just checking. When did you realize that you wanted to write poetry? Did you write creatively before?

Zick: In elementary and middle school, we had poetry and creative units. I always liked those, and I noticed I was pretty good at it.  I guess I had a kind of “aha” moment when I was in 7^th or 8^thgrade, and I had just finished a story by J.R.R. Tolkien. I think it was called the “Tale of Aragorn and Arwen” or something like that. I was pretty moved by it, and I thought to myself, “I want to be a writer!” In high school, taking creative writing classes with Jeff Kass and participating in the Ann Arbor youth poetry community took my love of poetry to a new level to say the least. This past year, I’ve done a lot of thinking about my life goals, and I’ve realized more that I want to try and make writing poetry a part of my life mission. So yeah. That’s that.

MCW: Would you consider yourself a Catholic poet?

Zick: In the sense that I am a Catholic who is also a poet, definitely.

MCW: OK, so if I were to attach the adjective “modern” as a descriptor for you—now, you're a modern Catholic poet—what would you say?

Zick: I’m not sure where to draw the line between Catholic and non-Catholic literature, if such a line can be drawn. Hmm, me a modern Catholic poet. I guess I am having a hard time answering this question.

MCW: Allow me to modify the question...would calling you a modern Catholic poet feel oxymoronic?

Zick: No, not at all.

MCW: Why not?

Zick: Faith doesn’t diminish one’s ability to be an artist. I would think that it would increase it because it allows you to see the world more accurately.

MCW: Does religion inform your worldview?

Zick: Yes, it’s the center of my life. My aim, whether or not I live up to it, is for every aspect of my life to accept and respond to God’s Love.

MCW: Within your poetry and writing are there particular themes that you find interesting or challenging to work with?

Zick: The theme of failed hopes is for sure both interesting and challenging for me…also, excitement and gratefulness in small things.

MCW: How have you used them in your poems?

Zick: Well, “The Raccoon” starts with me in the middle of custodial work, feeling unhappy because it’s hard to rejoice or dance or be excited while working. Then it sort of says, “well, you can dance even in the midst of inglorious things because you have an inherent dignity given by God, regardless of your surrounds or your failed hopes.” So I guess it’s lost one hope and found another hope in that situation. Though I should add that I like being a custodian.

MCW: Is there anything else that you would like readers to know about you and your poetry?

Zick: Sure. For some reason, I often write outlandish scenarios, such as going to visit a mountain goat that represents nostalgia or listening to a talking raccoon speak to God about me. At other times, I use hyper-musical language, similar to Hopkins, which is all to say that “strangeness” is often a springboard for my work. 

The Raccoon

They say fast music makes you work faster

I say it just makes you dance

and you can't dance

not at work

not for show,

or even in the bathroom

where suddenly your cover could be blown

And the night goes on

like a relative projecting red-bomb warnings

and the headphones sing away

someone else's lovesick heart

or blue-suede blues

and, as I'm changing the bag in the day-care diaper pail

I am only moving on duty

the kind of duty with a “t” and a “y”

the kind of duty that doesn't feel like a gift

but an obstacle to Oblivion

and Oblivion is sexy as hell

Except that it is Hell.

I take up the last trash bags to the dumpsters

and open the lid

in reasonable peace, for a done day

and I see

a raccoon in the shadow of the bin,

it's face paranoid and sad

But regal it rakes itself out of the can

Slumps its loaf body over the edge

Points its wet nose straight at my chest

and sings, in perfect tune

“Oh ignominious Night! Fold your darkness away!

Alive! Alive am I! A paranoid rodent!

Royal black stripes on greasy grey fur!

The king or the Queen of all Raccoons

For all this suburban boy knows.  But more!

God gives him gapes at the living!

For who is the giver of living?

Break him, oh Beauty

banish the crown of his heart and humble it hard

On a fleeting, sad-back animal feeding

on old crackers and yogurt in trash-bags, dancing

in this dumpster, singing praises, listening

for the sermons in our skin.”

*Source: Kass, Jeff. "The Curious Case of Anthony Zick."AnnArbor.com, 11 Feb 2010. Web. 1 May 2012. <http://www.annarbor.com/news/education/the-curious-case-of-anthony-zick/>.

So Heavy

An Italian friend translated this prayer, and it seemed particularly apt to the theme of grace that appears in many Catholic novels. I realize this prayer isn't meant as a work of fiction, but please consider it an accompaniment piece to the novels and short stories that have been written after 1900. From a Christian perspective, grace is meant as a gift for the undeserving, and for the quietly desperate like Binx in The Moviegoer or for those physically suffering like the whiskey priest in The Power and the Glory, this prayer is an acknowledgement that to live fully is to know pain.

The two graces

that the Lord gives

are sadness and weariness.

Sadness, because it forces me to memory.

Weariness, because it forces me to the reasons why I do things.

O God, let a total positivity lead my soul,

in whatever condition I am,

whatever remorse I have,

whatever injustice I feel passing on me,

whatever obscurity surrounds me,

whatever enmity,

whatever death overtakes me,

because You, who made all the living creatures, are for the good.

You are the positive hypothesis about everything I live.

---Don Luigi Giussani---  

The Enduring Creepiness of Uncle Screwtape

         Let's face it. It was probably a bad idea to start reading The Screwtape Letters on a dark and stormy night when I was home alone and had forgotten to replace the burnt out light bulb in the hallway. Yeah, bad idea. It's not exactly like C. S. Lewis set out to right a horror story or anything. For me, it's a very particular kind of horror, the kind that sneaks up on you and drags you to Hell. Little joke there. Got it. Not funny.
        I haven't heard too many people try to pigeon-hole this novel as a horror story. In fact, Peter Kreeft considers The Screwtape Letters to be the first of a very particular, satirical, and epistolary genre, where a more knowledgeable sort gives advice to a less knowledgeable sort. In this case, Uncle Screwtape gives advice to nephew Wormwood about how to deal with his patient, which supposedly should lead the human down the wrong path into the jaws of Satan. And that advice is the opposite of everything that I--excuse me, the patient--should do for eternal life with God, or in Screwtape's words--the Enemy. Which quite effectively, gives me the creeps.
         In the last post, I mentioned a couple of authors who have mimicked Lewis's style and repeated much of his information in more recent novels. Kreeft followed Lewis's style incredibly closely with a new Uncle-nephew demon pairing. While Eberstadt twisted the role reversal further with a female protagonist that is not advising demons but atheists. The two more recent authors probably saw a need and a voice that Lewis's did not necessarily miss, but they believed could be expanded upon. Kreeft and Eberstadt situate their novels in current US versus Lewis's WWII England. Time and location change somethings, but certainly not all, and if one returns to the original masterpiece, he may be surprised at just how much it creeps him out by how much it still applies.
           Consider for a moment these lines from Screwtape:

I once had a patient, a sound atheist, who used to read in the British Museum. One day, as he sat reading, I saw a train of thought in his mind beginning to go the wrong way. The Enemy, of course, was at his elbow in a moment. Before I knew where I was I saw my twenty years' work beginning to totter. If I had lost my head and begun to attempt a defence by argument I should have been undone. But I was not such a fool. I struck instantly at the part of the man which I had best under my control and suggested that it was just about time he had some lunch...In fact [this idea was] much too important to tackle at the end of a morning...the patient brightened up considerably; and by the time I had added 'Much better come back after lunch and go into it with a fresh mind,' he was already half way to the door.  (2-3)

         This is such a simple anecdote of how easily one can be distracted from the state of their own soul that it makes my skin crawl for anyone to lose it over a sandwich.  It also demonstrates how the demons don't even need to argue. They just whisper seeds of doubt and forgetfulness, and then the human does the rest. Screwtape goes on to articulate how to direct the patient away from God through distraction, distortion, and straight-up lying. He hits on a variety of diabolical exploits ranging from the disruption of happy union between man and woman by the man creating a fantasy of the perfect woman via pornagrophy, etc. (79). Everything was made by God as Screwtape readily admits, and he admits even more that many of those things cause great pleasure to the patient. It's all in how it's "twisted" that matters (87).  Basically, if the human does the exact opposite of whatever Screwtape says, they would be in pretty good shape.
          I should also point out that while Lewis dedicated his book to J.R.R. Tolkien and the updated versions have been written by Catholics, Lewis engaged both sides of the Tiber when he included quotations from two well-respected men, one of Catholic origin and the other Protestant. It was probably his evidenced-based way of saying that both groups were suffering, had suggested similar advice, and could probably benefit from a bit of devilish satire.

Howlers

By Auntie Oscura (Screwtape is a second cousin once removed on my father's side)

C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

This man is the not-so-dearly-departed English writer, who caused plenty of trouble for us in his earthly life. It just makes it all the more annoying that we still have to deal with his sixty-plus writings on our Enemy. It makes me want to vomit when I consider how he converted to Christianity and defended that old relic--the Roman Catholic Church--when he wasn't even a Catholic! He defend her through satire, no less. Pardon the human expression, but what the hell. How dare he turn our darkness against us with the Enemy's own invention of words. It's just too much, and under Screwtape's name!  For better results with your own patients, do not mention to anyone Lewis's friendship with that ultimate Catholic loser J. R. R. Tolkien. Squash at all costs the rumors that Lewis would have come into the Church if he had just lived a bit longer and had a few more discussions with that hobbit-like man.



Peter Kreeft, The Snakebite Letters: Devilishly Devious Secrets for Subverting Society As Taught In Tempter's Training School

Get a good look at this face because this is another traitorous convert to that doddering institution.  Worst of all this one seems to have been taking notes and has made Lewis's WWII satire relevant to a modern USA with an American patient. This is a disturbing development for us because before we could have simply whispered to our patients that Lewis's words were outdated, "Why of course those old ideas are no longer relevant to you, darling. Don't worry just be a caring person and all will turn out well." Yeah, right. This Kreeft seems to be up to Lewis's nincompoopery again and affirming the Enemy's Word. Could someone please distract him during Mass. Nothing too obvious. Just get him thinking about how cute his grandkids are, or how wonderful that Avenger's movie was. Anything. So what if there was a line in the movie about there being only one, true Enemy. It's a small price for us to pay if it means that Kreeft takes his mind off what is really happening in the Mass, when that little bit of bread turns into...DON'T MAKE ME SAY IT!

Mary Eberstadt, The Loser Letters: A Comic Tale of Life, Death, and Atheism
Well, this one's a bit different than the other two, but don't be fooled by those big, innocent eyes. She's as much trouble as the other two and has been up to mischief much more recently. She's one of those Cradle Catholics. She's a tough nut to crack make no mistake. Not because of the whole Cradle Catholic business. No, we're old pros at lulling those ones into a false sense of security in the Enemy before setting them a drift into the world thinking that they're with Him, when they just haven't realized that they abandoned Him long ago. Oh, good times. Good times in deed. Back to the matter at hand, this Eberstadt woman is a problem. She's written something with a female narrator exposing our avid, atheistic supporters' weaknesses. I can't tell you how dangerous this is for us.  Before we had had such success with those surplus Eves by getting them to believe that the Church was too patriarchal, too masculine with all of those priests and bishops. Now, we have this female author making a female narrator talking to our athiests. Needless to say, she must be stopped at all costs.  We don't need another disgusting human poking light into our darkness.

"The Enduring Creepiness of Uncle Screwtape" to arrive on May 23.

Tree of Life --- Review by Fr. Robert Barron

If you haven’t already, you should really consider watching Tree of Life. Unlike most movies, there isn’t really a concrete plot to it, so I cannot suggest with a high certainty that you will get out of it the same ideas that I did. But I am confident that the experience you will get from this movie will be extraordinary. If you would like a learned Catholic’s interpretation of Terrence Malick’s film, please watch this.

Father Robert Barron, as many of you know from the series Catholicism, comments on this movie in the above video. The title “Tree of Life” comes from the book of Genesis, in the story of Adam and Eve. They are living with the Tree of Life, and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They are given the choice to “grasp” at the latter tree and attempt to understand what God only fully knows. This is assuming a God-like position, and denying an access to real life.

Fr. Barron suggests that the main point of the movie is an attempt to show God’s answer to the human question: “why is there suffering?” Evidence that the movie is about this is that it starts with a verse from the book of Job:

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” Job38:4,7

This is a part of God’s conversation with Job, a character in the Bible who, in his story, suffers greatly. So, this question of suffering can be examined from God’s point of view.

In the movie, we have two main human characters, the mom and the dad. In Fr. Barron’s interpretation, the dad represents “nature” and the mom represents “nurture,” or grace. The dad raises the children by teaching them the ways of the world, teaching them to be on top of the competition. The mom raises them with grace, allowing them to enjoy life and live it as though each day was the last.

Fr. Barron goes on to say that nature and grace are both controlled by God. Neither is good or evil, but God, through them, is good.

God allows “negativity” into God’s creation for the purpose of producing a greater good. God allows a certain play of the hard-edged and the forgiving.

So, the answer (the movie) answers our question and says to us that we weren’t there when God created the universe, world, etc. but we should accept that God is the One who knows the full truth and knows what God is doing. This is how we can re-gain access to the Tree of Life from Genesis.

Howlers and the enduring creepiness of Uncle Screwtape

Coming soon on May 16.

Dean Koontz's "Odd Thomas" Series

Ever since reading Flannery O'Connor's literary work, I realized that of all the novels and series that I have read outside of this class only one novel series has truly used the grotesque in such an effective manner as she. Enter in the Odd Thomas series by Dean Koontz.

Dean Koontz, like many of the main characters that we have read in previous novels, converted to Catholicism as a result of his love for his wife, Gerda, who was Catholic. He became more and more intrigued and inspired by Catholicism and finally converted in college. He has become an icon for mystery and supernatural fiction writing, even making it on to the New York Times bestseller list for hardcover 13 times as number one. Now, as he continues to grow in faith and write more popular novels, one can see his faith permeate through his literary work and create such wonderful stories like "Odd Thomas."

Odd Thomas is quite a peculiar character. He can see ghosts and the supernatural in the world around him, offering an insight into the wicked and evil that is present in the world, while simultaneously accentuating  the beauty and wonder of the world and of many people in it.

First reading the starting novel, aptly named "Odd Thomas," I had a hard time diving into the story as I do when reading the work of other well known others authors like Clive Cussler. However, action suddenly appears (quite unlike the Moviegoer) and the rest of the novel becomes enrapturing and quite thrilling. After taking this English course, the Catholic themes and motifs that are present in this novel and the other novels in the series, become very interesting and easy to spot.

So, try this novel. I had a great time reading it, I really enjoyed thinking about it after, and I think you will too. Caution: If you are like me in how I was when I read this, make sure that you allot the next 6 hours, at least, as free time because I guarantee you will not want to put it down until it is finished.


Dean's Faith:
http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/2013

Dean's accomplishments (to name a few):
http://www.deankoontz.com/about-dean/