Interview with poet Michael J. Robinson

Poet Michael J. Robinson joins me today to share a bit about his new collection, Moon’s Shadow.”

Bio:

Born June 30,1957 in John’s Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland. Placed in a foster home two weeks later and then adopted at age eight by an aunt. He lived a life of a homeless person for most of his adult life. It was his desire and purpose to write poetry to tell his life story a story that is familiar to many who are abandoned by their parents. The name Fireeyes is a reference to the 1968 riots in Washington, D.C. after the assassination of Martan Luther King. Picture if you will buildings burning and the light of the fires reflected in his young eyes. I have dropped the name Fireeyes but the images are reflective of those experiences.

What do you enjoy most about writing poems?

I enjoy the thought process of blending life experiences with the reflection of the soul.

Can you give us a little insight into a few of your poems – perhaps a couple of your favorites? 

School

A razor blade hidden under my jacket sleeve.

My nappy hair is combed and brushed;

Royal Crown jelly covers my ashy skin.

I didn’t receive a hug before I left home this morning-

I pray I don’t die without a hug today.

I watch the blood run down the sidewalk into the gutter.

School is a poem about the violence in my childhood and its effect on my life and personality,

Tick; Tick; Tick.

When the bomb inside of me is set.

At any time, it may go off,

And then at that moment,

I will commit suicide,

It’s been ticking for years,

Inside my mind is the bomb from 68.

Will someone defuse it? ho

Can it be defused?

Time is running out for me.

This poem is a foreshadowing of a life lived off and on in mental hospitals. Over a 30-year period many times I was hospitalized because of that feeling of going insane.

Non-Stop

It’s in the wee hours of the morning,

Before heavens opens and hell closes.

A sheet of paper,

A typewriter,

And a soul full of desire to live.

Non-Stop is the feeling of being struck from the spiritual aspect of life and that search for God.

When did you first consider yourself a writer / poet?

It was in 1993 While attending Valencia Community College in Winter Park Fla. I read one of their literary magazine. I thought that I could be published in this magazine. 

How do you research markets for your work, perhaps as some advice for not-yet-published poets?

I have been published in varies college magazines and Synchronized Chaos. What I find is that you write for what release your creative life and write based on your life experiences. The audience will connect to you over time.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I enjoy writing a line that only I know the inside joke that makes me laugh to myself.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to live and not die in the violence. I wanted to feel safe.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

Believe in yourself and write for your own healing and joy. It has taken me many classes and devotion to writing to get to this place. Writing is a process in which you discover the heart and soul of who you truly are.

Thank you for joining me here today.