Poetic Reflection week 30 on A. B. Thomas

Welcome to MEET THE POET WEDNESDAYS. Each week we highlight one of the talented poets who contribute to our community. This week's poet is A.B. Thomas!

Will you tell us a bit about yourself?
Howdy, I’m A.B. Thomas, a forty one turning five year old from Central Alberta, Canada. I’ve been on top of the world and I’ve been in the gutters; now I’m somewhere in the middle. I’ve worn many a hat over the years; started out in the oil field, tried the sex, drugs and rocknroll thing, went and got all educated in education, rehabilitation and psychology only to become disappointed in the fact that the social and educational systems are not about developing potential but focused primarily on fitting people into generic blocks of descriptions, then went back to construction to an oil field supply company where I’m currently working. At night the pent up twistedness comes out and it either turns into poetry, a short story or an article for Subversify.com, whom I’m totally convinced publishes my material because of some level of pity.

Please tell us about your blog, and what it means to you.

http://abthomas.wordpress.com/

The blog serves three purposes; firstly it is sort of a dumping ground so to speak of things in my head that aren’t satisfied with simply being written down into one of my notebooks.  The second is for those who read the articles or stories that I write for Subversify.com and think that I’m a pompous, idiotic megalomaniac can come to it and confirm that indeed I am. The third purpose, which I did not foresee, is for my own learning.  It wasn’t until Jingle invited me to join the Poet’s Rally and I started reading the various writes that I saw that there was such a variance to presentation, styles and artists like Luke Prater who explains the ways, means and history of prose that I wasn’t aware of.  While I still don’t pay attention to my own stuff in how it’s done, it just sort of ends up as it is from my head to ink to typing, I have gained a larger appreciation for those who do know the craft.

Can you remember writing your first poem? Can you tell us a little about it?

My first poem – yikes, a nightmarish scenario.  My first official poem would have been written when I was eleven, after the winter had ceded the ice rink to our swimming hole.  A group of us had gone down to take a swim.  There’s something magical about cold water and what it does to a person’s body, though negative on the male anatomy, a bonus for the female anatomy.  The summer before she was naught but a flat prairie, but somehow the parka Debbie had worn over those cold months had fertilized her chest to blossom like the stink weed we walked through to get to the swimming hole. Debbie was far more sophisticated than the other girls, after all, her dad was a lawyer so I knew that the only way I was going to be doing any harvesting in her fields, I’d have to get quite classy, so to woo her, I wrote her a poem about how she made me feel.  Unfortunately I had listened to my cousin,  at the elderly age of sixteen was wise to the world, who told me that what women wanted from a man is to be flat out honest. So honest and descriptive I was. Debbie’s mom, who intercepted my luv prose, was not impressed, nor was her father, who rather than handling the situation in a sophisticated manner, impressed upon me that if anything that I written were to come to light, a certain part of my body would be tacked on the barn door for the cats to bat around.

Will you give us some insight into your style of writing, or the style/form you prefer.

I don’t think I have a particular style, though I will admit that I tend to stay away from the normal sentence structure.

Are there any styles of poetry you find difficult or annoying, and why?

I get frazzled if I attempt to sit down and write a specific type of poem – it’s the anarchist in me – so I frustrate myself often because what I intend to do never matures into anything but a sorry mess of words.

Do you write more than just poetry?

I write a few things, I have a sort of running series of novellas that I know will never find a real publisher, but I still continue to write at any rate of the character “Jared Club”.  I often write short stories, and for the past two years I have been writing articles on subjects such as economics, politics, social issues for Subversify.com as well as providing Subversify with a cartoon character’s adventures in the political arena.

What poem, written by you, do you like the most, and why?

I have to admit that the one that I like the most, which by no means has any great depth  to it, is “I misunderstood: The bald Tabby hymn”. I wrote it as lyrics for a song parody which then in turn became a story board for its video.  It’s crude, sexist, and plays up to stereotypes, and well, its just sums up what most people think I’m like in the first place. 

http://abthomas.wordpress.com/2010/02/18/suicide-is-painless-but-country-music-sure-aint/

Do you have a favorite poet?

Hands down, Lord Byron.

Do you have any mentors?

The editors over at Subversify.com are extremely apt at their art, and have no problem letting me know when I am straying from making any type of sense.
Do you have a favorite place to write? Are there certain emotions that inspire or trigger writing?

For poetry, it most often occurs in sleep so it would be the bedroom.  I keep a notebook at my bedside to write down things when they wake me up.  For other types of writing I usually find my inspiration at the shop, where as all men know, there is nothing like forklifts, power tools and a multitude of saws, blades, pneumatic tools, and precariously perched 10 tonne metal coils that just oozes out creativity...instead of focusing on the things that are out to kill you.

What is your favorite type of music?

I really don’t have a favourite type though I do find myself listening to The Ramones, Teenage Head and Mojo Nixon quite often.

Your favorite book?

I wish I could have some really heavy, or inspirational tome to cite but alas and alack, “Billy and the Boingers: The Bootleg” by Berkeley Breathed.

Do you have a favorite quote that inspires you or your writing?

One night Bessie Braddock said to Sir Winston Churchill, “Sir, you are drunk.”  Churchill replied, “Madam, you are ugly.  In the morning, I shall be sober.”

Any other creative passions?

I have a sort of sometimes when the mood strikes us all sort of band that gets together a couple times a year to do a gig or two, I paint, sketch, photography though most of my creativity seems to go towards keeping my butt from being boiled in oil.

If you could have dinner with any famous deceased person, who would it be, and where would you dine?

Oscar Wilde and I’d take him down to the “Fox and Hound” lounge where we’d digest tremendous amounts of scotch and perhaps a few dozen chilli cheese dogs and pickled eggs while we both try to out verbally and behaviorally megalomaniac the other.

Happy 58 Year Birthday, Jackie Chan...4/7/2012 !!!