From: Subject: Graffiti Online - Paul Curry Steele: The Semi-Bohemian Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2005 19:38:44 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Location: file://C:\WINDOWS\Desktop\work\Graffiti%20Online%20-%20Paul%20Curry%20Steele%20The%20Semi-Bohemian.htm X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1409 Graffiti Online - Paul Curry Steele: The = Semi-Bohemian

Paul Curry Steele: The Semi-Bohemian

By Cee Kay

Paul Curry Steele = wrote=20 clerihew
But now pens neo-haiku.
Actually they=92re three = line poems=20 (ten to a page)
With no seasoning but wit and a little=20 = rage.
=20 (CeeKay)

Steele is best known = for "Anse on=20 Island Creek and Other Poems," a volume of poetry published in = 1981, the=20 title coming from one of his most famous poems which draws on = his=20 kinship to Devil Anse Hatfield. The volume includes poems of = various=20 lengths that provide insight into the mind and life of Paul = Curry=20 Steele. It was published by Mountain State Press. Shamefully, it = is out=20 of print.

I asked Steele my first = probing=20 question which dealt, astutely I thought, with the beginning. = The=20 beginning being his volume of poetry. He waved the book away and = said,=20 "I don=92t look at that anymore." He has been writing reams of = what he=20 calls "3 line poems" or sometimes "haiku," which is what he = wanted to=20 talk about. I had foolishly hoped to work chronologically = through his=20 work and his life. Reading his works in order before meeting him = led me=20 to believe I was prepared for the interview. I = wasn=92t.

Last month I = suffered
A mild=20 stroke with pneumonia
But have recovered.

We had agreed to meet = at Taylor=20 Books. When I arrived, Steele was trying to retrieve his = briefcase from=20 the cab company. The stroke he experienced this past spring = makes=20 movement difficult and in trying to get out of the cab, he left = his=20 briefcase on the seat.

I drove him to the cab = company to=20 pick it up and we began talking. I was trying to get a sense of = who he=20 was as a person while he was focused on retrieving the briefcase = filled=20 with his most recent work. He was annoyed with himself. His work = is very=20 important to him.

It was hot and the = streets were=20 closed off for the impending Bush/Cheney visit. It was obvious = he had=20 been ill and by the time we got back to Taylor Books and sat = down to=20 begin the interview, he with a peach soda and me with my = ever-present=20 cup of coffee, we had already discussed writing, politics, = downtown=20 Charleston, mental illness, prescription drugs and = homosexuality. I had=20 yet to take a single note or turn the tape recorder = on.

Mother and I = could
Polish off=20 a large can of
Del Monte peaches.

I had figured out that = his poetry=20 is overtly autobiographical. I confirmed that with both Steele = and John=20 McKernan, poet and English professor at Marshall. Even though = Steele has=20 an undergrad degree from the University of Virginia, a = master=92s from=20 Harvard, and an MFA from the prestigious writing program at = University=20 of Iowa, he enrolled in classes with McKernan at Marshall = University=20 several years ago. At Steele=92s request, McKernan has been = critiquing his=20 3-line poems.

"Paul has a curious = aesthetic for a=20 poet," said McKernan. "He insists on truth in his work. I tell = him what=20 I like, what I don=92t like, what intrigues me."

I questioned what he = meant by=20 "curious." McKernan distinguished between poetry as a product of = imagination and poetry as autobiographical truth. It=92s obvious = that=20 McKernan would like to see Steele use more imagination in his = poetry. I=20 countered with my theory that all creative writing is = autobiographical=20 at its core. McKernan, the professor who once told me I was too=20 intelligent to write poetry, slam-dunked that idea. I=92m older = and wiser=20 and playing Lois Lane for Graffiti (besides, I don=92t = get graded=20 for this stuff) so I held my ground.

McKernan, older and = wiser yet, and=20 probably more intelligent (even if a poet), held his. I was = persuaded=20 that Steele=92s poetry is not only notable for its strict = adherence to=20 truth but unusual because of it. Kirk Judd, another WV poet = whose poetry=20 is also marked by the autobiographical, said of Steele, "He = certainly=20 influenced me and some of the younger scruffy poets of the = =9160s and =9170s=20 in West Virginia, including Mike Pauley, Joe Barrett and Bob=20 Snyder."

In Appalachia
As = you near the=20 town
It stands beside the road
Like Isaiah before = Jerusalem:
A=20 signpost of molded concrete,
The message in depressed = letters
On a=20 flat conventional heart,
A gray fundamentalist = lollipop
Sucked by=20 storms without wearing away,
Announcing
As it has for well = over=20 half a century
JESUS/IS COMING/SOON.

Judd and Steele are = homegrown,=20 McKernan is not. I=92m a transplant but try to pass as homegrown = since I=20 can claim Appalachian ancestry. Steele=92s poetry strikes me as=20 quintessentially Appalachian in that it does deal with the real = people,=20 places, kinship and roots, and the joys and tragedies of living = in a=20 place so beautiful among resilient people. But also one of = people and=20 land scarred by an ugliness (poverty, politics, power), so that = his=20 poetry doesn=92t need the imaginary. He has stories to tell and = he tells=20 them in brief snippets. His poetry is laugh-out-loud funny, = melancholic=20 or angry. Sometimes it=92s all three.

Confidentially
I = tell you,=20 friend, it takes some grit
To live where men think it manly = to=20 spit.

Steele=92s poems are = his life under a=20 magnifying glass with humor and a dollop (sometimes a wallop) of = anger -=20 key ingredients in the best of Appalachian literature. Of = course, some=20 of the poems are better than others but one gets the sense that = as time=20 goes on, Steele is racing to get it all down.

The family = graves
Go=20 undecorated. None
Is left to do it.

His poetry is marked = and infused=20 with the experience of growing up gay in a time and place = unaccepting of=20 such a thing. His father was mayor of Logan and his family left = the=20 homeplace on Cow Creek for Virginia but returned.

"My parents both grew = up poor," he=20 said. "My father was a coal miner but ambitious. He got into the = company=20 store and later into politics. He had typhoid and we went to = Johns=20 Hopkins. The doctors told him to drink to help with pain. = Terrible,=20 terrible advice. He died of liver disease. My mother, of course, = had=20 Parkinson=92s Disease and then a stroke - my sister and I nursed = her, but=20 then she became ill and couldn=92t help anymore."

When I commented that, = in his=20 poetry, he seemed to mourn his mother=92s death more than his = father=92s, he=20 agreed, saying only that "My father was of the old = school."

She loved cats and = most
Of=20 the time had more than one.
The house smelled of = cats.

Steele showed me a = photograph of=20 himself at age 21. He was a gorgeous, homosexual youth of = remarkable=20 talent and intelligence. His family was well-to-do but plagued = with=20 illness. Of his siblings, he was the healthy one. But his poetry = is=20 clear: He was different.

My parents had no =
Learned=20 aesthetic sense.
They were Improved = hillbillies.

Steele has also been = struggling=20 with mental illness most of his life. Currently, he takes a = garden=20 variety cocktail of anti-depressants that manages his depression = -=20 sometimes more, sometimes less. He still sees a therapist. I = asked if he=20 thought there was any truth to the idea that creative people are = more=20 prone to mental illness and that the illness may be the root of = their=20 creativity. He was clear and concise, "No. If anything, it just = gives=20 them more time to work."

My = psychiatrist
Visited me=20 every day
On the psycho ward

But in those earlier = times, he was=20 institutionalized for lengthy periods and subjected to = electro-shock=20 treatments. I suppose it did provide time to work. I wonder if = he was=20 being treated for depression or for being gay. It=92s not been = that long=20 since the DSM (Diagnostic Criteria of Mental Disorder) removed=20 homosexuality as a mental disorder.

They said they were = gay.
I=20 had never heard before
Of pistol-whipping.

Before the three-line = poems, he=20 wrote clerihew - a poetry form often associated with Ogden Nash = but=20 invented by Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875-1956) as an = alternative to the=20 limerick. Clerihew is four lines of two sentence with the second = line=20 rhyming with the first and the fourth line rhyming with the = third. In=20 their pure form, they are humorous and infused with a dark wit = and the=20 subject is a famous person. Steele=92s usually conform (my = pitiful, if=20 intelligent, attempt at the opening of this article does=20 not).

Leonard Slye became = Roy=20 Rogers,
My pick of Saturday bullet dodgers.
He and I both = think=20 that heaven=92s
A place where there=92ll be no Dale = Evans.

Haiku, an ancient = Japanese poetry=20 form, is far more complicated and subtle. Its structure is three = lines=20 of 5/7/5 syllables. The passing of time is considered a key = component=20 and reference to a season, placing the haiku in time, is = considered=20 essential. Whereas clerihew is a fun form to play with (and = addictive),=20 haiku quickly becomes challenging. Steele has abandoned the = time/season=20 requirement and often ignores the syllabic count opting for=20 autobiographical truth over form.

There is no God = but
If there=20 were He would not be
Interested in me.

The truth is, Steele, = 75, is=20 recovering from a recent stroke and a bout with pneumonia. He = seems=20 lonely but busy with his poetry and regaining his health. He = writes his=20 poetry and sends it off for critique, review and for = publication. Kirk=20 Judd remarked, "He should have had much more recognition than he = ever=20 received." Steele is included in "Wild Sweet Notes: Fifty Years = of West=20 Virginia Poetry (1950-1999)."

Judd, one of the = book=92s editors=20 said, "He is a great poet - one of the most educated, crafty and = clever=20 I ever met or read. "Anse on Island Creek" is a classic. Paul = was a=20 wonderful friend and an exceptional poet - I would have had more = in=20 there, but I got overruled."

I long for = handsome
Men I=20 see, who pay me scant
Or no attention.

Steele acknowledges his = loneliness=20 and we talked about it. I worked my way back to his volume of = poetry,=20 the one he=92d earlier pushed away, refusing to talk about, and = asked him=20 about the one titled "Changing Times" which ends with: "You = two are=20 housemates, then?"/Keith smiled and answered simply/"No, we=92re = not=20 housemates: we=92re lovers."

I asked him if I was = misreading the=20 poem or if there was some resentment or anger in those lines; or = if he=20 had just been surprised by the growing acceptance of such = things. He=20 responded, "Yes, surprised."

"Pansy" and "fairy" =
are now=20 old-fashioned, but we
Can still feel their = sting.

"He=92s a wonderful = person," said=20 Judd. "Witty, erudite and wickedly funny. I was always impressed = by his=20 knowledge. He had a great education, and could converse on many = things.=20 But the man knew poetry, its forms, its practitioners, its uses. = I=20 learned from him, as did many of us. He may be the last of a=20 semi-bohemian breed."

=A9 2000-2003 Graffiti = Publications