BWW Interviews: Poet Jeffrey Charles Naish

When did you first know you had a talent for Poetry?

Back in Georgia in 2007 or so, this amazing woman and dog trainer Leslye Pinnell that I knew through my work at a Veterinary hospital had read some of my old poems from high school as well as a few recent ones and she said something along the lines of "Why are you working here? You're a genius!"

This woman had been around the world on a sailboat, if she said I was a poetic genius who am I to disagree.

Why Poetry?

I have a short attention span, I'm pretty spent.

I heard you have a band. Tell us about it

We're called Murder City Outlaws. We're a punk/metal trio and I play bass.

When I came back from Georgia in 2011 I had heard my old friend Kenny shredding with his drummer Brian and they needed a bass player. I was really diggin' their tunes but I hadn't played my bass at all since I'd moved to GA in 2004 so I was a bit rusty. Believe it or not it all comes back rather quickly though. Since punk rock is the sound of revolution, I have that second outlet to have my say.

What comes first for you ... Poetry or Music?

I'm a poet at heart, but like Jim Morrison I seem to be more respected in the music scene and that does something to the mind.

Music has always been there for me and my earlier poetry is completely influenced not only from Edgar Allen Poe, but from some the of the great lyricists in music from Gil Scott-Heron to Morrison to Scott Vogel of Terror.

I appreciate all the arts, poetry and music are the only ones I'm any good at.

You have had several well received books published ... Talk a little about each

In 2009 I started self-publishing one book a year with my tax returns from my various slave jobs.

Emptiness like Winter is my 1st and is basically a lot of love poems ranging from high school till 2005 when the woman I was living with in GA kicked me out. My mother took the cover photo for that one.

Oblivion is my 2nd book and my most popular. I wrote it when I returned from a trip to London England where I stayed in a hostel and basically wandered the streets for a week. The cover photo is of Kensal Green cemetery which was what I saw from my bunk.

Disappear into Nothingness is my 3rd and I call it my end of the world book. This came the realization that we're living in these crazy prophetic times and I tried to tie some concepts together from various religions and cultures. My brother took the cover photo for this one and it features human waste in Chesapeake Bay. Filthy animals we are.

Astral Light is my book from 2013 and is about seeing beyond what's force-fed and realizing that we are one, not separated by race or political parties. The cover is a painting by my long time friend and Buffalo artist Clarence Rhym.

I always reinvent myself with each book so that I can never be categorized or labeled as being a part of some lame scene.

I'm in the process of published my fifth book now titled Malcontent.

You have a Poetry event coming up. What is it?

It's called Wine, Words, and Weirdness and will be the poetry event of the summer!

What's the night going to be like?

Controlled chaos and drunken debauchery

What is a featured reader?

Featured readers will read for 10 minutes as opposed to 5 for the open reading spots.

Tell us a little about each of yours?

I featured poets and friends that may or may not be the most popular in Buffalo, but that bring something special to every event they're at. I don't give a shit about who's who in the boring scene. I'd rather be around real people that aren't so uptight and full of themselves. Fuck awards and competitions, they take away from the art.

The featured poets for this event are:

Fred Whitehead

Ian McPhail

Mark C. Lloyd

Mike Wolf

Dominique Venzella Woods

Indio Cortez

GOODNE$$

Have a sample of one of your Poems you want to share?

KING WITHOUT A CASTLE ...OR A HOPE

by Jeffrey Charles Naish

Before I crowned her

Queen of my desires

I knew not the loss

Of passion nor of time

Being a factor

In its steady decline

Without consummation

The arcane fire

The internal burn

Of ecstasy and the renewed

Sensuality that opens

The floodgates of perception

Shall be replaced

By complacency

A life of possessions

A soul vacancy

But a temporary prince

And a permanent fool

I never quite reach her kingdom

Though others have come before

Mental torture, their modern art

No other has left so vast a void

Beyond the clogged arteries

...of this dying heart

Why should people come to this event?

Because it's the best f-ing poetry event of the year!

June 28, 2014

Saturday, 7 p.m.

"Wine, Words and Weirdness"

An evening with Poet Jeffrey Charles Naish and friends

Rust Belt Books,

202 Allen St. Buffalo, New York 14201

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