Many of you may know Rayn Roberts from the "local" San Diego poetry scene. Over a period of ten years, he created and hosted readings at Better Worlde Galleria, Claire de Lune, The Book Garden and Lestat’s.

He’s also been a featured poet at Twiggs, City College, Larry Jaffe’s Poetic License in Los Angeles, in San Francisco at The Chameleon Club ("the roughest punk reading in S.F.), and Sacred Grounds ("the oldest reading in S.F."). Other venues include Oceanbeach, Oceanside, Encinitas, Santee, Laguna Beach, Fullerton, and Riverside.

There’s also a strong possibility that you’ve read his work in Rattle, The Sow’s Ear Review, City Works, Limestone Circle, Thunder Sandwich, or Poetic Voices, among others. He was also the 1999 finalist in The Sow’s Ear Review Poetry Contest.

Rayn has spent the past two years teaching English in Korea. He’s planning to return next Spring around March, unless he journeys to Spain for more poetic inspiration. One thing is clear to this writer: wherever Rayn goes, poetry follows.

In the authorial note for his new book, The Fires of Spring, (San Diego: North Oak Press, 2002. ISBN 0-9674326-2-6.), Rayn takes a moment to share the title’s meaning:

‘The Fire of Spring’ refers to a practice of burning the fields in spring before the planting of new crops. If you travel in Korea in spring, you will see farmers everywhere lighting fires that slowly spread across the fields. This is done to chase away mice and rats and eliminate harmful insects. It is known in Korean as ‘Mice Fire Play.’

The mind as a field is an ancient image in many religions. It occurred to me, while watching the farmers, that Buddhist poems are like fires because they can rid the mind of harmful notions and ideas and strengthen the ground of reality. The poems here are all Buddhist. All but three were written on either Jeju Island or on the mainland in Jinju City. On a spiritual level, they are gifts from Korea to me and I now share them with you. They are also intended to delight with playful humor, images of the mountains and countryside and to enlighten with the message of Buddhism: compassion for all beings. I hope you enjoy them.

The Fires of Spring is available at Rayn’s website http://www.geocities.com/raynrobkorea/
He’s also had an offer from Beyond Border's Press to publish the next two. Congratulations Rayn!

Terrie Relf: So Rayn, how did you come to poetry?

Rayn Roberts: I started writing in at age 15 after a high school English teacher gave me an assignment to write a poem like poets our class had studied. We had studied Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost. In a short time, I found I would hear lines of poetry as one hears a song they have listened to a long time. I started hearing lines I hadn't read and began to write them down. They were my first poems. When I turned my assignment into Mrs. Pelkey (Yes, I still remember her name.) she said it was very good. In fact, there were only five other students who could write a poem. She made a colorful bulletin board, put the five poems on it for everyone to see and I was bitten by the "by line bug"; I had "publishing flu" real bad! Needless to say, I was hooked on literature.

From that day forward, I never stopped writing and reading poetry which shows how one English teacher can have a good impact on one teenager. When I went to University, I had the good fortune to meet Lee Gerlach. I showed him poetry I'd written, and it was through his classes and workshops that I began to hone my writing skills. Gerlach was an early mentor. His mentor had been Ivor Winters. When I read and heard Gerlach's work, I knew he was a good poet. I learned all I could from him and majored in Literature with a focus on poetry. I consider Lee Gerlach's poetry an early influence on my work.

TR: Who else influenced your work?

RR: Through Gerlach I was exposed to Renaissance Poets John Donne, Ben Johnson, Shakspeare, Herrick and others. I studied 16th, 17th & 18th century poets. I took a course in early American Poetry. Tuckerman, Bryant, Emerson, Whitman all impressed me, but modern poetry, classes in 20th century poetry, really woke me up. Pound, Eliot, H.D., Stevens, W.C. Williams, Philip Larken, Plath, Ted Hughes, Anne Sexton, Dylan Thomas, Marrianne Moore, Kenneth Patchen, Gary Snyder, Kenneth Rexroth, Charles Olsen and Howard Nemerov were all influences on my poetry. Oh, and let's not forget Gerard Manely Hopkins! His light-charged "sprung rhythm " had a huge impact on "the music" in some of my poems. Much later, Native American songs and poems and Allen Ginsberg and other Beats would have their influence too. I had the pleasure of meeting Philip Whalen, one of the original Beat Poets in San Francisco.

In 1979, after graduation, I left San Diego and I went to Japan to teach. I studied Haiku poets. Basho, Shiki and Issa are my favorites. I read several translations of The Tao and began to delve into Buddhist's texts. All of this had an effect on my work. There are influences outside of poetry that I draw from to create poems: jazz, classical, rock and pop music, dance, dreams, painting, Buddhism and science. All of these influenced many poems I have written.

TR: Could you share your process with our readers? Show us how a poet’s body/mind work together to give rise to poetry?

RR: Process? To me it's more how a poem happens than a process. I mean, "the poem writes itself "as much as "I write the poem". Sometimes it's a thought that I have been reflecting on for years which comes into focus in a poem. Those are often "handed to me", written in my mind and presented whole. I only have to put them on paper, edit a bit and they are done. Many of the short poems are done like that. Sometimes it's a song, a piece of music that stirs up a strong emotion, but more often it is what I have come to call "a voice" that speaks to me and begins a poem. I may be anywhere when this happens, but the lines are beautiful, unique and they won't go away. The voice keeps repeating the line from time to time until I sit down and write. The voice will not be silent until I have given it… "a body" where it can live. I am usually at my PC until I finish.

TR: Could you share a bit more about this "voice" that speaks to you?

RR: Meditation and quiet reflection, times when I am listening to the inner silence are times when "a voice" will speak to me. Some people call this "the still small voice, voice of the muse", but I have a feeling it's my imagination "playing" the different levels of my mind.

TR: What do you see as the relationship between poetry and music?

RR: Poetry is what happens when the poet plays the mind like a musical instrument, striking the many notes and levels of the mind. Poetry is also the poet at play.

TR: You briefly mentioned the revision process. Could you address that a little bit more, please.

RR: As far as the actual writing goes, there isn't a long poem that is any good that I haven't written, revised and rewritten at least 50 to 100 times. I want the language to be beautiful and clear, the images to be true and unique and I want a particular look on the page.

TR: I know that you’re an experienced performer and have hosted a number of poetry venues. Could you talk a bit about spoken word?

RR: I write poetry that will sound good when read the looks a particular way on the page. The two are equally important to me. I see no conflict between "Spoken Word and Poetry on the Page". There is no conflict. A poem can be presented beautifully with both in mind, in fact, most excellent poetry has surrendered to the demands of the page and the poem as spoken word.

TR: Buddhists often speak of "beginner’s mind". How does that relate to your work?

RR: After studying all the poets and poetry, there came a time when I had to almost "forget" all that I had learned, and just write. There was in that act, just writing from the heart, from the gut, a moment when the years of practice concentrated and became passion, and that is the gift one gives to one's self as well as to others.