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LOCKDOWN INTERVIEW with legendary Edinburgh Poet, Singer Songwriter, Author Mike Dillon 1. Your poems and songs are rich in references and word play. What sort of poetry do you enjoy reading and what are your musical preferences? I prefer poems that roll, that establish their own rhythm with plenty of alliteration and the occasional sneaky half or full rhyme and that can be real aloud without the feeling that they're just cut-up prose. I also like comic verse - the more outrageous the rhyming the better. I mainly listen to Blues, Rock and Folk, both traditional and contemporary 2. In some of the writing biography and mythology, fact and fiction are fused. Do you think it’s important that a poem or a song operates on more than one level? It's a big plus if they do. Peppering a piece of work with mythological references seems a bit pointless unless they add flavour to something real 3. The poems and songs reflect your geographical history either past or present. Do you believe this acknowledgement of personal geography is something you do deliberately or is it naturally occurring?
al ), Native North American history and literature, Family, Friends, Personal geography/ biography and musical influences. Do you ever reject poems or songs that don’t work? And when is it time to give up on a piece of writing? I've given birth to many stillborn poems and songs that just don't fly but I usually archive them rather than chuck them out in hopes I can use some of the lines or ideas in future to frankenstein them into a new monster 7. If you were to give a new poet one piece of advice on writing poetry what would it be? (you are not allowed to say ‘give up now before it’s too late’.) Commit any lines/rhymes/phrases/ideas to paper as soon as they drift into your head. Read as much as you can. Imitate or steal what really appeals to you. All poets are thieves 8. You won the Scottish Slam Championship in 2010? (was it?) Did you enjoy the experience and do you have any feeling one way or another about spoken word/ performance poetry or live readings in general (from the days when that sort of thing happened !) Yeh, it was great to take part and the win satisfied my competiveness for a few days. But though slams are good in providing a structure for folk to read, I think there's far too many now and there's always the danger that the poetry takes second place to the competition. Performance poetry in general is a different matter though. Poems were originally supposed to be declaimed in mead-halls. Scribbling them down on paper instead is a new-fangled idea dreamed up by guys in ruffs. Not sure I approve 9. From all your years of promoting, publishing, performing and writing do you have any highlights that stick in your memory and look back at with fondness?
I have fond memories of the monthly First Friday Pomes & It's natural to link an experience to where it happened. One Pints nights that ran for years and years in the West End Hotel in Edinburgh. And the Yonkly, a Writers Workshop in of the things I like about American and Irish songs is the Print that came out every yonk. Also the Hastings Poetry frequent reference to actual places, so I suppose I'm just following those traditions. And it does add flavour. Twenty Festival and all the gigs in Germany and New York. But Four Hours from Tulsa just sounds better than Twenty Four mainly all the good friends I made back then Hours from Nowhere In Particular, even if you don't know 10. Final Question : Five Favourite poets & Five favourite where Tulsa is songwriters (or less). 4. What is your writing process? Do you work and rework Fav Poets: it'll have to be the Big Three - WB Yeats, TS Eliot your writing or is it down to a single point of inspiration or and Dylan Thomas. And there'll always have to be a place in a mix of those things? my pantheon for Roger McGough because of the Mersey It's great when something comes out, fully-formed. But even Sound, a book that was so influencial to the poets of my then I'll always make an effort to polish it up. This happens generation. And Roxy Gordon more with poems than songs which often start with a verse and a half and a tune then are left to simmer while I try and work out what they're really about. 5. When do you know when a poem or song is complete and ready to be made public? I don't. Unless they're really rough I try them out as soon as possible. I think the best way to find out what bits work and what doesn't is to read or sing them to an audience. If I'm stumbling over some parts I'll know there's a problem and mess around with the lines 6. Your interests are reflected in your writings, Mythology (Greek, Irish & Celtic etc), Poetry (i.e. Dylan Thomas et
Fav Songwriters: PJ MacCall and Bob Dylan for the way they embraced traditional music and ran with it. Chuck Berry and Cole Porter. And, of course, Kate Bush. Everyone loves Kate.
Mike Dillon’s ARK :Selected Poems and songs is available now at www.hybriddreich.co.uk £10.00 plus postage (Book & CD)
