Leonard Gontarek is the author of eight books of poems, including Take Your Hand Out of My Pocket, Shiva; He Looked Beyond My Faults both published by Hanging Loose Press. His poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Field, Poet Lore, Fence, and in the anthologies, The Best American Poetry among others. He coordinates The Philadelphia Poetry Festival, Peace/Works: Poetry Readings for Peace, the Green Line Café Reading and Interview Series, and Poetry In Common. Since 2006 he has conducted 1000 poetry workshops in venues including, The Moonstone Arts Center, Musehouse, The Kelly Writers House, University City Arts League, Free Library of Philadelphia, Mad Poets Society, Philadelphia Arts in Education Partnership, and a weekly Saturday workshop from his home in West Philadelphia. In 2014 he created the first Philly Poetry Day. He was recipient of the Philadelphia Writers Conference Community Service Award in 2014. He was Poetry Consultant for the Walt Whitman At 200: Art And Democracy project.
Hanging Loose Press: What are this past year’s accomplishments that you are most proud of?
Leonard Gontarek: My recent book of poems, The Long Way Home, is officially 472 pages. In 2023, I embarked on Zoom readings to read the entire book, cover to cover. In a lighter mode, I scheduled twice-weekly 15-minute readings in April and October. We made it halfway through the book, so the series will continue in 2024. The project was well-received and a great joy for me. I am thankful to the loyal audience. I coordinate the reading series POETRY in COMMON. 2023 featured a group reading of George Oppen’s Of Being Numerous and Douglas Kearney’s The Cities: III-VII on April 30. Other group readings included: Ten Poets on Forgiveness and Gratitude; Seven Poets on Poetry, Place and Community; Peace / Works: An Open Poetry Reading on Politics, Peace, and Home.
HLP: Any particularly difficult experiences/challenges for you this year? and how did you work through them?
LG: We are in a world where wars occur continuously. We suffer with our friends. We can reach understanding and kindness through our poems. It is not everything, but it is a start. I have been working through it with a series of poems, (written in exile). I teach two poetry workshops: The Self and Place in Poetry and Making Poems That Last. I keep the present in front of the students. It is difficult and challenging – but they are all in. I salute them as poets and humans.
HLP: What are three books you’ve read recently that have made an impression on you?
LG: North by Tony Towle, 1970. (A big dose of these poems is available in The History of The Invitation: New And Selected Poems 1963 – 2000, Hanging Loose Press.) I have not owned a copy of North until recently. These poems strike me as still fresh and important – and magnificent.
The Lights, Ben Lerner, 2023. The opening and closing poems, Index of Themes and No Art are worth the price of admission. Of course, the entire collection is the work of a great poet.
The Carrying, Ada Limón, 2018. These poems speak to the question: how do we write poems in these times? They also go a long way, as well, in answering the question: what is American about American poetry? A Name, American Pharoah, Prey, Bald Eagles in a Field, The Real Reason, On a Lamppost Long Ago, Killing Methods, Instructions on Not Giving Up, Losing … There is bravery and greatness here.
HLP: Any upcoming projects?
LG: I am hard at work on and excited by my next two books of poems (no titles, no pub dates yet).
And look for more information about an annual initiative, Philly Poetry Day 10th Anniversary, here:
https://www.facebook.com/phillypoetryday/
Leonard’s poem published in First Literary Review – East:
Site
I’m tipping a large shadow.
I’m trying to call
up from all the scenes
that life has shown us
one site where we could
love and think like the narrator,
Bachelard whispers.
The trees are never
in time who remembers that =
false equivalency.
False equivalency = Alain Delon in the dream
putting a bullet squarely between your
eyes and You’re Toast, French Toast!
Change that? No amount of light could.
