NEW COLLEGE A publication of the New College Alumnae/i Association Volume 42 Winter 2000 Nimbus Talks With .... Daniel Bosch '82-'85 By Alexis Simendinger '75 No, you have to find something else. The obvious thing for most Daniel Bosch has had a single­ people is to teach, but anyone who minded desire since his youth in could possibly make a living doing California: to be a poet. Which is something else while being a poet what he is, although his keep is should do so. The academic poetry earned as an instructor in expository world is ugly. It's full of backbiting writing at Harvard University, where and climbing and lying and sly he's also a resident tutor in aca­ smiles. It's very costly, and I think demic writing and an instructor in the more you can stay out of it, the advanced poetry writing for better. Harvard's open-admission extension school. His work is not yet on Q. How did Tom Hanks and his bookstore shelves, but a year ago he movies get into your poetry? won the first -ever $1,000 poetry It all began as an experiment prize offered by the literary maga­ where I was trying to do what {New Poet Daniel Bosch '82-'85 zine, Boston Review-an accom­ College Professor] Mac [Miller] Hanks title. They loved that and used plishment that landed him on the taught me. It's called the negative it to interpret the poem. And I "Arts" pages of People magazine. image experiment. I was doing these thought, "Geez, that works." So I The reason the mass-market celeb­ negative images of an (Osip) thought, I'll call this, "Philadelphia rity bible showed an interest? Mandelstam (20th century Russian] Starring Tom Hanks." Then I thought, Because his winning series of four poem. He mentions the City Taurida since people liked that so much, why complex poems written in 1997 had [ancient Greek reference]. I needed a don't I do some more Mandelstam beguilingly accessible titles: "Phila­ word that had the feel of a contem­ versions, directly going after Tom delphia Starring Tom Hanks," "Big porary American word, and I chose Hanks' movies, since they seemed to Starring Tom Hanks," "Apollo 13 Philadelphia. I ended up submitting think that was so fun? I did three Starring Tom Hanks," and "Forrest the poem, as Mac would sometimes more [and) had a lot of fun doing it. Gump Starring Tom Hanks." [Boston do in his workshops, to my own The final one, "Forrest Gump," has Review's website has links to Bosch's summer workshop at Harvard some of my best writing in it, even prize-winning verse at www­ summer school, an anonymous though, in some sense, it's very polisci.mit.edu/BR23.5/Bosch.html] workshop. This poem was picked for difficult to understand. discussion and the people fixed on Q. In today's marketplace, can the term "Philadelphia," and thought Q. What's important about your anyone make a healthy living as a it must refer to the Tom Hanks approach, described in one article as poet? movie. At that time it had no Tom your "commitment to the measured line The difference between poetry in Q. If asked what her father does, The Crucible prose and poetry in verse is that the would your daughter say, "he teaches," by Daniel Bosch verse is written in lines and written or "he's a poet"? in good lines. She'd say I was a poet. After virtue, under the eye of the clock, Q. Who are some living poets whose Q. What was important about your Patterns of culture in our time, work you would recommend to readers, time at New College? our bodies, and why? Having been to three other Ourselves, let us now praise Boston was a destination for me undergraduate schools, I used to famous men, because of Derek Walcott being here. think that New College is wasted on Invisible cities, pride and I had intended to move here and people who aren't transfers because prejudice. work with him somehow. He's they don't see the enormous possi­ phenomenal and in a sense, has really bilities. But I could see the freedom After Babel, to the land of the raised the standards for poetry in and the chance to get engaged with cattails, recent times. There's an Irish expatri­ professors. It was extremely exciting Tender is the night of ate who teaches at Princeton named to me-the freedom to design my grammatology, Paul Muldoon, who is wonderful and major and just sit at the beginning The well-wrought urn, silence in writes some of the most alive verse of every semester and say, the snowy fields, that's going now. The language is "What do I want to do?" I was Paradise lost from here to speaking through them. Their work is quite ready to do aesthetics and eternity. not only personal and vivid in its ethics and poetry. [After moving imagery, but it also ends up being with his family to Florida from Other criteria hopscotch on about bigger things, and that's what California at age 17, Bosch decided to liberty, art is supposed to do, I think-to not give college a try, although he didn't On deconstruction, on dreams. express itself but, rather, to connect believe college was necessary for a The separate notebooks cry "the itself to things that are bigger than poet.) My first year at USF con­ beloved country." that. vinced me that ordinary education Mimesis travels with Charley, was not going to be good for me. So, islands in the stream Q. What did you do with the $1,000 I maintained my residency in Califor­ poetry prize? nia and transferred to UC-Santa Cruz. Marry me. Far from the madden I gave $300 to New CollAge. On the plane to California, I sat next ing crowd, the possessed New CollAge magazine was a great to [a woman]. and the first thing I Bang the drum slowly against opportunity for me. I got to read all noticed was that she was barefoot. I interpretation, these submissions that really helped struck up a conversation with her, Pale fire, men and women, ground me as a poet. Mac, also, used and she said, "You're going to Santa labyrinths, the best to be so supportive of me. And I Cruz? I go to this college kind of like Short stories of 1988, civilization bought a telescope for my daughter that." And that's how I first heard of [Michaela, 6]. New College. When I ended up And its discontents. Language of moving back to Florida, there was art, Q. How do you think that being a this idea that there was this other I know why the caged bird sings: parent has affected your writing? place that was non-traditional. To have and have not a part of It's been a tremendous thing I took a course from [alum] speech, for me. Children are authentic, and Carol Flint on reading poetry. That Of time and the river, and the my daughter models for me ways I'd was a nice thing at New College. I order of things. like to be. I also think that when one find no one who's studied poetry, First Appeared in Harvard Review has a child, one can't help but get even at a master's degree level, has excited about language again in a taken a whole course in reading ofpoetry as the fundamental unit"? rawer way. I have, since I've been a poetry aloud. That was a very rare If I didn't like lines, I would parent, been more concerned about gift from New College. write paragraphs. I think that's the accessibility. I've written a series of question to ask any contemporary poems about fruit in this period that Q. What are the prospects of seeing American poet: Why are they writing are really accessible and fun and a book published of your work? lines that aren't any good, and what complex. I definitely don't want to be I put out little chapbooks do they have against paragraphs? an academic, dusty, musty poet. Bosch continued on poge 22 NCAA President's letter Strategic Planning Committee. Here, portfolios of programs for our key for your consideration and comment, constituencies. We'll need to are our key priorities. establish clearer benchmarks of Develop, define, and implement a success for current programs and comprehensive communications and distinct evaluation criteria for future community-building strategy, and programs. And, we'll need to find leverage technology in its implementa­ creative solutions to fund, staff, and tion. We know that fostering links administer programs as we expand. among alums and between alums Advance NCAA's fUnd -raising and campus is the cornerstone of a capabilities and results to the next Mike Campbell healthy alum association and a level. Here's the motivation: both NCAA President healthy college. The Nimbus and New College and the NCAA need biennial directory are our traditional financial support to grow in a way Dear New College Alums: means of promoting these relation­ that will enhance the recognized ships, but we're continuing this strenghts of the College and the When I last wrote to you, New spring to enhance the content and Association. Increasing average gift College remained in the midst of a functionality of our web site. Cur­ amounts is key to this effort, but year-long transition-one of leader­ rently or in the very near future, increasing the percentage of alums ship, of faculty, and of administrative you'll find the Nimbus, program who provide annual support is structure.