Michael J. Galko
ORP: Do you write or create with an audience in mind? If so, how do you consider the relationship between that audience and your work throughout your creative process?
Michael J. Galko: I don't really have an audience in mind when I write. I write for my own pleasure and to try to make some sense of a world that is often, for me, quite difficult to understand. I find that not thinking about the reception of pieces frees my mind a bit to wander. That disinhibition is good for, hopefully, creating something honest (to myself) on the page. All this said I do read locally and submit a lot so like nearly all poets I find it gratifying when my poems are enjoyed and appreciated.
ORP: What does success as a writer or artist mean to you?
MJG: This is aspirational and slightly facetious and not very realistic but I think the ultimate measure of success of poetry in general would be the nonviolent dismantling of global predatory capitalism. I do believe that poetry can show people an alternative way to perceive and navigate what is often a quite cruel world. It is perhaps idealistic but I do believe that poetry, if people paid more attention to it, has the potential to shift our collective mindset to a more humanistic and peaceful one focused on stewardship, cooperation, tolerance, and mutual kindness and understanding. I want that world to replace this one.
ORP: Who do you consider to be your creative ancestors and contemporaries for your art and/or writing? How does your creative work converse with theirs?
MJG: I find Lawrence Ferlinghetti to be a real role model. Although my poetry is only similar to his in spots I have great admiration for a person who nurtured his own impressive talent AND created a press that would allow him to nurture and promote other talents- many of them major and iconic. I also admire his dedication to disseminating the written word (City Lights Bookstore) and to envisioning alternative, less cruel, ways for humans to live together. He's not the only writer I admire, but, perhaps from a decade living in San Francisco and patronizing his store and its events, I have a real soft spot for his vision and achievements.
ORP: Does writing or creating energize or exhaust you? What aspects of your artistic process would you consider the most challenging or rewarding?
MJG: Writing energizes me, no question about that. Indeed, it sustains me. If I were not able to write I would be in a lot of trouble, mental health-wise. Writing is the primary mechanism through which I try to order and make sense of the outer world and my inner world's reaction to that. For me, because I am a practicing scientist who runs a research laboratory, itself a demanding and time-consuming effort, the main challenge has always been carving out enough time for my creative writing practice.
