R. W. Watkins
R. W. Watkins is a
poet and independent publisher who resides in
Newfoundland, Canada.
He is the author of two volumes of poetry,
October Twilight (2004) and
New England Country Farmhouse (2005), and the publisher and editor of
Contemporary Ghazals,
Contemporary Sijo, and
Cellar. He has published in several journals throughout Canada and the U.S., and was the only Canadian included in
Agha Shahid Ali's
Ravishing DisUnities, the world's first anthology of English-language
ghazals.
Robert William Watkins was born in the 1970's, and displayed an interest in
comics, literature and music from a very young age. By the time he finished high school, he was writing "a jazzy, erotic free verse" derived from
Lawrence Ferlinghetti,
Jim Morrison and
Dylan Thomas.
As a university student, Watkins studied English literature under the man generally regarded as Newfoundland's greatest living poet,
Tom Dawe, who introduced him to the
haiku. Watkins also helped turn out low budget poetry and
anarchist zines with future alternative rock musician
Kent Burt of The Linger Effect.
In 1995 Watkins was 'discovered' by prominent American
tanka and haiku poet
Jane Reichhold. Subsequently, Watkins's first appearance in an American publication was the poem "October Twilight", in a 1996 issue of Reichhold's
Lynx. The work incorporated references to murder, sacrifice and Celtic myth (in a modern context). Watkins later expanded it in a 1997 issue of
Lynx; eventually he would expand it further and
October Twilight was published as a chapbook in 2004.
From his initial publication in
Lynx onward, Watkins abandoned free verse and concentrated on
Japanese and other Asian forms of poetry. His next notable publication was a sequence of fourteen tanka dedicated to the late
pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, written in a style mimicking the earmarks of the painter's major works. The sequence was published in
Lynx in late 1998. Poet
Larry Kimmel has called the work a "tour de force."
It was around this same period that Watkins began giving equal attention to the ghazal--a style of Asian poetry most closely associated with
Persia and the
Indian subcontinent. Watkins subsequently became the only Canadian included in Agha Shahid Ali's
Ravishing DisUnities (2000), the world's first anthology of ghazals composed in English. It is considered that much of the ghazal's English-language evolution after Ali's death in 2001 can be seen in or traced to the work of Watkins and fellow poet
Gene Doty. Three years later Watkins launched
Contemporary Ghazals, the world's first English-language poetry journal dedicated exclusively to the ghazal. It is thought to have done much to advance the Western ghazal, and publishes work by both novice and veteran practioners.
In 2003 Watkins long-time obsession with
Jodie Foster's 1976 film
The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane culminated in
Cellar, a
fanzine dedicated largely to the film and the
Laird Koenig novel on which it is based. Its in-depth analysis has been described as "bordering on the obsessive-compulsive." In 2005 Watkins took his dedication one step further when he published what is probably his most controversial work,
New England Country Farmhouse, a short collection of haiku based on the film and novel, with an introduction by artist and musician
G.B. Jones.
Besides haiku, tanka and ghazals, Watkins has also experimented with another Asian poetic form, the
Korean sijo. In 2005 he published
Contemporary Sijo, a journal containing English-language examples of the form composed by himself and other poets.
Watkins also has a strong visual side. He has published several concrete haiku (a.k.a. "eyeku") in journals and zines such as
Lost & Found Times and
ZYX, and turns out the occasional
comic strip or example of what he calls "prop art"--a combination of sociopolitical "
propaganda" and "
pop art", often resembling the work of
Raymond Pettibon. As well, he has published
2001: A Space Haiku, a small folding broadsheet which combines
collage, a haiku, and a "translation" of the same haiku into binary (so that it might be broadcasted into outer space and "read" by possible aliens). Much like
mail art, Watkins randomly distributed both
2001 and his prop art to various companies and publications via the postage-paid envelopes regularly found in everyday junkmail.
Watkins has developed a reputation for being outspoken on many issues. Highly dismissive of middle class values, modern education and conspicuous consumption, he has maintained (in what is probably his most reprinted quote) that "In today's world of computer-induced illiteracy, lowest common denominators, and general 'dumbing down', it is much easier to be perceived as a genius."
In 2006 Watkins is preparing to publish a chapbook of experimental
renga with his frequent collaborator
Robin Tilley.
References
*Kinden, Randy; "Introducing The Ghazal / Introducing R. W. Watkins";
RAW NerVZ Haiku (XIV: 3), 2001; pp. 39-40
*Reichhold, Jane; "Ghazal Gathering" and review of
Ravishing DisUnities (Ali, Ed.);
Lynx (XVI: 3--online), 2001.
*Schultz, Chad (Ed.);
A Soft Degrade (No. 5), 2003.
Publications
*Ali, Agha Shahid, ed.;
Ravishing DisUnities, Wesleyan University Press, 2000.
*Watkins, R. W., ed.;
Cellar (2003-- ), (fanzine).
*Watkins, R. W., ed.;
Contemporary Ghazals (2003-- )
*Watkins, R. W.;
2001: A Space Haiku (broadsheet/pamphlet), 2003.
*Watkins, R. W.;
October Twilight; Nocturnal Iris Publications, 2004
*Watkins, R. W.;
New England Country Farmhouse; Nocturnal Iris Publications, 2005
*Watkins, R. W., ed.;
Contemporary Sijo, 2005.
*Watkins, R. W. and Tilley, Robin; In The Grip of Sirens''; Nocturnal Iris Publications, (forthcoming) 2006.
External links
*
Writers' Alliance of Newfoundland & Labrador (WANL) Membership Page*
Poet Geof Huth's dbqp: visualizing poetics blog, June 05, 2005 review of ZYX*
Review of ZYX*
aha Poetry's Review of New England Country Farmhouse *
Broken Pencil review of original "broadsheet" version of New England Country Farmhouse*
Ghazal*
Sijo*
Jodie Foster*
The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane
