taylor d. waring

Oyster River Pages: Who are the writers who have made you who you are? 
taylor d. waring: I spent a summer as an undergrad reading and writing about Octavio Paz a few years before I seriously started writing poetry. Hopefully it’s not too annoying, but I consider myself a student of his. I’m not always sure what it is I learned from him--it’s still unravelling. I can say that his approach to form played a huge role in “drawing / blood”--I wouldn’t have written that poem without spending time with Paz.

Slavoj Zizek is a close second. I appreciate the way his analysis examines the bizarre nature of ideology by interrogating details so obvious we miss them. His book, Violence, investigates the dark undercurrent of violence that we miss when we focus solely on catastrophic events. Violence played a big role in “drawing / blood”; it focuses on the un-neutered mass of unspoken tensions in a seemingly-mundane activity.

ORP: What are the lenses that shape your worldview? 
TDW: Knock-off Ray-Bans / Thin Lizzy.

ORP: What’s the most important thing you’ve read/seen lately? 
TDW: I’ll never see anything more important than Pink Floyd’s Live at Pompeii.

ORP: What’s your least favorite word?
TDW: thesaurus

ORP: What’s your favorite thing that you’ve created? (line, image, story, etc.) 
TDW: I just recorded this currently-untitled 22 minute EP with my band, Baba Yaga, that we’re all super proud of. I also just put a chapbook, infomercials, out by myself. It’s a bunch of older poetry for me, but I got lots of help from friends making it (cover design, screen printing, hand-sewing), so I’m pretty stoked on that.

Poem wise, I wrote this five-page psychedelic self-portrait I’m pretty fond of.

ORP: What do you want to read/see more of in the world? 
TDW:  More guitar gods / less antiquated poetry.

ORP: How do you pay it forward? 
TDW: writing / playing my heart out.

ORP: What is the space that has shaped you the most? 
TDW: Oshkosh, Wi. I grew up 20 minutes away, but Appleton never really seemed like home to me. I’ve been in Oshkosh since I started my undergrad in 2009. After undergrad, I was a bit lost for a few years, but I ended up meeting the right people here who helped me figure all that out. It shaped me into the pretty-okay person I am today, so I’m very grateful. It’s very strange to be moving across the country in a few days.

ORP: You’ve just written your autobiography. What’s the title?
TDW: sad / horny : the taylor d. waring story

taylor d. waring is a poet / musician from Oshkosh, Wi. He is currently earning his MFA at Eastern Washington University. He recently released his first chapbook, infomercials and released an EP with his post-stoner doom band, Baba Yaga (another is due out soon). He also writes music reviews over at riffrelevant.com (mostly heavy metal). When he’s not writing or playing tunes, he’s  watching Gundam Wing, listening to records, or sampling the local Jameson. Find his poetry here.