Electric Heart Alive: Ten questions with the brilliant Steve Smart!

1. What was the first piece of poetry you heard? How did it affect you?

Apparently my Dad read me a poem called 'Bunny Was Hungry' when I was very small. He remembers it word for word and counts it as my first experience with poetry. I don't remember, because I was wee tiny, but I see no word to doubt him. My first recollection is probably Spike Milligan 'Milliganimals', a picture poem book. My poetry has certainly taken a less surreal bent but I certainly have a healthy sense of the absurd.

2. Who is your favorite Artist of all time?

Favourite artist? Impossible. Jackson Pollock, Rembrandt, Suzanne Vega, Emily Ulman, Howard Hawks, Bill Hicks, Louis Armstrong, Sara Paretsky, Fred Williams, Barbara Stanwyck, Kurt Vonnegut, William Blake, Eddie Vedder, Cydni Lauper, Tom Waits... too many, too different to narrow down to just one. Corey Feldman, he'll do ;-)

3. What is your method for writing lately? (or What does your process look like?)

I tend to be project driven, writing for a specific gig or publication. I work in well in bursts. Give me a deadline and clear afternoon and I'll pretty much crank out whatever I need to. And then edit the hell out of it. The main difference I guess is that I edit more... vigorously than I used to.

4. You've been swashbuckling through the Melbourne Poetry scene for a long time Steve, what was the most memorable occurrence/performance/happening you witnessed in Melbourne Poetry history?

The first James Jackson gig I ever saw, during the Overload Poetry Festival, was very memorable. Poetry performance and wrestling combined at last! Fake black-suited cops finished the performance by dragging James into an SUV and driving away. In my memory James uttered the phrase 'you'll never take me alive, copper' but memory plays funny tricks and James may remember it differently. Also the late night poetry and pole-dancing gig during Overload tends to stick in the memory.

5. What inspires you to keep working?

I have little interest in working outside the arts, never had, probably never will. The idea that I will finally get my shit together enough to make a (semi)regular living out of this is the cartoon angel/devil at my shoulder. But mostly it's love. If I didn't love it, I'd have found something else to do by now.

6. What does a typical “being an artist” day look like for you?

Being an artist hopefully means there are no typical days, but that's a bit bullshit. Wake late, coffee, cigarettes, coffee, cigarettes, make list of things to do, scrap most of them to do some editing or writing, rehearsal, get ready to go to whatever gig it on that night. That's pretty typical. Centrelink appointments, food shopping, worrying about money. Hoping. Every day is hoping for something fun/productive to come along. Days with a project to work on are always the best days. I hate to perpetuate the struggling artist cliche, I have a good life on limited means. I have nose for where the free/cheap drinks are at!

7. What’s the hardest lesson you’ve learned as an Artist?

That 'something fun/productive' is less likely to come along if you're not working hard to make things happen. Working on new poems, submissions, ideas for gigs, having meetings, brainstorming, anything to generate work. As Dorothy Parker so succinctly put it 'if I do nothing / nothing does'. The hope is that it's be work and fun at the same time, but without the work the fun don't come. Also, for me, dealing with rejection does get easier as you get older, but boy does it suck when you start out.

8. Fill in the blanks... Poetry can...

Poetry can change a life. I've seen it happen enough times to believe it wholeheartedly.

9. What's coming up for you? What projects are you working on?

Currently working super hard on the video/audio component of my Slamalamadingdong set (which is brutal close now!), waiting for my acting agency to call, writing for the follow up to 2013-14s 'Loop City' show. Loop City was two poets and a violinist with a dedicated music score, the next one will be same but different. We're responding to the works of Australian painter Fred Williams, which I'm so excited about. It's a challenge. We're working on the title.

10. Soren Kierkegaard once said: “If you name me, you negate me. By giving me a name, a label, you negate all of the other things I could possibly be.” What are the “other things” you could possibly be?

If I wasn't a poet I'd be a struggling actor. Or a tour guide maybe. I do like the sound of my own voice!