Born and raised in pocket communities across Wisconsin and Iowa, Kevin Schumaker (he/him) was the son of a hydraulic engineer and a secretary. Straddling the border between the boomer generation and Gen X, Kevin describes himself as coming of age between two, often incompatible, dreams for America.
Kevin has worked as a trial attorney for 28 years, and writes short stories and poetry. He is currently working on his first novel.
Author Links
Instagram: @kevin.schumaker.esq
Amazon Link: a.co/d/j2AJXWz
We’re here to talk about your poetry collection, That’ll Leave A Mark. Tell us about what first drew you to the existentialist and beat poetry traditions, and how this collection came to be.
I was a terrible student in high school and graduated in the bottom half of my class. When I finally did get to I flunked out after my second semester, passing only Intro to Philosophy and Fencing. I joke that my path was either going to be as a philosophy professor or a sword fighter. I originally chose the first. Eventually, I fell in love with the French existentialists, especially Sartre and Camus. To this day, I still reread Camus’s The Stranger every few years.
As far as the Beat poets, I think I was just drawn to the way they rejected traditional poetic forms and rhythms. Plus, they wrote about all the things polite society looked away from. That was what I wanted to write about as well. So, when I set out to collect my poetry into this book, I realized that these influences permeated everything I had been writing. So, I think the poetry came first, the labels came later.
Can you tell us more about how you see the world, perhaps how your philosophy background plays into this, and where your inspiration comes from?
I was never a popular kid. I would have one or two friends, but we were always the outsiders, the ones that didn’t fit in with all the cliques and groups in school, or in the workplace. I think when someone lives as an outsider there can be two big responses.
First, one can react in hate and become a person who’s focus is on what’s wrong with the world.
The second response, and the one I seemed to have taken, is not to hate that and those that pushed you away, but to fall in love with all the things that have also been pushed away.
That’s why I say my writing is about finding the beauty that exists in the things that others find ugly. I think my study of philosophy really aided me in this. To be a “philosopher” is not a popular thing, and really not respected as it once might have been. But, it taught me how to put what I see and feel into words. So, it trained me to write, and to write from a place outside of the norm.
Were there other poetical forms you played with that did not make it into the collection, or other poems that did not make the final cut – what were they, and why?
I am a very unintentional writer. By that I mean I write the poems that come to me when they come to me. I’ve tried, at various time, to sit down and write a poem about a subject or topic, but those never work. They always feel forced. Additionally, I can not write anything that rhymes. I respect those who do, and most of my poet friends embrace that form. To me, though, I always feel like I’m being to clever when I try to rhyme. It always feels like, “look what I did there.” So, all my attempts at rhyme are in the dustbin.
How did you structure your collection from beginning to end, and what can you tell us about your opening poem – why that one to open the collection?
Laugh, I have to recall how I opened the book. Well, there are two poems that open the book. There is One Love, which is the first official poem. I chose that one, and like that one as an opener, because it opens the book with a sudden, visceral, image. “Simply strike one love” is so kinetic, so bodily, sound. I think it opens the book with some drama.
There is another poem though, earlier. In the introduction I open the intro with the first have of a poem, and end the intro with the second half. I did that because I wanted to very bluntly let the reader know who I am as a writer. The opening line, “I have no interest in beauty” I think places me where I see myself. I write from outside the circle of most poets.
If you had to choose a poem to highlight (apart from the opening one) which you think – or readers/critics think – encapsulates a lot of your themes, which one would you pick, and why?
Kisses (Three Different Ones) has been my most popular when performing. It’s structured in three parts, like a triptych, three different panels displaying kisses in three different moods. I like the moods and swings of it. And, I think structurally it’s one of my most significant. On the One Year Anniversary of My Father’s Passing – 09/06/24 is special for me. I wrote it while planning his funeral, while it was going on, and I think is a very pure unfiltered portrayal of that moment.
What has been your favourite responses to your work so far?
I’ve gotten some really nice reviews of my book, which of course I love. But I think my favorite response so far has been my own.
Completing this book, and getting it published, has caused me to change the way I view myself. I have always been a lover of artists. Writers, painters, poets, dancers, all of them.
Once I saw this book in print I realized, I may not be the greatest of these people, but I am one of them now. I guess, in the end, by publishing this book I finally feel like I’m part of the crowd that I love most. The misfit artists.
Like This? Try These:
V. Walker, poet and author of the collection The Fragile Humans We Are. Read her interview here.
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