The Inside Story with cornelisrage (& allennin)
Sonata
1) Name: Cornelis
2) Age: 51
3) blog title/website: @allennin & @cornelisrage
4) Where you live: Europe, The Netherlands
5) Where you grew up: In a small harbour town
6) Schooling: very little (spend most of my time daydreaming)
7) What do you do for a living: I'm a carpenter.
8) Any mentors that have helped you: A few kind souls here on tumblr, who helped me without knowing, those beautiful poetesses who've become my friends and my inspiration.
9) When you began writing: When I was thirteen or fourteen, somewhere around that age.
Adagio
10) Fav time of day: The night, shortly before dawn, when there's a peacefulness in the air, unlike any other time of the day.
11) Fav tree: The giant ones now gone, but still catching the wind in my memory.
12) Fav prose writer(s): James Purdy, Charles Bukowski, William Styron, William Burroughs, William Faulkner, ... etc.
13) Fav poet(s): The ones I love to read, and follow with devotion. I'm not gonna tell their names, because I always forget one or two, but they know who they are.
14) Fav quote: "Don't go looking for something you don't want to find." — Dana Scully
(The X Files season 7, episode 10) (When talking to Mulder, when again he's doing something silly, like looking for a ship in the Bermuda triangle.)
15) Currently reading: my dash
16) Want to read: more poetry written with integrity (on my dash).
17) Biggest literary pet peeve: Blackout poetry, and tumblr poets who write their blog intro like it's their curriculum vitae, and talk about themselves in the third person.
18) Biggest literary turn on: Poetry that leaves me silent, like a blank page.
Minuet
19) From idea to completion, what is your process? Not having a process is perhaps the best process for me, I just try to forget myself and let my writing voice do the talking.
20) Where do you write? In my mind.
21) In what medium (notebook paper, computer, phone)? Small pieces of paper, whereever I may find them, and then when I come home, I sit down behind my computer, empty my pockets and start typing (and decrypting).
22) How long do you usually spend on a piece? A few minutes, until all the words are right.
23) Do you go back and re-work? Seldom or never, as soon as it's posted on tumblr, it's gone, ... and completely forgotten.
24) Have you/will you publish? No.
25) What is your biggest challenge with writing? Keep it simple, say as much as I can, but use as little words as possible.
26) Do you have particular goals? To stay true to my writing voice. It's so easy to become lost and compromise your integrity in the longing for attention. It's perhaps the most important part of being a writer, to be naked in your own words, without giving away your soul.
27) Other outlets (creative, physical, leisure, etc.) Photography, composing music.
Rondo
28) What is one thing you would like to have people remember you by? I thought about this for a while and I still don't know. I don't consider myself that important to be remembered for anything. But if people do remember me, I hope it will be for the friendship we shared.
29) What would you like to know about other writers? Why do you write?
30) Coffee or Tea? Usually coffee.
31) One quirk/talent you can share. I have a few awkward things I can do, but I'm not sure if I should share them with the world (hehe).
32) Present state of mind. Content and at peace.
33) Where we can find your work. On tumblr.
