World Traveler Authors Volume of Poetry

By Kristine Kostuck
Staff Writer

Last time HPR spoke to Luke Armstrong, he was in Guatemala cleaning up the streets after their summer’s disasters. In between this, Armstrong has self-published a book of poetry, “iPoems for Dolphins to Click Home About.” It has recently hit the independent book stores. But the writer hopes to see his poems reach his roots in North Dakota.

Armstong went to school at NDSU for philosophy and English. He spent his last semester abroad in Chile. After finishing he decided to attempt hitchhiking from Chile to Alaska. He made it 3,500 miles hitchhiking and working odd jobs before reaching Guatemala. He settled there and began working with the God’s Child project. “Some people leave a place because they don’t want to be where they are. Others leave to experience something new,” said Armstrong. “I left for something new. But I miss North Dakota. I think FM is an exciting and dynamic place to be young, and I would love to live there again some day.”

High Plains Reader: Why poetry? You have traveled to so many different places, interacted with different people, you have experienced situations that most people only dream about. Why did you pick something that people usually analyze instead of something clear, concise and detailed? Please don’t take offense to this question.

Luke Armstrong: Well, first of all, I think this is a misconception about poetry. I believe that poetry that is purposefully complicated to understand, isn’t poetry at all. It’s just a shame. Poetry can be clear, and concise and beautiful—and it should be relatable and understandable. You can learn a lot from traveling. But poetry has a lot to teach as well. I’ve discovered a beauty in verse that rivals the wonders of the world. Fact is, poetry is a journey, it is an adventure and you can discover people, situations and places inside a poem. Better yet, you can do all this while sitting naked on the toilet.

HPR: Tell me all about poetry. It is an interest of mine but not a talent, by far. How does the brain of a poet really tick? Do your thoughts really embellish at the sight of a hamburger?

LA: Poetry can really enrich your life. Having a few favorite poems are like old friends. They change with you and mean different things at different stages of life. And there are always new ones to discover along the way. I’ve read some of my favorite poems hundreds of times and each time discovered new meaning in them.

Writing poetry is not about making something clear murky. But it is about seeing familiar things in a new way. It’s about letting your imagination soar to the edge of the constantly moving edge of possibility. It’s about seeing an ant, and realizing that there are other world’s outside of your own. Something that’s a startling realization. That all around us are different worlds happening outside most of our awareness. There is the world of the ant. There is the world of your dog. Of the birds. Of your neighbor. Of your best friends. Even the world of the hated mosquito. And all of these worlds are beautiful, yet not your own. So poetry is about discovering new vantage points and the enrichment of the ordinary.

HPR: In your foreword you talk about poets being overlooked. Is this really how you feel? Tell me Luke, in your best “alcohol induced rant,” how it really is to be a poet.

LA: Okay, I just made myself a rum and coke, so here goes my rant: my forward is tongue in cheek. But sure, I think poets are overlooked. But why wouldn’t we be? After all, we’re just poets. What I think is somewhat silly are the poets who expect to be a bigger blip on anyone’s radar. We aren´t discovering the cure for cancer. We´re not juggling fire (though I am learning). We aren´t singing in rock bands. Basically, we´re just writing about our feelings, or in my case, how to kidnap your neighbor´s cat using a lunch box. So yeah, lots of poets get upset when no one shows up at their poetry readings. They want people to pay more attention to their work, instead of realizing that people pay attention to what they find interesting, inspiring and entertaining.
Poets just have to realize that they can make their poetry fun without compromising artistic integrity. They can make it entertaining, without losing its depth. In the end, people like what they like. And a lot of people think they don’t really care for poetry. But it does not need to be that way.

That most of us were first introduced to poetry in high school certainly doesn’t help the genre Personally, in high school I had more important things to worry about than Walt Whitman. I was busy searching for girls who would date me (without much luck, I might add). I was trying to make my acne go away, and scheming liquor out of my parent’s cabinet. But at some point in our adult lives, I think everyone should take another look at poetry, and see if there isn’t something worthwhile there. In today’s world, we have a lot of things competing for our attention. No one has a lot of time. And that’s the beauty of poetry. It’s short, but full of depth and power. Most of it is one page. One single page! Some poems are just a single sentence. If poetry were a pet, it would be a goldfish. It doesn’t take up a lot of space or time. But it’s filled with lots of little rewards just the same.

HPR: Why poetry? You have traveled to so many different places, interacted with different people. You have experienced situations that most people only dream about. Why did you pick something that people usually analyze instead of something clear, concise and detailed? Please don’t take offense to this question.

LA: Well, first of all, I think this is a misconception about poetry. I believe that poetry that is purposefully complicated to understand isn’t poetry at all. It’s just a shame. Poetry can be clear, and concise and beautiful—and it should be relatable and understandable. You can learn a lot from traveling. But poetry has a lot to teach as well. I’ve discovered a beauty in verse that rivals the wonders of the world. Fact is, poetry is a journey, it is an adventure and you can discover people, situations and places inside a poem. Better yet, you can do all this while sitting naked on the toilet.

HPR: In your book you describe poets as aspiring Shakespeares and Hemingways, people that carry a pocket dictionary in their underwear. Do you really consider yourself as a failed Shakespeare? I hope it was a way of making fun of your own kind.

LA: Heck no! Who would want to be the next Shakespeare? After all, he had to dress up like a woman and wear tights for a living. And he’s also dead. I’m alive. So, at least for now, I have that on him.

HPR: Inside your book you talked a little bit about the growth of self publishing and even included a your personalized advertisement plan for your iPoems. It was blunt. I loved the marketing plan’s equation: Childhood Guilt + You + You Liking The Book = Helping Starving Children. This is actually a lot like what I remember in an intro course I took on a section about advertising. Why did you include this?

LA: I’m a big fan of blatant honesty. It seems like everywhere you turn, people are trying to sell you something. Usually, they are trying to manipulate you in the process. But people are getting smarter. We don’t want to be manipulated. We don’t like empty promises. In a world overflowing with ulterior motives, honest is so refreshing. So in my intro, that’s what I tried to do. I put out a poetry book. I want it to do well. I want to donate a portion of any sales to charity. And in the end, I want to provide an example that an innovative take on a marginalized genre can do well in today’s corporate publishing climate.

HPR: How did you manage to self publish this. Why did you choose this route?

LA: Createspace.com provides amazing distribution options for writers and musicians to get their work out there. I think we’re seeing a shift in the way consumers have access to content. People are realizing that there is less of a need for overpaid record executives, or huge publishing houses. This has got a lot of people in the business uncertain about the future, but I think things will work themselves out. In the end, I feel like it will cause art to rise and fall on its on merit. And that’s a good thing for everyone.

HPR: Your poems are called a work of fiction, is it safe to say that they are drawn from personal experiences rather than fragments of your imagination?

LA: Art is a mixture of imagination and reality. Good art blurs the boundaries of both. The best poems are the ones that seem to write themselves. There are nights when I wake up and reach for a pad of paper to jot something down. Sometimes I know exactly where a poem is coming from and where it is going. Other times, I just let my subconscious take over and then when I look at the final product I am like, “Where did that come from?”

HPR: How long did it take for you to put this book together?

LA: Most of the poems in the book were written between 2006 and 2010. It then took about four months of editing and selecting to have the book ready.

HPR: Do you see these poems as a way to capture your youth?

LA: I guess, in a way. Art is a way to capture life. I treasure them like I treasure fond memories. Poems are like little frozen pieces of time—constants in a constantly changing world.

HPR: Has your background of traveling and meeting new people influenced your writing?

LA: Without a doubt. If we’re open to it, everyone and everywhere can teach us something. Being a student does not end with a diploma.

You can get Armstrong’s book at Amazon.com or by searching for “iPoems for Dolphins to
Click Home About.”

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