Steve Marsh
Your Name: Steve Marsh
Your Nickname: Marsh, it has always been Marsh. Better than my old man, who was Swampy.
Born (place and year): Kansas City, MO exactly nine months after New Year’s Eve, 1950.
Day Job: Poet wrangler.
Formative Childhood Experience: When Rick Ross, the kid in my class who had had polio, locked my head between his huge good leg and his metal brace and cracked me like a walnut.
Your Interests include: All of it. I mean it. Literature, Science, Psychology, Political Science, even a little math lately.
Last Book Read: Do I have to be honest? It’s one in a series about the Roman Soldier who pierced the side of Christ on the cross. Christ curses him to never die and to always be a soldier. We’re up to the early part of the Vietnam war now. Written by SSgt Barry Sadler, author of that huge 60s hit, Ballad of the Green Berets. Fighting soldiers from the sky…
Ambition: Ah hell, I’m too old to have ambitions. A little peace in my old age, dag nab it.
Recent Accomplishment: Completely remodeled my basement by hand, alone, even down to the hand crafted wordwork. I love my wood shaper.
Prized Possessions: My wood shaper! Rhymes with purple, orange and silver.
When you started Slamming: So long ago that no one was on the page because the world wasn’t literate yet and those who could write didn’t feel like hauling the stone tablets up on the stage. I’ll give you a hint. There were only two or three slams in the world when I started.
One-sentence description of your Slam/Writing style: If you make ‘em laugh, you can damn well make ‘em cry.
Influences (poetic and otherwise): Dylan Thomas, Bob Dylan, my son Dylan, Marshall Dillon.
Favorite Slam Poet: Not fair to say Poet singular. I sure do respect Wolf Knight. I sure do love Jack McCarthy. I remember Patricia Johnson tearing my heart out one night. Patricia Smith gives me chills. Marc Smith makes me proud. Taylor Mali just pisses me off because if I’d been thinking, I could have written half of his poems! Me on a good night.
Favorite TV show: I watch a lot of Sci Fi, and a bunch of the Sci Fi is all iterations of Star Trek.
Favorite book: Again with the singular! A book called The River Why (though flawed with a weak ending) changed the trajectory of my life, but then again, so did The Marine Corps Infantryman’s Manual.
Website: www.thewordsmithpress.com
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