MYSTERY ISLAND INTERVIEW with poet D.B. COX




MYSTERY ISLAND: Tell us why D.B. Cox writes poetry.

COX: I write for the same reason I play guitar, a basic need to communicate. The things I write are usually based on personal experience or something I’ve read, or heard about; an incident or an occurrence that has triggered some sort of emotion: sadness, anger, frustration, or it might be that I’ve encountered something so ridiculous, I feel I have to respond. I’m lucky because I have two outlets—my guitar and my pen.

MYSTERY ISLAND: What's the best poem you've ever written? COX: That’s a little like asking a father which one of his children he loves the best, but I’ll play along and say that my personal favorite is a poem called “shades of ray”. I wrote this piece as a tribute to the great Ray Charles on the day he died. As I recall, you and I exchanged “Ray” poems that day.

MYSTERY ISLAND: If you had to give poetry a new name, what would it be?

COX: Well for one thing, the word, “poetry”, seems to be spread awfully thin trying to cover so many paths to the “promised land”. The first thing that occurs to me is to try to substitute some euphemism; some word that will make poetry sound more appealing to any potential readers. One word I’ve seen around is “poesy”. Now I don’t know if that’s supposed to make people think of the flower, or maybe it’s a combination of the words poetry and pussy.

Since poetry seems to be a mystery to most people, in that they don’t understand why anybody would be interested in reading the stuff, must less trying to write it, I suggest poetry be called “enigmatry”.

MYSTERY ISLAND: What was your favorite TV show growing up?

COX: Now that’s an easy one. I grew up in a Children’s Home, so we didn’t have access to a television. The only T.V. in the house belonged the cook, Miss Jones, and she would let the “little boys” come in once a week on Thursday night to watch “The Lone Ranger”—good ol’ Clayton Moore. I have two DVDs of “Lone Ranger” episodes in my collection. I like to put one in the player on Saturday morning every now and then.

MYSTERY ISLAND: What/who is your favorite band or musician?

COX: I’ve already mentioned Ray Charles, who in my opinion was the greatest R&B artist ever. I play guitar, so most of my early influences were guitarists. Duane Allman is at the top of the list. I stole countless slide licks from Duane. I love and still play a lot of Allman Brothers tunes with the band. I’d also have to add Tom Waits.

MYSTERY ISLAND: What do you eat for breakfast?

COX: I don’t eat much for breakfast, but I usually have four mugs of Eight O’clock Columbian coffee. That used to be the old A&P brand.

MYSTERY ISLAND: Other than poetry, what do you love?

COX: Music of course, and old movies. I have a big VHS collection of old black & white movies that I recorded when I had cable. Once in a while, I’ll pick an old star and have my own private film festival.

MYSTERY ISLAND: What do you want for Christmas?

COX: I’d like Santa’s elves to build me a working copy of Mystery Island’s Lucy Hell, and I promise to be a good boy from now on.

MYSTERY ISLAND: Tell us about any recent projects or books you've had published and/or what's coming up next.

COX: My first book-size poetry collection was just published by Main Street Rag in Charlotte, North Carolina. Right now, I’m writing a few short stories, and working on a new poetry series based on my childhood in Connie Maxwell Children’s Home. I believe one of those poems will show up in your “all arrest” anthology.

MYSTERY ISLAND: What is your favorite beverage?

COX: Crown Royal and a little water.

MYSTERY ISLAND: What is the scariest thing you've ever experienced?

COX: I could launch into a “war story” or two, but that was one long world of shit from the night I pulled into Parris Island on April 9th, 1968 until I was discharged on the same date in 1972.

But the most terrified I’ve ever been was the first night I spent in the orphanage. I was six-years old lying in an army-surplus bed in a roomful of strangers, and I didn’t know whether to shit or go blind.

MYSTERY ISLAND: How do you feel about the war in Iraq? COX: More American theatre of the absurd. Let’s see, how long has it been since the last helicopter left Vietnam? A little over thirty years—hardly ancient history. But it seems that all of our so-called leaders and large section of the population have undergone some sort of historical lobotomy. How could anything born out of so many lies end in any other way than chaos?

The saddest part might be the fact that no one in the administration had the balls to step forward and say “the emperor has no clothes”—for fear of having their little red, white, and blue American flag lapel pin ripped from their patriotic chest.

MYSTERY ISLAND: In the Three Stooges, there were six Stooges overall. Who's your favorite and why?

COX: Larry was my favorite because he took Shemp’s place in The Stooges, and I never liked Shemp. He was also a musician—an accomplished violinist. He also made a little money as a prizefighter when he was young—a lightweight. You’ve got to love a boxing fiddle player. MYSTERY ISLAND: Larry also liked to bet on the ponies. All right, Donnie, thank you very much for taking the time to pow wow on Mystery Island and we'll be sure to check in on how those elves are doing on that whole Lucy Hell robot project.



D.B. Cox interview conducted December 2006 by Bradley Mason Hamlin. Published: 12.22.06.
Copyright © 2006 Mystery Island Publications. All rights reserved.


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