Christal
Cooper 2,582 Words
“Cutting To The Bones”
“I edited (my poems)
viciously, cutting, when possible, to the bones. Early drafts give birth to passion, and later
drafts provide thematic framing and artistic flourishes.”
Bill
Glose
Military combat meets poetry in Daily Press Poet Laureate Bill Glose’s
autobiographical book of poetry Half a Man ((http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwRtwtFQZG0)
Glose, also contributing editor for
Virginia Living (http://www.virginialiving.com), was born in Riverside, California to an Air
Force Military pilot father and stay-at-home Mom on July 15, 1966. Glose has no recollection of living in
Riverside, but he does remember living in Okinawa, Japan, and England.
“I
have fond memories of England - a
fish-and-chips truck (like our ice cream trucks) selling vinegar-soaked
offerings wrapped in newspaper, playing on WWII air raid bunkers while jets
screamed by in treetop level passes, collecting and trading decorative tea
cards instead of baseball cards.”
His saddest memories as a child were
when he was 13, when his father was stationed in Iran for one full year, and
the rest of the family resided in New Jersey.
“This was 1978, the year Ayatollah Khomeini overthrew the Shah and the
Middle East was thrown into crisis. My mother was a wreck and for that one year
took up smoking Virginia Slims, whose slogan at the time was “You’ve come a
long way, baby.” We watched the news and fretted until my dad was airlifted,
along with the last contingents, out of Iran.”
The Glose family home is now in
Poquoson, Virginia where his father retired from the military.
Growing up, Glose wanted to become a fighter pilot
like his father and never dreamed he’d become a writer, much less a poet.
It wasn’t until Glose took a high school English
class that he was introduced to “adult” poetry:
“I was the class clown throughout
much of school and I created raunchy limericks and other poems describing
teachers and students in compromising positions. In some ways, my classmates
were the best teachers at school. Kids don’t sugarcoat their bad reviews. I
learned my first lessons of “less is more” on the playground as I sharpened my
naughty verse, and that lesson has stayed with me through the years.”
After high school graduation, Glose
joined the ROTC program at Virginia Tech, but had to settle for paratrooper instead
of pilot due to a failing eye test.
III
Pilots don’t wear
glasses. I have my mother’s eyes
vision too poor to drive at
night. I became, instead,
a paratrooper, jumping from
cargo planes
that rumbled like buses
through gray skies.
Floating beneath a silk
canopy;
closest I could come to being
him.
Excerpt
from poem “Like My Father
Flies”
Flies”
Half
a Man
Copyright granted by
Bill Glose
Glose graduated with a B.S. in Civil Engineering
in June of 1989 and for four months worked in that field until he had to report
for duty at Fort Benning as a paratrooper for the 82nd Airborne
Division.
The commissioned Army officer served as a
paratrooper, qualified as an expert marksman, and commanded a rifle platoon in
combat during the Gulf War and later commanded a Delta (anti-tank) platoon.
During the military service, he found escape by
reading poetry by Mary Oliver, William Shakespeare, and William Blake.
“Upon reflection, I would say I read to keep my emotions even-keeled. My exterior was as placid as a duck on water, but beneath the surface I was always paddling.”
Glose left the army in 1994 having earned
Airborne, Ranger, Jumpmaster, and Combat Infantry badges.
He moved to Chicago to work as a line supervisor
at a bag factory. After 2 ½ years, he
moved to Holyoke, Massachusetts to be the production manager of a Laminated
Papers factory, where he worked from 66 hours to 100 hours per week. He found his career to be unfulfilling, but found
fulfillment through writing.
“I could
escape into a world of my own creation when I returned home. I would sit at my
desk writing stories, and all the knots that had tied together in my stomach
during the day would untangle.”
Poetry was also an escape to Glose, though he
was a hidden poet, not showing his work to anyone, but using poetry as a way to
handle pain and explore painful subjects.
“I felt like a poseur. After a while I found I had built up quite a collection and started sharing them with my writer friends. They encouraged me to read them at open mics, and it was the playground all over again. The coffeehouse crowds let me know what worked and what didn’t.”
“I felt like a poseur. After a while I found I had built up quite a collection and started sharing them with my writer friends. They encouraged me to read them at open mics, and it was the playground all over again. The coffeehouse crowds let me know what worked and what didn’t.”
In 1998, Glose made the big decision to leave
his production career and become a fulltime writer.
“I amassed
a library of books on writing and became a regular at the library. The work has been just as hard, the pay significantly less, but I no
longer dread “going to work” in the morning. I feel fulfilled.”
Glose moved back to Virginia, and, to save
money, Glose traded his red sports car for a used Tercel and moved in with his
parents until he could afford his own place.
Glose earned a living working as a writing coach and technical writer.
In 1998, Glose had his first piece published in
an online fan site called HokieCentral (now TechSideLine http://virginiatech.sportswar.com) for the Virginia Tech
football team. He didn’t get paid for
that first assignment, nor for the next 39 articles he wrote for them over a
seven-year period.
“It gave
me the opportunity to get feedback from hundreds of site users. Later on, the
website included paid content for subscribers and I was paid for a handful of
articles. My most memorable paycheck was the $5 I earned for a short story
(“Burnt Offerings”) published in Mystery Time Magazine in 2000.
Just enough money to buy a six-pack of beer to celebrate.”
To date, he has written hundreds of articles,
essays, short stories, and poems. As a
full time writer, Glose embraces all genres of writing – fiction, nonfiction, and
poetry.
“Fiction
lets me stretch my legs, take an idea out for a long walk and just explore.
Non-fiction forces me to put more thought into the construct and the elements
of a piece. Poetry forces me to not only try using the best possible word, but
to also seek out the best possible combination of words to lyrically convey
thoughts.”
Glose credits writing poetry in making him a
better and more skilled writer/editor when it comes to non-fiction and fiction.
“Now I sound out sentences in my head and will
alter the structure depending on how it sounds to my ear. Because of this, my
stories flow better than they had before. When I edit, I now know better how to
incorporate themes into my non-fiction and poetry.”
Glose finally felt like he could call himself
“poet” when his first book of poetry The Human Touch (San Francisco Bay
Press http://sanfranciscobaypress.com) was published in 2007.
“Looking
back, I wish I could slap some sense into my younger self. Nobody needs a
published book of poetry, or even a published poem, to consider himself a poet.
Publication is nice, but as long as you are writing and editing and crafting
poems, that is enough.”
Glose refused to write or talk about
his military experience until his girlfriend at the time pestered him to share
those experiences. Glose responded in
anger and took long runs to cool off, but, eventually, he started writing poems
about his experiences in the Gulf War.
The first poem he wrote was “Chemical Defense” in 2001.
Chemical Defense
In the desert, chemical
alarms bray
with tinny music on the
warm breeze.
We recall
steel-chambered classrooms,
CS gas teaching lessons
in a world
filled with fog. Soldiers dive into
rubber masks. Atropine injectors promise
renewed life if hearts
seize, gift of time,
just enough for fingers
to squeeze
triggers a few more
times, before digits
become claws scratching
at throats.
A test kits parses the
air and everyone sweats
in charcoal-lined
suits. Lowest-ranking man
is surrounded, weapons
pointed at his feet.
He surrenders his rifle,
lifts rubber edge
of a gas mask,
inhales. Air seeps in
and seconds moan as we
watch for twitches.
Page 19, excerpt from Half a Man
Copyright granted by
Bill Glose
“We were
staging in a defensive perimeter just south of Iraq’s border when the shrieking
from one of our chemical alarms sent us all into panic mode. Saddam Hussein had not only used chemical
weapons on Iran during their ten-year war, he had used them on his own
people. This poem describes the steps we
took to learn whether it was safe or not for us to remove our masks and breathe
the air. What it does not mention—the absurdity I alluded to—was that the alarm
had gone off due to a wayward goat pissing on it.”
Glose spent the next ten years writing
more poems about his experiences in the Gulf War.
“I
began with a distant perspective and slowly worked my way closer to the core of
my experience. It was painful, but cathartic. The poems gathered in my drawers,
and after many years I began to share them with others.”
In 2013, Glose gathered all of the
individual poems from those drawers and put together the manuscript of poems
titled Half A Man.
“Those
poems still make me smile or tremble even after all of these years.”
The most difficult poem Glose wrote from
the collection is the book’s title poem “Half
a Man”, which describes one of the many shattered and shredded bodies he
and his platoon came across.
Half a Man
Head canted back, resting
on a pillow of sand. Just like
sleeping. Except for empty
eye sockets, flies skittering
in and out of his nose.
No meat below his sternum
only a knobby string of spine
pointing at us, accusingly.
We stood in a half-circle,
willing our eyes
to be just as lifeless.
“Fuck him,” someone said.
“He would’ve done
the same to you.” True,
or not, nothing more
to say. Carry on,
form a wedge, kick dunes
with desert boots,
search for someone to blame.
Page
9, excerpt from Half a Man
Copyright granted by
Bill Glose.
Most of the poems from Half A Man were written
on pads of paper in Glose’s Hyundai Sonata in parking lots.
“Driving is very conducive to my creative process. Ideas will often come while I am in the car and I will bounce the idea around in my head until I can stop and write it down. If I don’t have time to pull over, I’ll scrawl furiously while stopped at red lights.”
“Driving is very conducive to my creative process. Ideas will often come while I am in the car and I will bounce the idea around in my head until I can stop and write it down. If I don’t have time to pull over, I’ll scrawl furiously while stopped at red lights.”
Glose submitted Half a Man to 17 different publishers over a
two-year period; some of the publishers he has yet to hear from and other
publishers gave him constructive comments. One of the publishers he sent the manuscript
to, Copper Canyon Press, rejected Half a Man.
“He was
unable to take the manuscript because they were overcommitted at the moment. He
then went on to say that he was the poetry editor at Narrative Magazine,
and he wanted to publish four of my poems in their pages. Great exposure and a
decent paycheck, and I didn’t have to go through the multi-layered reading
process.”
Editor and Publisher Diane Kistner of
FutureCycle Press (www.futurecycle.org) accepted Half
A Man, and the rest is history.
“Diane
Kistner is responsive and author friendly. She spearheaded marketing campaigns,
wrote press releases, and sent copies to numerous reviewers prior to publication.
She’s made the experience wonderful.”
Glose writes every single day, even when he has
writer’s block, which he believes there is only one cure – to sit down and
write crap.
“Writing
crap gets your brain into the creative process and removes the blocks that are
holding you up. Knowing that you will
have to edit sometime later is liberating. You don’t have to fret over every
word. You simply need to get words down on the page. The fretting comes later
when you have a completed first draft. If the draft is embarrassingly bad, so
what? Scrape away the crap and you might find something artful underneath.”
When not in his Hyundai Sonata, Glose
spends his days in his writer’s studio where he transfers all his handwritten
notes into a word document.
“The
words on the handwritten page will often circle back to earlier thoughts or
jump ahead to something else. Gathering these thoughts on the computer allows
me to assemble them in a more sensible order. At this point, I’ll often find
that the germ of the idea has been lost and that the poem has spun into a new
direction. I learned that if I let it roam free, the poem could pleasantly
surprise me. And if it didn’t work out, it would still make for a good mental
exercise. Once I do have a complete poem
that I like, then I begin to trim the fat. My poems will often go through many
evolutions.”
Since Glose does the most intense writing at his
home office (he’s converted his breakfast nook into a writer’s studio) he’s
tried to make his home his own writer’s retreat.
“A green globe that I made in a glassblower’s
studio dangles in the window. On the walls are inspirational art and a couple
of posters from events where I’ve spoken. Bookshelves line three of the walls,
forming a U around my dining room table. Seated at the table, I can reach out
with my right hand to the shelves of military books, Virginia books, and books
in my to-read list. Reaching out with my left hand, I can reach the shelves
holding all my reference books. Attached to the front of one bookshelf is a
board listing assignment dates, pitches to make, and stories to work on.”
His most productive writing time is in the early
morning hours, with total silence, or listening to soothing music (Enya), and a
diet Dr. Pepper within reach. He first
checks his email, which preps his mind for writing. He then tackles his big projects first, which
normally involves rewriting bad first drafts and then he breaks for a late
breakfast or early lunch, read, and then back to writing again.
“Then I’ll
either convince myself to go for a walk or take care of chores. After that,
it’s time to take care of “business matters”: sending submissions, conducting
phone interviews, composing queries, calling editors, prepping lecture notes
for an upcoming writers’ conference.”
Before Glose’s day ends he has to have some form
of human contact, which usually consists of friends, family, and writing mentors,
particularly Bill Walsh, whom Glose described as a “self educated genius” and
his best critic.
Glose’s number one piece of advice for writers
are the famous six words by Ernest Gains:
“Write, write, write, read, read,
read.” Glose has special writers he
reads according to what genre he is writing at the time.
When writing fiction Glose reads Tim
Gautreaux, Richard Russo, Sheri Reynolds, David Schickler, and Stephen King.
When writing non-fiction, Glose reads Sebastian
Junger, Jeannette Walls, Barbara Ehrenreich, and Bill Bryson.
“My poetry
has been influenced by Jon Pineda’s examination of family, Billy Collins’
whimsy, Mary Oliver’s scrutiny of nature, Ted Kooser’s ability to make the
profound accessible, and Natasha Trethewey’s exploration of culpability.”
Glose loves to hear from his readers via web at www.billglose.com, Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/bill.glose.7?fref=ts or email at billglose@cox.net
Photo Description
and Copyright Information
Photo 1
Bill Glose.
Photograph
attributed to Linda Walsh.
Copyright granted by
Bill Glose.
Photo 2
Jacket cover of Half
a Man
Photo 3
Bill Glose, age 13,
at the pool
Copyright granted by
Bill Glose.
Photo 4
School photograph of
Bill Glose, age 13
Copyright granted by
Bill Glose.
Photo 5
Ayatollah Khomeini
Public Domain
Photo 6
A 1978 Virginia
Slims ad
Fair Use Under the
United States Copyright Law.
Photo 7
John Glose commissioning
his son Bill Glose into the United States Army on May 4, 1989.
Copyright granted by
Bill Glose.
Photo 8
Bill Glose during
his high school years.
Copyright granted by
Bill Glose
Photo 9
Mother Nancy Glose
and Bill Glose at his Virginia Tech graduation.
Copyright granted by
Bill Glose.
Photo 10
Bill Glose at his
Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets graduation
May of 1989
Copyright granted by
Bill Glose
Photo 11
Jacket cover of Mary
Oliver’s New And Selected Poems Volume One
Photo 12
William Shakespeare,
oil on canvas
1610
Believed to be
attributed to painter John Taylor, an important member of the Painter-Stainers’
Company
Public Domain.
Photo 13a
Painting of William
Blake in 1807
Attributed to Thomas
Phillips
Public Domain
Photo 13b
Photo taken of Bill Glose and his platoon while in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War utilizing a disposable cardboard box camera.
Copyright granted by Bill Glose.
Photo 14
Bill Glose in Iraq.
Copyright granted by
Bill Glose.
Photo 15
Bill Glose
Copyright granted by
Bill Glose.
Photo 16
Bill Glose, left, watching the Hokies win the ACC Championship...again!
Copyright
granted by Bill Glose.
Photo 17
Bill Glose in his
studio on the computer.
Copyright granted by
Bill Glose.
Photo 18
Jacket cover of The
Human Touch
Photo 19
Bill Glose’s platoon
marching in tactical column.
Photograph
attributed to Bill Glose.
Copyright granted by
Bill Glose.
Photo 20
Bill Glose in Iraq.
Copyright granted by
Bill Glose.
Photo 21
Image of Saddam
Hussein from Iraqi state television.
Public Domain
Photo 22
Jacket cover (2) of Half
a Man
Photo 23
Steve Martin, left,
and Bill Glose in Saudi Arabia.
Copyright granted by
Bill Glose.
Photo 24
Web logo of www.futurecycle.org
Photo 25
Bill Glose writing
and editing.
Copyright granted by
Bill Glose
Photo 26
Box of copies of Half
a Man
Photo 27
Bill Glose holding
the green glob he made in a glassblower’s studio.
Copyright granted by
Bill Glose.
Photo 28
Bill Glose’s
writer’s studio
Attributed to Bill
Glose.
Copyright granted by
Bill Glose.
Photo 29
Bill Glose and Bill
Walsh.
Copyright granted by
Bill Glose.
Photo 30
Book lover Bill
Glose
Copyright granted by
Bill Glose.
Photo 31
Richard Russo at the
American Festival in Vincennes, France.
September 27, 2008
Attributed to
Camille Gevaudan
GNU Free
Documentation License
Photo 32
Head shot of David
Schickler by his wife.
GNU Free
Documentation License and CCASA 3.0 Unported License
Photo 33
Stephen King on
February 24, 2007
CCA2.0 Generic
Photo 34
Sebastian Juner
speaking at the screening of his documentary film “Which Way Is the Front Line
From Here”
On April 9, 2013
At the LBJ
Presidential Library.
Public Domain
Photo 35
Jeannette Walls at
the 2009 Texas Book Festival in Austin, Texas.
Photo taken on
November 1, 2009
Attributed to Larry
D Moore
CCASA 3.0 Unported
License.
Photo 36
Barbara Ehrenreich
in New York in September of 2006
Attributed to David
Shankbone
CCA 2.5 Generic
License
Photo 37
Bill Bryson in 2005
GNU Free
Documentation License
Photo 38
Billy Collins at
D.G. Wills Books in La Jolla, San Diego, California
On October 20, 2008
Attributed to
Marcela Noah
Public Domain.
Photo 39
Natasha Trethewey
signing her book Native Guard at the University of Michigan.
March 30, 2011
Attributed to
Jalissa Gray
CCASA 3.0 Unported
Photo 40
Fun jump at Fort
Bragg.
Photograph
attributed to Bill Glose, using a disposable cardboard camera.
Copyright granted by
Bill Glose.
Photo 41
Headshot of Bill
Glose.
Copyright granted by
Bill Glose.
