Robert van Vliet
Poet, teacher.
St Paul, MN
Sociable introvert who lives on the craton among terminal moraines, glacial lakes, and at the confluence of two rivers.
Short-term pessimist, long-term optimist.
Keep cool but care.
❡ Projects & Diversions
- My website
- My blog: (fleeting)
- A running list of the books I’ve finished reading each month
- My (Small Press) Writing Day
- Many more unnecessary details about me
❡ Some Recent Poems
- Selcouth Station: Time & Times
- Otoliths: The Light’s Agitation and The Life of the Mind
- Autumn Sky: Polly and Walls
- Wine Cellar Press: Demiurge and Cadenza
- (...links to more poems online here)
❡ Poetry Mini Interview (April 2021)
- Part One: Never rebroadcast since its original airing, it’s the genre-defying pilot, in which people say the word “accomplish” so many times it stops holding any meaning whatsoever.
- Part Two: In this exciting episode, groundbreaking in its use of CGI, I answer the question, “What poets changed the way you thought about writing?” Special appearance by the late John Engman in a flashback.
- Part Three: In this “very special” episode (animated, in homage to The Sorcerer’s Apprentice), I wonder how I know when a poem is finished. Grace Paley guest-stars.
- Part Four: In this week’s musical episode, Hal Holbrook, fresh off his Tony award-winning run as the Mysterious Stranger, joins the cast to sing about adjectives. (Originally performed and broadcast live!)
- Part Five: It’s the shocking season finale! To raise funds to save our gang’s favorite hang-out from foreclosure, I must perform a thrilling leap on water skis over a shark tank! (And in the episode’s audio commentary, I talk about what I’m currently working on.)
- Part Six: Deleted Scenes & Bloopers