IULIA GHERGHEI

An Interview With Poet IULIA GHERGHEI 

[“Poet of The Year 2013” on the British site Destiny Poets; Iulia Gherghei, a poet from Romania; already has two e-books to her credit. The writer of ‘POSTCARD WITH INSOMNIA’ and  ‘PRISONERS OF CINEMA PARADISO’ lives in BUCHAREST.]

SONGSOPTOK:  Why does poetry moves you more than other forms of literature?

IULIA GHERGHEI:  My relation with Poetry has many aspects. One aspect would be hereditary, my father is a poet too and my mother was a ballet dancer. So, you see, I have in my genes the crave for word and rhythm. Primarily, I am a prose reader, Poetry, in the dictatorship time when I grew up, became a form of survival, the only way to express ciphered code the frustrations, That is the social role that Poetry played for me in my teenage years. In other words, I breath in prose and exhale poetry. In time, it became an addiction, a structure throughout I perceive the universe.

SONGSOPTOK:  Do you think that poetry plays a central role in literature?                      

IULIA GHERGHEI:  Yes, I do! Poetry indeed, plays a central role in literature. Statistic, most prose writers were poets first. Furthermore, Poetry hides behind any art form not only literature!

SONGSOPTOK:  Do you think that poetry primarily bridges the human world with the Mother Nature?

IULIA GHERGHEI:  In my humble vision, poetry is the means/ tool through which we translate the messages we receive from Mother Nature, our own nature, in fact.

SONGSOPTOK:  Now if we try to understand tradition and modernism, do you think poetry can play a pivotal role relating the two?  If so, how?

                                    

IULIA GHERGHEI:  Yes, I do. Poetry has a good relation both with the classic current and the modernist one too. Any form of classic poetry was at one moment a form of avangarde poetry.

SONGSOPTOK:   What are your opinions about the role of the poet in bridging the gap, if any, between tradition and modernism?

IULIA GHERGHEI:  The poet is the locomotive in his journey between tradition and modernism. The poet has the freshest eye, the new perspective reveals to him only.

SONGSOPTOK: Do you think that society is the key factor in shaping you up as a poet, or is your poetry an internal phenomenon?

IULIA GHERGHEI:  My poetry is a combination of factors, both external and internal. I do my best to keep the balance straight.

SONGSOPTOK: What about Rumania? What is the influence of your country & your culture in your writing?

IULIA GHERGHEI:  Romania has a major influence over my writings. I am its product. Here, we say, that every Romanian is a poet.

SONGSOPTOK : How difficult is it to write in a foreign language? Do you also write in your mother tongue? What are the essential differences?

IULIA GHERGHEI:  It was difficult at first but with practice it became quite a pleasure to write in a foreign language, besides, my poetry is about message, transcending somehow the language.

SONGSOPTOK:   Coming back to the present time, does politics in general influence you in your writings? If so, why and how?

IULIA GHERGHEI:  I try to keep myself out of politics, but the social phenomena reverberating from politics do influence both my life and my writings, heavily, I might even say!

SONGSOPTOK:   Are you a feminist? Can poetry play any decisive role in feminism at all?

IULIA GHERGHEI:  I am a moderate feminist. And, yes poetry can play an important role in obtaining our rightful place on this planet.

SONGSOPTOK:  What are your aspirations about the future of poetry?

IULIA GHERGHEI:  As I said before, for me, poetry is like breathing. So as long as I keep breathing, my poetry will have a future.

SONGSOPTOK: Anything particular about yourself that you want to share with your audience?

IULIA GHERGHEI:  Thank all my friends for their patience and generosity with my writings. I highly appreciate their comments. Besides poetry, I am an avid consumer of televised tennis and snooker matches, a fan Roger Federer and Mark Selby.