Raphael lives with his wife Melba, one child and a black cat named Blake at 6735 SE 78th, Portland, OR 97206. His e.mail address is raphael@aracnet.com, raphael@aracnet.com, his phone number (503)777-0406. He was born 7 June 1952 in Pittsburgh. One of the taller poets around, he is 2 meters in height (or 6/7, his date of birth) and weighs 235 lbs. His eyes are blue, his hair brown. He makes his living, he states, as a "petty bureaucrat." Among the jobs he's held are manager, business analyst, editor, driving examiner and public service rep.

Raphael got his BA in English from Cornell, an MFA in poetry from Bowling Green State and an MA in literature from Western Washington.

His hobbies include computers, hiking, basketball, home-brewing and puns. He describes his religion as "semi-buddhist/taoist, combining magic and abstract science," his political leanings as "liberal/socialist/green/mystical"--(in who knows what proportions).

Raphael's publications credits for the past 12 months include appearances in potepoetzine, juxta, antenym, paper radio, hubbub, the temple, experioddicist, lost & found times, point no point and ae2.

His many chaps include the following:

trees through the road (nine muses, winston or)
molecular jam (jazz police books, la grande or)
the bones begin to sing (26 books, portland or)
rain away (leaping mountain, ft collins co)
here the meat turns to the audience (shattered wig, baltimore)
finding the dog (bomb shelter prods, tucson)
plus 7 others.

His work has been written up in Portlandia, The Oregonian and Taproot Reviews.

Among the poets of the present whom he most admires are James Grabill, Ron Siliman, Allen Ginsberg, Jake Berry, Clark Coolidge, Thomas Lowe Taylor, David LLoyd Whited and John Ashbery. He also admires Walt Whitman, E.E. Cummings, Charles Olson, Cesar Vallejo, Apollinaire, William Blake and Shakespeare.

He doesn't consider critics of great importance to him. As for poetry itself, he says he likes "poetry where i know somethings going on but i cant immediately figure out what. i dont like narrative poetry, poetry about paintings or poetry. i like poems with energy and humor that explore the world of consciousness. i like poets who are taken over by language but have enough skills and personal presence to be totally overwhelmed. dont like poems that averly deliberate. you can use a technique or a gimmick but something else has to spark it, take it beyond.

As a reviewer and critic of poetry, he wants "to let people know about poetry i find intriguing, and to explore the what & why i find intriguing." He considers contemporary poetry "divided and diverse," and only likes "a small percentage of it."

His art interests outside poetry include arc d'x by Steve Erickson; Steel Beach by John Varley; the work of Jack Kerouac; Apocalypse Now; Dead Can Dance; the Coen Brothers.

Concerning philosophy and the sciences he says, "i have dabbled in buddhist, taoist, metaphysical philosophies. i am instinctively toaist and looking for larger picture, interconnected through/among dimensions. i started college as an engineering major, and still read the occasional physics book."

A sports fan to a degree, he watches "some pro football and basketball, as well as listen(s) to them on the radio. He plays some basketball, and enjoys tossing a frisbee around. "my body," says raphael, "is also involved in tai chi and hiking  (but are these sports?)"

He views his life-in-general as "steady but uncomfortable, sporadic, disappointing, loving, not over yet."

For a sample of dan raphael's poetry, click here.

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