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Chris Flink (rhymes with "link"), Poet/Critic/Publisher
Flink lives with his wife Kim Harrison and their cat Seamus in Denver. His mailing address is Box 18857, Denver CO 80218; his e.mail address CFlink@juno.com; and his phone number (303) 861-9395.
Flink was born 26 November 1974 in Kansas City, Missouri. Six feet one in height, he weighs 205; he has red hair and blue eyes. His ethnic background is Irish-American. He makes a living of around thirty thousand a year selling coin-operated machines. He hasn't yet gotten a college degree but intends to return to college in the fall of 1998. He lists his hobbies as "computers, reading/writing/publishing experimental texts, coffee, booze, cigarettes." His religion, he says, is "agnostic--however, I am a practicing Discordian." About his politics, he describes himslef as a "liberal-type, fairly classic democrat when I'm honest, anarchist when I'm feeling a little more full of shit; most of the time, I reckon libertarian would be more than an adequate description."
Concerning other arts than poetry, Flink says, "I love the visceral nature of rock, especially recentish loud stuff (the Nirvanas of the world, you know...) but I have developed a tremendous love for the late 60s, early 70s work of Miles Davis, & I've attempted a few times to develop some class & learn to appreciate classical music. This endeavor has been largely unsuccessful. I love the paintings of Francis Bacon, the prints of Jasper Johns, & most all forms of 20th century art. (Since I'm utterly ignorant abt this subject [enthusiastic, though], this is a subject I intend to study when I go back to school.) My all-time favorite play has to be Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead, & the bulk of my favorite books are either by William Gibson or Philip K Dick. 1 form of art I enoy greatly is the cartoon strip, especially as practiced by Bill Watterson (Calvin & Hobbes) Berke Breathed (Bloom County) & as written by Grant Morrison."
He has a fairly strong interest in philosophy and science: "Philosophy: former stepfather a college professor in this field. Personal preferences are for the french existentialists, but I've attempted Kant & such, some of the aesthetics heavy hitters, w/out much success. In terms of living a life, though, the existentialists answerd the questions I had & I was able to move on. Science: mother in this field for many years. Significant interest in computers & in the new works being done w/ DNA (cloning, splicing, gene therapy)."
"I watch all the major sports, at least occasionally," he says, "but pro basketball is my great love. Football enthralls me if my Chiefs are playing, but that's abt the only time. Baseball kills time, but hockey is closing in on basketball for me...I play nothing currently, but at 1 time or another have played basketball, soccer & racquetball--was best at that last."
His goal in life is to have time to do the things that interest him: poetry, mail art, etc. "As such, I'm only working 2 days a week currently. (I supported my wife for 5+ years, so she can do it for me for a while...) I try to spend as much time as I can on my writing (& on my self-education) but the lure of wasting time on the computer is frequently too much to fight. I'm going back to school to learn more abt literature & art, & not to get better work or anything. I believe a crappy job is justified if it leaves enough time & energy for an interesting life..."
Flink's answer to the Comprepoetica survey question about the first poem that comes to mind right now is "The Ball Poem," by Berryman. To the question about "the current status of the world, and can you do anything about it?" he says, "The state of the world is poor. Overpopulation is the primary problem the cause of most everything else...I'll not breed personally, which is most all I can really do. W/ my writing & the way I live my life I hope I can make other folks realize there are more ways of looking at things than they know--changing the world by changing the way we look at the world. This may sound trite, but think of how fundamentally the world changed when we started to look at other races as humans, as equal to ourselves..." About the relation of his political/religous beliefs to his art, he says, "As I hope I made clear, those 3 areas of my life are well-connected, for example. Are they for everybody?"
Publication Credits: several Shattered Wig Reviews, several Lost and Found Times, Transmog, several Furry Chiclets, Found St
He has published one book so far, Invisible City, and has another under construction (as of November 1997), mistake. He considers the following
contemporary poets important to him: Jake Berry, Al Ackerman, John M Bennett, Sheila Murphy, Rupert Wondolowski, Ficus strangulensis, John Ashbery, Robert Creeley and many many others.
Of earlier poets, he admires Berryman, Eliot and Bukowski. He also admires Eliot's criticism and "when discussing their own work, Grumman & Kostalanetz." Asked about his tastes in poetry," he responds, "This will be even more rudimentary & incomplete than my previous answers, as I'm in no significant way prepared for this kind of thing...I go purely for aesthetic enjoyment: does the work sound good? Do the words as they fit together do so in an attractive fashion? Though it's the breed of poetry I began w/, I have come to be disgusted w/ the confessional genre, even when done well. I view the old idea of poetry as the most emotionally significant art form as crap: as I've sd, I'm in it for aesthetic pleasure, not at all to find out what kind of life the author has had... He calls himself a "low sort" of critic: "I try to publicize the stuff that jazzes me--get people interested in what I am, as I figure too few people are familiar w/ any form of contemporary poetry, much less the interesting work that's currently being done. I focus less on the technical aspects of criticism (that is to say, the actual function of the process) than the enthusiastic/evangelistic elements. Think rock criticism & you'll be on pretty much the right track." He has strong feelings about contemporary poetry: "The aboveground stuff is crap. It breaks no ground whatsoever, focussed on further refinements of a confessional technique that hasn't been improved upon in better than 30 years...nor can I detect any significant mastery of form in this class. In the underground, however, there's some work being done--gorgeous assemblages of words, sometimes even w/ brilliant meanings lurking around."
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