Spotlight On Writers
SR Inciardi
- Where do you originate from?
I was born in New York City, in the Little Italy section of Manhattan near Canal Street and the Bowery. For the first three years of my life, I lived in the heart of Little Italy on Mulberry Street, the street where the San Gennaro Festival takes place each September. The Bowery is the world’s best-known original, homeless area where people from all walks of life settled after things went horribly wrong for them. By age 4, my family moved to a 4-story walk-up in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Our three-room apartment was on the top floor which was horrendously hot in summer, and my family didn’t own an air conditioner, so we would oftentimes go on the roof to cool off in the evening and get a broad perspective of the city from our location. I subsequently went to Brooklyn College and then New York University for my master’s degree, the first in my family to pursue any sort of higher education and graduate. I worked in the healthcare sector in New York City and then New Jersey for 37 years, retiring in 2017 to write, among other things.
- What do you cherish most about the place you call home?
I live in a suburban area in Monmouth County, New Jersey about 50 miles south of New York and 50 miles east of Philadelphia. The area is quiet and provides many aspects of nature right outside my front door by way of dense woods, a multitude of different birds and wild animals, and nature preserves. My wife of 46 years and I are within a short drive to the New Jersey beaches and can get to New York or Philadelphia in about an hour’s drive. In this way, daily distractions from the routine are completely possible without much effort. Kind of the way Billy Collins and Robert Frost wrote about their experiences with the world that surrounded them.
- What ignites your creativity?
I am usually driven to creativity based on an intense emotion of one kind or another. It tends to be the driving force behind my writing. My poetry seeks to incorporate an interpretation of the emotion or may adapt an emotion to a situation. I usually find that I awaken with something to say, perhaps after an intense dream or some recollection that elicits a strong emotion about something I experienced or am experiencing. Many times, in the early morning hours, I’ll begin a new poem, or revise one I have been working on, with new emotions/words fresh in my head. I’ve been writing this way since high school.
- Do you have a favorite word and could you incorporate it into a poetic phrase?
One of my favorite words is oaky in reference to being durable, as in the wood of an oak tree, or as a descriptor for a given wine’s flavor, affected over time by the casks in which the wine ferments and is stored.
Those oaky days have ended, those filled
with the nose of breathtaking complexity
stir no longer, swept away
like the skins of spent grapes,
the finish dwindling
on the tongue of each new day.
- What is your pet peeve?
My pet peeve is injustice of any kind, to anyone of any race, color, age, or social status. In this context, I get peeved by injustices done to others and even more concerned when I get the feeling that an expectation or a definition of what I am about can be narrowed down to the number of years I’ve been around, or my lack of fine arts training, even though I have been writing for well over 50 years. Any assessment of my writing should be based solely upon the quality and density of the work submitted. Nothing else.
- How would you describe the essence of SR Inciardi?
I root for the underdog. Always have. Always will. I have long considered myself to be an underdog, whether in my own development, my education, my career, or in my writing. In essence, I am headstrong and determined and can usually overcome almost any setback except, unfortunately, the loss of my 37-year-old son—who was married with two young daughters. That has been the most difficult experience in my life. This intense emotional experience, at times remaining as intense as it first was, its tragedy, its heartbreak, its injustice, has brought about a higher level of focus and intensity to my writing. My writing, in turn, has provided an outlet for my emotions through a new, more refined, voice that I want to share with the world. Perhaps pieces of what I offer now through my poetry may resonate with readers given their own experiences, issues, losses, or difficulties and be useful to them in gaining a fresh, helpful perspective.
- Spotlight On Writers – SR Inciardi - September 28, 2024
- Thoughts - August 22, 2024
- Coloring the Edges - May 11, 2024
