Queens Tribune

Queens poet Richard Tayson has released a second book of poems entitled, “The World Underneath.”

“When the first book came out I had no confidence,” the Briarwood resident said. “It won a big prize and I just thought maybe they picked the wrong person. There was celebration this time and the first time it was just scary.”
Tayson moved from Colorado to the East Coast in 1990 to attend New York University. Then, in 1997, he moved farther east, to Queens.

“I found Queens to be a great place to live,” he said. “It has a lot of open space. It doesn’t feel a lot like a city. There are lawns and normal things I was used to in Colorado.”

The borough has become a sort of muse for Tayson.
“I’m personally motivated by difference,” Tayson said. “Queens to me is dramatically diverse. Colorado was definitely not diverse to put it mildly. The land and mountains and natural settings were incredibly beautiful and I miss that a lot. My poetry was just sort of starting when I left there. My work is really urban and I didn’t know that until I got here.”

Tayson is now well-integrated in the Queens arts scene.
“People are generally more available to get together and hang out versus so much competition that I found in Manhattan,” he said. “Queens to me is a place that’s much more conducive to creating and cooperating.”

He also teaches at Queensborough Community College and takes advantage of Queens Council on the Arts workshops.

Tayson’s first book of poetry, “The Apprentice of Fever,” which was also published by the Kent State University Press, was awarded the Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize in 1997. His work has also been recognized by the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, Prairie Schooner’s Edward Stanley Award and a Pushcart Prize. But now that the second book is out, Tayson said he’ll take a break from poetry.

“I don’t feel like I have to move fast,” he said. “There’s no rush…A natural silence feels really good to me.”
Instead, he’ll return to writing his dissertation on the English poet William Blake and his connection to punk rock. He may also try his hand at prose again; a non-fiction book he co-authored called, “Look Up For Yes,” appeared on bestseller lists in Germany and was included in “Reader’s Digest’s Today’s Best Nonfiction.”

Although he anticipates pausing in his poetry, Tayson remains committed to his stance that the art form can reach beyond the academic arena and address political and socio-economic realties. He said he seeks to write poetry that is “politically motivated as well as aesthetically shapely” and hopes to communicate that what unites us is greater than what divides us.

“We forget that,” he said. “Especially in election years.”
For more information about purchasing the book and upcoming readings, visit www.richardtayson.com.