A Touch of the Surreal - Interview with Robin Amaral

Hey kids! R.G. Johnson here!
Today, I am interviewing Robin Amaral, author of Lapis Buddha, and a great poetic friend. Robin has an amazing ability to take real life events and turn them into dreamy poetic waves of pure power. He’s also a really intelligent guy with great insight and empathy toward others. We converse often. I am never disappointed.




R.G.: Who have been your top two artistic influences and why?


Robin: Just two? Man ... so many have influenced me .
Music - Neil Peart , the Drummer/Lyricist from Rush. He spun that trio into its own genre, one I call Heavy Mental intelligent intellectual music that rocked - a rarity
Writing - a surrealist by the name of Selene. She knows herself, a thinker who writes fearlessly, and expresses the soul of life in her own unique language. I have learned a lot from her .


R.G.: Where do you most often find your inspiration to write?


Robin: Late at night, when the house is quiet, the TV's off and the phones have ceased ringing, when the mind is ready to slip into dreamland and I can feel the events of the day stripping away. That's when the words come.


R.G.: What is your personal definition of poetry?


Robin: it is words that express this thing we call life , of who we are , of how we interact and relate to its spectrum of contrasting elements, of the joy and the pain , beauty and harsh reality. Words that are put together in such a way, where the letters disappear and the meaning glows .


R.G.: If you could have anyone, living or dead, read and review your most recent poetry collection, who would it be, and why?


Robin: Carl Gustav Jung. The man is genius, his thoughts, his theories on Archetypes Symbology, Synchronicity and the Self resonate in me. To have him read my work I can only dream.


R.G.: Why do you believe that poetry has become so unpopular to the literary market? What do you think we can do to change that?


Robin: I think maybe because of how poetry is taught. Rules and form have their place but like music, there is so much more to be heard.
my offered solution - keep writing from our hearts, in our own voices and putting it out there.


R.G.: Tell me about your book Lapis Buddha. What inspired you to write it? Publish it?

Robin: Lapis Buddha is a collection of the eclectic poetry I have written over the last few years, most of it in the last year. The poems were unleashed after a lifetime of experiences and words finally met together on paper. Some very good friends convinced me they were worth sharing .


R.G.: What do you think the world would be like if poetry were outlawed?


Robin: I immediately begin to think of a world where art is outlawed, where self-expression is forbidden; I think of Ayn Rand's Anthem  and if I was to live in this world I would be an outlaw .


R.G.: Do you believe that one can learn to be a poet? Or is it a natural talent?


Robin: I think everyone has possibility, I think they can learn if they are a poet


R.G.: If you could say 5 words, and the whole world would hear them clearly, what would your 5 words be?


Robin: you can - now do it


R.G.: Do you ever get writer's block? What do you do to remedy it?


Robin: I prefer to call it a muse vacation, I wait for the words to return, they always do. during the wait - I read, listen and go out and experience more of that thing called my life .


R.G.: What about life do love the most? What about life do you hate the most? Explain your answers.


Robin: Love - being conscious. feeling, touching, smelling, hearing, senses aware to every bit of magic that is around us and within us .
Hate - the almosts ...


You can read Robin's poetry HERE