I have long enjoyed the poetry collection 66 galaxie by m locar.  The poems in the Bakeless Poetry Prize-winner focus upon things like road trips, film, love, death and a woman named Angelina.  These are all topics that interest me.  Just as importantly, of course, loncar’s writing appeals to me on a gut level.  There’s no bullshit.  This is poetry that is alive.  It doesn’t feel like it was composed on a college campus (even though it may well have been).  I have memorized several of the poems in this book by accident, the way you memorize songs, through endless, obsessive repetition.  Sometimes I recite these poems in the shower.

I’ve owned 66 galaxie twice.  The first time was shortly after it was published in 1998.  My girlfriend at the time bought it (we were a collective).  When we split up, I lost custody (old school DRM), and this was one of the few “lost books” that I re-acquired.

Over the years I’ve probably checked the L’s in the poetry section at least a dozen times.  At first, I might have found a copy of 66 galaxie, but nothing else by m loncar.  In more recent years, there’s usually nothing at all.  66 galaxie is out of print.

What the hell happened to this guy?

Recently, I had the flu or something like it, with fevers up in the 102-103 degree range.  When the worst was over, but while I was still stuck in bed, I started reading m loncar and Robert Lowell.  A scrambled brain, I find, works better with poetry than prose (I never would have been able to comprehend a novel or even a magazine article at that stage).  I also had the laptop in bed and out of curiosity started doing some random searches for m loncar.

Unlike Lowell, loncar lives.

More specifically, he lives in Taiwan.  What sent the Youngstown, Ohio, native there I do not know, but he seems to be teaching American literature, drama, and film at Aletheia University in Tamshui, Taipei.  Or at least he was.  The most recent evidence pertaining to his teaching activities is from this Miami University Creative Writing Alumni update that was published in 2005:

m loncar, class of 1992, has sent in the following update:

MFA from the University of Michigan in 1995, then taught 4 years as a lecturer in the Department of English and Program in Film and Video Studies. Won Bakeless prize and published book of poems 66 galaxie (UPNE) in 1998. While in Michigan, also completed two short films “hey locked boy (12 min)” and “if they hang you (good morning angel) (42 min)” and was chief editor of the exhibition catalogue The Orchid Pavilion Gallery: Chinese Painting at the University of Michigan Museum of Art (University of Washington Press).

Have been living in Taiwan for the last 4 years, studying Chinese, traveling and filming around Asia, and teaching American literature, drama, and film at Aletheia University in Tamshui, Taipei, Taiwan. Have been busy working on new poetry manuscript viola (vs. the 36 chambers of shaolin), new film project the pleasures of the fish in the hao river, and writing, recording, and playing in the Taipei band the diamond vehicles. Website to come (hopefully) in near future.

It’s strange that it begins with the note saying that m loncar “has sent the following update,” as if the words that followed were of dubious accuracy.  Or maybe the alumni people had such respect for the man’s words that they didn’t want to edit his submission into the flat third-person of all the other alumni descriptions.

As of now, there does not seem to be a published book of poetry by loncar or anyone else called viola (vs. the 36 chambers of shaolin).  This is fine.  I’m patient.  “The 36th Chamber of Shaolin” is a classic kung fu film made in 1978.

There is a MySpace page for the diamond vehicles, but no one has logged into it since September 22, 2007.  YouTube, more than any other place on the internet, offers plentiful evidence of m loncar’s existence, and there is a video posted in October 2007 of the diamond vehicles (loncar and “c lin”) playing a song called “long time.”  loncar plays a left-handed guitar.

loncar also seems to have played in a band called area c, and there is a YouTube video showing footage of some kind of parade, possibly in Taiwan, set to a piece of music called “trick with a knife” by area c.  You should watch it.

Also from 2005 is this letter to the editor of the The China Post (a little less than half-way down the page) by Michael G. Loncar, Lecturer, Aletheia University Tamsui, Taipei:

As someone who has lived in Taiwan for the last five years teaching Taiwanese university students, it’s very inspiring to see people on all sides of the Taiwan political divide coming together to support this important event and sending a powerful message to the world.

So loncar’s activities include not only poetry, film and music, but also politics.  His interest in Taiwan’s democracy was not limited to 2005.  In July 2007, loncar submitted this video question regarding U.S. support of Taiwanese democracy to the CNN YouTube Debate for the Democratic Party’s primary race.

Finally, although there’s no evidence that “the pleasures of the fish in the hao river” was ever completed, it’s clear that m loncar is still interested in the moving image.  There are the music videos, and then there is what may be the most recent clue of all:  a YouTube video posted on November 2, 2008, in the “Howto & Style” category.  It’s a freaky but colorfully interesting 19 second video called “wine.”  As of this posting, it had been viewed 35 times.

But who is this woman who posted this particular video and whose YouTube user name is ddzdza?  The country she has listed with her account is CS, which is the country code for Serbia and Montenegro.  Is this video by the poet m loncar, or is it some other m loncar?  If it is the poet, what is this woman’s relationship with him?

Enough with the stalking.  Why do I care about m loncar at all?  Here are some fragments.  I would love to post some complete poems, of course, but I believe I’ve limited myself to “fair use” here.  The titles of the sampled poems are in bold.

one night america: a boy and his blowtorch

will tear through you with his tangled

fingernails and sour memories   open   filled

4 bleeding hearts in his chest   you’ll throw

daughters and sons and black coffee at him

but he’ll stare at each and weep and worship

their bodies are like machines to him   and he’ll

be trying to love them without erections like

he wanted just to inhale them for a minute

[snip]

xxx

Giving My Head To The Mississippi

It’s just you

and me and

the hatchet

baby.

xxx

We’ve come to hear Coltrane

as she lifts off my shirt, Leadbelly

when she smiles, smoothes

mud across my chest

xxx

and   sips

xxx

a brainpanfull of

a drowning man’s

memories   says

splendid;

nightmarish.

[snip]

xxx

Timothy and Angelina Crash

[snip]

in the middle of manchuguo you wrote me

a letter about the mongolian children that

stopped your train   that it was cold and that

you were sick   they were naked with skin

leathered by the wind and smiling and playing

some crazy game dodging trains   and that you

couldn’t really stand to think about marlon

brando right now   or tina turner   but that

sometimes   you’d think about buster keaton

holding that umbrella in steamboat bill jr

[snip]

m, if you’re out there, we still care.  We’re waiting, but we’re patient.

At least I am.

Bonus Feature:  Here is a video of m loncar’s cat mack the knife attacking a golden retriever.