Ralph Watley Transcript

October 26, 2007

Kent Gustavson: Welcome back to Sound Authors. This is Dr. Kent, and my next guest is Ralph Watley. Where are you speaking to us from, Ralph?

Ralph Watley: I’m in Arkansas, close to Little Rock. It’s kind of hilly, the are mountains about 30‑40 miles west of here.

Kent: Ralph Watley has written a book called “Pop Goes the Poetry”. He is a talented poet and speaker. Tell me a little bit about yourself, Ralph.

Ralph: Well I was born in Louisiana in 1956, and I moved from Louisiana to Arkansas when I was nine years old. Then I moved to Missouri when I was ten years old, then to Tennessee, then back to Missouri when I was twelve years old, and then to Louisiana. I worked for Union Pacific Railroad from 1974‑1997. My career was cut short by the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis back in 1997. So I’m retired now.

Kent: What did you do for the railroad?

Ralph: I was a switchman/breakman. The last job I had at the railroad was working in the diesel shop working on the engines.

Kent: Did you sing on the job?

Ralph: I had a little tape player I took with me on the job, and when I’d come up with an idea for a song or a poem, I’d put it down on the micro‑cassette tape. I’ve got about 150 hours on micro‑cassette tape.

Kent: Well I’ve got to say I have a soft spot somewhere for an engineer with a penchant for singing. Can you read us a poem to start off?

Ralph: I’ve got one here out of my book that I could read. It’s real short. It’s called “Small Measure.”:

“That little bit is that small part. The amount of time, yours and mine, Between the beat of each heart, Is the true measure of our earthly time, When compared to eternity.”

Kent: And that’s in the book “Pop Goes the Poetry” by Ralph Watley. Where is that book available?

Ralph: You can go online at www.PopGoesThePoetry.com and you can order the book from that website there. It’s available through my publisher, Xlibris.com, or you can go to Amazon.com and order it through there. Just put it in the search engine, “Pop Goes the Poetry” and it will come up at Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble.

Kent: Look for it on www.PopGoesThePoetry.com or Amazon.

Ralph: Right.

Kent: Now you told me that you can improvise. I’ve not heard you do this before, but can you improvise us a little poem here?

Ralph: Yeah, I’ve got one that I’ve just come up with about New York City:

“You’ve got tall buildings.

That touch the sky.

You’ve been through a lot, We all have cried.

But you’re the greatest city.

On this whole planet.

New York, New York, We’ll never take you for granted.

The Yankees, the Mets.

The Giants, the Jets.

Have all won before.

No need to even see, We all know the score.

So New York, New York, I’ll just say it once more, You’re the greatest place.

In this whole world.”

Kent: And you’re also a songwriter. Am I right?

Ralph: Right.

Kent: What kind of work have you done recently?

Ralph: Recently I’ve co‑written a song with a friend of mine in Massachusetts. It was called “Waiting in the Midnight”. It was on SoundClick.com. You can go to SoundClick.com and type in Jason Pacey Lennon, and it will come up with the songs that I’ve co‑wrote with him.

Kent: With your book “Pop Goes the Poetry”, have you done some readings in the area in Arkansas and in the South?

Ralph: I’ve had some newspaper articles written up about me. I’m trying to get some exposure through whatever media that’s available.

Kent: Tell me a little bit about what inspired you to write this book. I know you said that you’ve now retired from the railroad. What inspired you to sit down and say I got to write this book; I got to put this together?

Ralph: Well I have so much material it’s got to be put out somewhere or another. I’ve got probably 10,000 poems altogether sitting here on paper and on tape. So I decided that it would be time to do something while I could still do it, before my MS maybe prevented me in the future from being able to put a book together. So it was like me racing against the clock. And I wanted to beat the clock, so I did.

Kent: Well congratulations on a well‑done book. The cover looks great. The website is fun to visit, www.PopGoesThePoetry.com. It’s a clever title. I know you’ve had an interesting life and that you have some great stories about your childhood. Personally, I love trains. Can you give me a train story or something that happened?

Ralph: I was working one night in the yard as a switchman, and we had a clear track with no cars in it. So they threw some cars down at me. I was supposed to get on and tie the break on them and stop them. But I got on the first car and the break was no good on that one. I got on the second car and the break wasn’t any good on that one. Finally I got on the third car, the break slowed it down a little bit but not very much.

Then they threw some more cars down another track, and by the time I got off trying to stop those, the other track’s cars were going past me and I couldn’t catch them. So they winded up meeting down there on the lead and they turned each other over ‑ it was quite a mess. It got me a nice six months vacation out of it, let’s put it that way. I was off from work six months due to that accident.

Kent: It seems like a dangerous and an important job that you did for so many years.

Ralph: It is dangerous. You had to be on your toes at all times. I’ve been actually struck by a caboose one time in the back. I was lucky it was wintertime and I had on some thick clothes. It left a pretty good bruise on my ribs there.

Kent: Is it romantic? Is there something about it that you miss, that you’re really nostalgic for?

Ralph: I guess I miss being around the people more than anything. You come up with so many stories and ideas from just being around the other people. It’s harder to come up with stories when you’re on your own.

Kent: Ralph Watley is our guest and he’s full of stories. Can you give us one more poem from the book?

Ralph: This one’s called “Forget‑aholic.”:

[Full text in book, available at www.popgoesthepoetry.com]

Kent: In all of your poetry, it seems like you have both comedy and very serious aspects all at the same time.

Ralph: I try to make it accessible and also meaningful at the same time.

Kent: Well it’s been a great pleasure to have you on the show. The book is called “Pop Goes the Poetry” by Ralph Watley. It’s available from Amazon.com and anywhere books are sold, through Barnes and Noble or Borders, or from his website www.PopGoeThePoetry.com. Thank you so much for being on the show, Ralph.

Ralph: Thanks a lot.

Kent: The next guest on Sound Authors is an author named Cynthia Blomquist Gustavson. She’s the author of the “In‑Versing Your Life” series, where therapists and individuals can use poetry to bring out emotions and work through difficult issues. She’s also working on a book of poetry that will come out next spring. And she’s going to talk to us about coming home.

Posted by admin | Filed Under TRANSCRIPTS, Poetry, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST