About Robert Grunst
Robert Grunst is a former Lake Michigan & Superior commercial fisherman, deckhand and engineer; a graduate of Western Michigan University, a former 9th grade English teacher; a graduate of the University of Iowa’s Writers Workshop and Ph.D. Program in English. He taught American Literature, Environmental Literature, and Creative Writing at St. Catherine University for 31 years. He thought once to leap over an Icelandic glacier crevasse to shorten a route but thought better of the idea. His poems have been published at American Literary Review, Image, The Iowa Review, Kestrel, Nimrod, Notre Dame Review, Poetry East, Poetry Northwest, Seneca Review, Tar River Poetry, Water~Stone and many others. His two books are The Smallest Bird In North America, New Issues Press and Blue Orange, McGovern Prize, Ashland Poetry Press.
A Profile of the Author
Notes on “Above / Beneath”
Above / Beneath took hold after several afternoon meetings with Laszlo. Always beneath his grape arbor. I had one day spotted Laszlo opening the gate to the side of his house and the arbor which ran alongside his entire St Paul city lot. East side, the sunny side. On prior occasions I had been struck by the vigor of the vines and plenitude of grapes hanging from the lush canopy. I introduced myself and my twin daughters who happened to be along. I explained that, if he’d agree, I’d love to learn how he tended things, pruning, grafting. He had collaborated for some years with Elmer Swenson, one of the preeminent Upper Midwestern viticulturists, working alongside Swenson in his vineyard near Osceola, Wisconsin, sharing viticultural lore, in Laszlo’s case art he had acquired working alongside his father in the family vineyard next to the river Raba outside Gyor, Hungary. Laszlo’s father too was proprietor of a tailor shop, so Laszlo came to tailoring. His own shop had been located on the ground floor of his St. Paul residence; though, in his 80s when I met him, Laszlo had closed up shop, to devote himself first and foremost to his grapes: Edelweiss vines and Swenson Reds, two Swenson cultivars. There is so much. WW II. Laszlo sent to Siberia, and one day, talking about his hopes working with a particular Hungarian grape, Kardarka, the primary source of the famous Bikavér or ‘Bull’s Blood’ blend, he announced he was dying. He had grafted some new strain onto his Kardarka rootstock, hoping to achieve a more Minnesota climate robust cultivar. Laszlo did most of the talking. Times and places mixed. Everything does in this life. He was a fascinating man. To make sense of that experience has been a terrific challenge, in terms of compression strategies, unifying content and form, balancing harmonies against dissonance.
Music, Food, Booze, Tattoos, Kittens, etc.
Music Bella Bartok would offer an elegant segue perhaps, but I would be telling a lie. I am intrigued though by piano performances I’ve discovered with Bartok at the keyboard. First and foremost, then, Bill Evans, Peace Piece, for instance. Chet Baker, Paul Desmond, Jim Hall, Concierto d’ Aranjuez. Dylan. Muddy Waters. Aretha Franklin. Miles and Coltrane. Charles Lloyd. Keith Jarrett. Carla Brey. Alan Hovhaness & the whales.
Booze Barolo works. In France the Beaujolais Nouveaux soon will be released: third Thursday in November.
Ink. Willow Springs! Otherwise, I am allergic to iodine. Iodine is a common ingredient in tattoo inks.
