A Poet’s True Voice

Ed Makowski is a 29-year-old Milwaukee poet with a true voice. Under thepen name Eddie Kilowatt, which he no longer uses because “[He] almost had todevelop multiple personalities,” he has published two collections: Manifest Density (2006) and Carrying a Knife into the Gunfight(2007). His often-humorous observations and reflections are rendered in awarmly engaging style. He's a bartender who rides motorcycles and raises atwo-year-old son. He recently performed in the former Pabst Brewery for theParachute Project, which seeks to call attention to vacant or underused Milwaukee architecture.His books are available at Woodland Pattern and Rushmore Records, and his blogis called “Ed Makowski's Kitchen Table.”

Do you enjoy performing?

I like unconventional performances in uniqueplaces. I'd rather perform for people who don't know they like poems. Iwouldn't call myself a slam poet. I focus on the writing, not the dramaticperformance. I'm a conduit for the work, not the star of it.  

How did you start writing?

I was about 20. It was a mental healththing. If I wrote the words in my head, the words left and I didn't haveto deal with them anymore. Otherwise, you wind up drunk at four in themorning with five poems layering on top of one another in your head, likeyou're in the middle of a moving carousel wondering which direction to get off,with people, horses and wild animals everywhere. Writing is something thathas to be done. I don't know why I'm the one that has to be doing it. Inever went to school for it. There are people more deserving, more educated.Today, if someone says something or tells me a story and it has an impact, it'svery natural for me, in the midst of the conversation, to excuse myself, go toanother table and write it down.

Do you think you're nuts?

Sure! There's a word in French cooking, confit, meaning it cooks withitself. Everything should be with itself. Everyone should fitthemselves. 

What are you working on?

I have an interest in making things morevisual. I've been going to the Hamilton Wood Type Museum in Two Rivers andmaking prints. It's a better way to present my short poems (e.g., “Rome wasn't burned in aday.”)  Like a lot of people now, I want to make things with my hands, notjust type at a computer. It's there, it's done, I made it! I thinkyou'll start seeing oddball cottage industries of people making things by hand,patronized by people who appreciate that. We'll make less money, but we'llbe our own bosses, and hopefully I'll fit into that.