Wandering Latitudes and Inner Longitudes: An Interview with Paul W. Jacob (Jake)
Paul W. Jacob (Jake) is a writer, teacher, and contemplative guide. He and his wife, Jess, co-founded “Feed The Way," a charitable mission that walks the streets providing food and pastoral care for our homeless and marginalized brothers and sisters.
His published books and chapbooks include Blue Collar Nomad: The Literary Reflections of a Grassroots Pilgrim, Nomadic Devotion: A Contemplative Inquiry into the Poetics of Place, Falling onto the Ground: A Collection of Autumn Leaf Prints with Seasonal Poems, Dimestore Jargon, Blue-Moon Epiphany, and Bohemian Moss. For more info on his life and work visit www.nomadicdevotion.com.
His poem “The Solace and Refinement of Heat” appears in issue one of Abraxas. Our editors interviewed him via email.
Abraxas: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your writing background?
Paul W. Jacob (Jake): I grew up as an urban jock outside of New York City, and I did not begin writing until I stopped playing basketball in college. Soon after I gave up playing competitive hoops, I began working as a lifeguard on the Jersey shore. It was there that I had a series of mystical experiences that totally recalibrated my life.
“I started writing to somehow express my feelings about the many captivating places and marginalized people that I encountered and the deep life lessons that I learned from them.”
After that, I began traveling around the U.S. and Canada, living in a very alternative and nomadic way. I started writing to somehow express my feelings about the many captivating places and marginalized people that I encountered and the deep life lessons that I learned from them. Specifically, I realized that each location had a consciousness that a person could enter if they could get out of their habituated mindset and let go into it. A lot of my writing expresses that “power of place” and free spirit.
My literary work is also heavily influenced by the spaciousness/silences within minimalist ambient music and the spontaneity of jazz. The compositions of the late American avant-garde composer, Harold Budd, have deeply nourished the contemplative aspect of my writing. While I was extremely blessed to have been able to record a poetry and jazz album with the late great jazz pianist Eddie Higgins when I was in my early twenties.
Interestingly, a lot of my literary work is published under my pen name, Jake Kaida. I like the anonymity this provides me.
Abraxas: What inspires you to write?
Paul W. Jacob (Jake): I am consistently moved by my deep relationships with specific places and people who exist on the fringes of society. My writing stems from the meditative confluence of wandering latitudes and inner longitudes. These depths can be found in the worn tiles of an old fountain or the thin skin of a lizard like expressed in my poem “The Solace and Refinement of Heat.”
Abraxas: Can you give us a brief insight into your writing philosophy? How do you define your style?
I taught myself to write through the discipline of coming home late at night after bartending or waiting tables and simply sitting in front of an old Brother word processor. Thus, I consider myself a blue-collar writer because it took a lot of hard work and experimentation for me to be able to express myself like I do. Nobody who knew me when I was growing up would have ever dreamed that I would be a poet, a writer, or a contemplative person. Athletics came easy for me, but writing, like my spiritual path, has been a humbling trip. And I needed that. It’s been good for me.
Abraxas: Do you have any specific writing rituals or habits that help you write or edit?
Paul W. Jacob (Jake): Now, I don’t force myself to sit down and write. I write when I am moved or inspired to write. Many of my poems and creative nonfiction pieces start out as notes or verses in journals, on slips of paper, or on bar napkins. I am a very on-the-spot writer. I do not need a cozy desk or a writing room. A pen, a small pad, and perhaps a park bench or a barstool are enough for me.
And that minimalist tenor is not just with regards to writing, but with my life. I need very little. My spiritual path has helped me distill everything down to the essentials. The more a person needs or acquires the more imprisoned they are. The less one needs and holds onto the freer. Un-attachment is the key that liberates the mind and lets the ego recede. Most people who are enslaved in the machinations of our consumer-driven world have not yet learned this.
Abraxas: Are there recurring themes or motifs in your writing? What draws you to these themes?
Paul W. Jacob (Jake): A lot of my literary work tends to express “the power of place” and symbiotic contemplative moments when a person(s) and a location/environment seem to meld into union. It voices the paradoxical nature of letting go of ourselves to move more fully into ourselves and the place that we are in. My writing also challenges a lot of what most people consider to be normal; it shines a light on our conditionings and the delusional self-centered way the masses live their lives. When it’s on point, my work opens portals into subtle realms of biodynamic and spiritual consciousness. It has a grassroots mysticism embedded in it.
Abraxas: What are your long-term goals as a writer, and where do you see your writing heading?
Paul W. Jacob (Jake): I do not have any long-term goals for my writing. The future is merely a projection of the mind. It has no real existence. Thus, any personal goals for an imagined future would be an egoic fantasy. If my work gets published, so be it. If it doesn’t, so be it. The work is the work. One of the great teachings of Sri Krishna to Arjuna in The Bhagavad Gita is to let go of the desire for results. Just do your work. It’s that simple.
Abraxas: Is there a specific message or impact you hope to achieve through your writing?
Paul W. Jacob (Jake): Every time you see a hungry person on the street, feed them.
