I went to frequent an establishment in Spring Branch the other day. I frequented the delicious but really greasy Mytiburger establishment. I ordered a number 1. It is a greasy Mytiburger with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion and mustard. Did I mention the grease? Yep, the grease was mighty gross but delicious. The grease took over my hands, bled through the wax paper and dripped on my mighty big red plastic tray. Worth it all because it tasted delicious with myti fries with ketchup in those little white dipping containers that resemble paper cups you find at a water cooler but in the miniature. Gary Soto? Boy, do I ramble. But...you just had to know about the grease. Really.
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So I sat down to wait for my Myti meal and opened up Gary Soto's
A Fire In My Hands.
I just had it mailed to me from Amazon. I have been knee deep in poetry lately. That's probably no big surprise since that is practically all that I have been posting lately. It's rather addicting, if you want to know the truth. YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH! Sorry, Jack Nicholson moment! Well I usually don't read the acknowledgements or intros too much. Usually, I go into the heart of the reading first and then return later to the almost always boring acknowledgments. This time was different. Something caught my eye. First of all, I saw 1970 in it. I had flashbacks of America and a Horse with no name, it felt good to be out of the rain, in the desert they don't remember your name....I digress...again. Then I read further that he didn't start out as a poet but was majoring in geography. Then he happened onto some poetry. BOOM! He was hooked. He had the a similar impression that I did earlier on. He thought that poetry had to be perfect. In high school it had to rhyme and such. Reading this anthology opened up his eyes. You see I have always loved reading and writing poetry. I guess I was encouraged a lot from my Mammaw. She had some Hellen Rice poems that she would share with me and I would create some poems, along with drawings of Snoopy. She would go crazy over them. I didn't share them with too many. I was a secret poet. So anyhow, he started writing poetry like crazy. He didn't know what his family would say and do. He just let it fly. This parallels my life right now. I am learning to just let go and see where the words take me.. And I am having fun doing it. My mind won't stop with all these lines and ideas popping 24-7. Sometimes, I take some time to let them fly, other times they are just squelched into my forgetfulness. But there was a quote that really resonated with me and I will share it with you. It totally rang true for me. It sounded a little like this: One, two, one, two, three, four. . . "More than a quarter century has passed since I left college. I had no idea that I would write so much or that more than a few friends would read what I wrote. Some of you will read these poems and want to write your own. Good. Poems should feed into other poems--a needle passing through a stitch through cloth. My advice to young poets is "look to your own lives." Gary Soto, that is exactly what I am gonna do! So that's it! There's my inspiration from yesterday and I am not sure if it is true inspiration or the grease talking a day late and a dollar short! Who knows?
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