goofyfoot

i've loved rock&roll for as long as i've been listening to music.  i also loved writing.  i knew i couldn't carry a tune.  even for punk rock.  there was always someone who was more charismatic & rowdier who could front a band.  i taught myself a few chords on guitar but i knew i sucked at playing even so.  therefore, i wanted to become a lyricist.  like bernie taupin & robert hunter.  i wrote song lyrics as early as grammar school.  & mercifully, those early attempts are lost like tears in the rain.

so it is with little wonder i found myself attracted to poetry.  ever since, i dunno, i was 16, i've been reading/writing.  i was, & still am, a shitty formal student.  but i did dedicate my life to literature.  but i write like i stood on a skateboard.  goofyfoot.  which is not not odd for a left-handed person.  but i am right-handed.  sorta.  i've favored my left hand for certain tasks, & my right hand for others, like holding a pencil.

in a little over a week i will observe my 59th turn around the sun.  which means i've been writing poems for at least 40 years.  & i think i am just getting the hang of it!  when the great japanese artist hokusai said he was sketching from age six & at 73 he started to grasp the structures of birds, plants, beasts et al.  but he would need to achieve the tender age of 130 - 140 when 'every dot & every stroke i paint will be alive.'  me too, brother, me too!

for i am just learning my art & craft, & life in poetry. it takes a lifetime.  i don't claim any quality to my poems.  that's not my call.  i can only write the poems as they come to me.    nor do i care, seriously, this is not a humble brag, for fame or immortality.  in this day & age!  you've got to be fucking pulling my chain.  i love that quote attributed to the late poet larry fagin, who told his students, 'none of us will be famous.'  so why do it?  why read & write in our digital age?

because habits made over a lifetime are hard to break.  but also, poetry, like life, gives me pleasure.  the greatest kind of pleasure.  i hope my love, my lust, for life, is found in my work.  that alone is reason enough.  poetry, even in our present age, is more than capable of defending itself.  poetry, like my love of rock&roll, need not defend itself.  poetry is, in the phrase of singer paul rodgers of the band free, 'all right now!'