Hey Everyone! This is Danny. I want to personally thank all of you who have Liked my art for all these years on Facebook. 30 years ago, I graduated from Columbia College with a degree in Writing / English. What do you do with that, huh? One of my teachers suggested I get a masters and teach and be a poet. He said I had a gift. He invited me read my poetry in an art gallery in the city. I drove down with my parents, sister and then girl friend. I got a lot of compliments...but on the way home, my sister and the woman I later married laughed at me. ...I sometimes wish I could go back. My senior poetry teacher assured me I had what it takes, a gift, but I couldnt bear the thought of laughing, especially from my wife. When I met Kathy, I eventually pulled out an old Bell Labs hard bound engineers journal, 200 blank lined pages. I had 150 poems in there that Id written in secret for 20 years, kept hidden in a closet where my kids mom wouldnt find them. Kathy loved them. You should publish this... she said. I read them without looking up or making eye contact. They were deeply personal and many were written during the blackest depressions I suffered for precisely 26 years in which I searched in vain for my birth mother, many written to her, about her... But publish them? I felt the familiar pang of fear in my stomach. Im not ready, I said. As some of you know, I met my birth mother in person in Mountain View, Arkansas (Blue Grass Capital of the World) just about 3 weeks ago. We have talked on the phone all night long more than nights than I can count. Her name is Jackie Burgett and please friend her, if youd like, shes my mom and shes wonderful, funny, smart, and, she doesnt know it, but a great writer. I have spoken to my birth father. He lives in Florida and weve talked a lot on the phone and I hope we get to meet soon. So, lucky me. Now, I have two moms and two dads. ...but the best wife a man could ask for. Kathy, all these years, has been the single greatest voice of encouragement in my life and if you have enjoyed my writing, you have Kathy to thank for it. She Likes everything I write, which I interpret to mean: I love that you are putting yourself out there, I love that you are facing your fears... Its good to be Liked, but oh, to be Loved! So, maybe someday, the work Naked Poems (with a naked me on the cover, for real...dont worry, theres black square there) will surface, but for now, Facebook has been a great creative outlet and Ive enjoyed the dialogs, the pictures, the phone calls and the in-cafe phone, sharing it with all of you. I feel like my poetry teacher would be proud of me, though he might twist his lips a little and look at his watch. Sabout time. This morning, I sent a copy of Naked Poems to Jackie, my mom. I hope she likes it. I hope someday I have the guts to publish it, but even typing the words makes my hands shake. Uh-oh. Thanks for all the Likes - Danny
Posted on: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 12:26:23 +0000
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