My Life in Words, January 3, 2006
1/03/2006
Last night, the Giorgini brothers, Mass and Flav, drove up here from Indiana. Those punk rockers among you might recognize them as the core of the famous band, Squirtgun. They brought their guitars and went into the basement with Eric. It was one of the most gracious things I ever saw--these grizzled rock and roll vets jamming with our boy and teaching him, on the spot, how to write and arrange a pop-rock song. They extended their gentlemanly gesture by taking the basic track home to their recording studio so they can send Eric a cd with the music. This, to me, is what art is all about. It's brotherhood, not competition.

All right! It's the new year. I know I have been lax about keeping the blog up-to-date. Don't expect a resolution, or anything. But I do enjoy keeping in touch with all of you via e-mail: perhaps the blog will speak to shyer readers, or serve to open a window on the porcess here at The UrreaCorp World Headquarters. It occurs to me that if I had been availed access to an internet when I was an unknown dreamer, I would have given anything to have seen notes and comments by my favorite writers/artists. (Can you imagine a blog by Richard Brautigan or Neruda or Jimi Hendrix or....) So, honestly, I will try to remind myself to toss paper airplanes into the blogosphere more often.

Believe it or not, I have been asked a few times what's on my iPod. Oh Lord. I have an iPod with some kind of personality disorder. I will put up my artist-list later for you trivia buffs.

But since I like lists, I'll offer this first of my New Year Lists: some of the poets who influenced and continue to influence me. Read 'em all!

Anna Akhmatova; Yosano Akiko; Sherman Alexie; Alurista; A.R. Ammons; Antler; Rane Arroyo; Basho; Robert Bly; Darrell Bourque; Richard Brautigan; Pete Brown; Charles Bukowski; Buson; Raymond Carver; Lorna dee Cervantes; Lisa Chavez; Ali Chumacero; Leonard Cohen; William Corbett; Stephen Crane; Dugan; Bob Dylan; TS Eliot; Martin Espada; BH Fairchild; Lawrende Ferlinghetti; Carolyn Forche; Allen Ginsburg; Jay Griswold; Donald Hall; Han-shan; Jim Harrison; Robert Hass; Linda Hasselstrom; Linda Hogan; Gary Holthaus; Richard Hugo; Ikkyu; Issa; Robinson Jeffers; Juan Ramon Jimenez; Jane Kenyon; Etheridge Knight; Ted Kooser; Yusef Komunyakaa; David Lee; Philip Levine; Li Po; Lorca; Antonio Machado; Gabriela Mistral; Jim Morrison; Pablo Neruda; Sharon Olds; Mary Oliver; Onitsura; Simon Ortiz; Octavio Paz; Jose Emilio Pacheco; Kenneth Patchen; Sylvia Plath; Chip Rawlins; Rilke, Saigyo; James Schuyler; Sappho; Richard Shelton; Gary Snyder; Gary Soto; Kim Stafford; William Stafford; Alfonsina Storni; Tu Fu; Tino Villanueva; Diane Wakoski; Frank X Walker; Wang Wei; Walt Whitman; William Carlos Williams; Keith Wilson; Charles Wright; Franz Wright; Robert Wrigley; Yevtushenko; Neil Young; Atahualpa Yupanqui.

(This does not seem to include Agha Shahid Ali, Adrienne Rich, Homero Aridjis, Jack Kerouac, Wordsworth, James Dickey, James Wright, John Asberry, Jon Anderson, Patti Smith, Denise Levertov, Roque Dalton, Joy Harjo, Bill Pitt Root, Johnny Cash, Homer, Sor Juana, Facundo Cabral, Bruce Weigl, Sheryl St. Germain, Naomi Shihab Nye, Jon Brandi, Yehuda Amichai, Rumi, Clem Stark, or Kenneth Rexroth, Robert Creeley, or WS Merwin...though it could!)

That's a start. (What's your list?) See you with the iPod trivia in a few.
XXX, LAU


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