“Words are the cars that drive things up.”
I am sitting directly across the room from Sharon Doubiago. Blonde. Out the window rolling I can see sparkling Pacific Ocean waves. Blue. I sing a silent secret prayer to a giggling God for my eyes. Clear.
So, anyway, I was at this event – late late summer 1995 – and Sharon Doubiago was a presenter. Found my notes.
Her face framed by golden curls. Tight faded jeans, scoop-necked, long-sleeved burgundy blouse. Golden wings dangle from a slender gold chain. Just what I wrote.
She said stuff like “create of your life a work of art.”
“Everyone’s a poet, I believe, deep down inside.”
“Energy becomes persona, becomes the path.”
“My goal is to write the dream.”
She was big on memories and dreams as sources of poetry.
Write a memory about this morning, she directed.
Hot shower.
Dog in a box.
Low ceilings and yesterday’s newspaper.
New books.
A padlocked door. Wrinkled clothes.
Cup of coffee.
Write a dream image, she said.
A glint first.
The reflection of the streetlight off the large blade as the knife rose.
Poised. Plummeted.
Buried itself into pale flesh.
She emphasizes, so I highlight – “Keep a dream journal.”
If you are not dreaming, add to your Vitamin B6 intake.
Sharon Doubiago is the author of three book-length poems: South America Mi Hija; The Husband Arcane: The Arcane of O; and Hard Country.
Her poetry collections include: Psyche Drives the Coast: Poems, 1975-1987; Body & Soul; and Greatest Hits, 1976-2003.
Doubiago is also the author of two short story collections: The Book of Seeing With One’s Own Eyes and El Ni–o.
She is the recipient of three Pushcart Prizes and has twice been nominated for the National Book Award.
My Father’s Love: Portrait of the Poet as a Young Girl, Volume 1
Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. In this first volume of her two-volume memoir, prize-winning poet Sharon Doubiago writes an extraordinary memoir of growing up in the 1940s and 50s in South Central Los Angeles and the desert mountain town of Ramona. MY FATHER’S LOVE addresses the current controversies of memory and memoir and sets new standards for the genre by adhering to historical records, letters, diaries, interviews, and a drive to know the unfabricated truth, while weaving these, in stunning language and imagery with remembering and reliving. This book attempts to understand her family rooted deep in the history of America, in both its Southern aristocracy and its victims. It looks at the world through the eyes of a child who knows what love is, a girl labeled beautiful, a victim of rape, incest and psychological terrorism, depicting the genesis of an American epic poet. It will change your perspective of the world forever.
Source: Goodreads.