I want to first welcome anyone who comes across my blog. Being on the tail-end of Generation X, I think I'm still considered a "young" person; however, I have allowed technology to get the best of me. Specifically, the concept of blogging. Sure, I have my BlackBerry and have had a Facebook account since my UConn days that I've kept up with, but blogging is still somewhat of a mystery. But with my job coming to an end later this year, many of the job postings that I have come across have "blogging" listed as a desired experience. And so here I am today . . . creating a blog account and making my first entry.
I titled this blog "Texas Poet of the Night" because it somewhat describes me. But the main reason I chose it is because it comes from one of my favorite books; "On the Road," written by Jack Kerouac. There's a moment when Sal and Dean are driving westward and drive through Houston in the middle of the night:
"In the empty Houston streets of four o'clock in the morning a motorcycle kid suddenly roared through, all bespangled and bedecked with glittering buttons, visor, slick black jacket, a Texas poet of the night, girl gripped on his back like a papoose, hair flying, onward-going, singing, "Houston, Austin, Fort Worth, Dallas--and sometimes Kansas City--and sometimes old Antone, ah-haaaaa!" (Kerouac, pg 159, Penguin Books, 1991)
I first read this book in my senior year of high school and it left a lasting impression. Though it may sound cheesy--I, that year, felt like I was the one riding the bike....that Kerouac was writing about me. "On the Road" was one of the main reasons I went to college in New York City . . . and it's simply one of those books that inspires me to write. Anyone who knows me knows that I love the northeast; D.C., NYC, New England....but no matter where we live (wife, kiddo, and me), I will always be the Texas Poet of the Night.
Although I just graduated with an M.A. in Literature and will now focus on getting published, this blog will be about more than just Literature and poems. It will be about life . . .which is what the literary arts are all about.
Hi Daniel, Very nice. I like your first entry. You should look into La Bloga and if you are interested be a guest columnist. I think somewhere in my piles of papers I may still have some of the creative writing papers you Jeff Davis kids wrote while you were in High school doing the Cornell Summer. One day when you are famous I will bring them out for blackmail...lol Anyway here is a link:
ReplyDeletehttp://labloga.blogspot.com/2010/01/censoring-iranian-love-story.html
"It will be about life . . .which is what the literary arts are all about."
ReplyDeleteSo true, and yet so few people actually get that. Great post, Dan. Looking forward to chatting with you through the slipstream that is the blog.