Shampoo: An Appreciation, Part Four

 

 

Between 2007 and 2011, I was busy living life.

 

First my then-longtime girlfriend broke up with me. 

 

Not long after that, my father and grandfather passed away. 

 

My job started to have me travel to train workers in other facilities. It was perfect timing as too much time alone in my apartment would have slowly killed me. 

 

While living the traveler's dream much like the way my father did at his own job, I found my current girlfriend right here in Boston. That's changed my life in ways too many to list here.

 

Finally, more relevant to the topic of Shampoo, in 2009, I started a writing workshop with Ron Goba.

"Coming to" was one of the many, many poems from that era of workshopping at Ron's house in Wollaston, Massachusetts every Tuesday night. It was also one of the pieces that made it into my first collection, Patron Emeritus. 

 

I wrote the poem over the course of my many trips around the country. Some of my strongest poems in the book were first jotted down on airplanes, hotel lobbies and countless other locations.

 

Not long after 2011 passed, my job shifted and I lost my travel time. It was amazing while it lasted.

 

"Coming to" was published in #39 of Shampoo, the second-to-last issue before Del Ray Cross' URL was assaulted by thieves and forced to shut down.

 

Given how I write today, this poem seems kind of normal for me until you remember that I wasn't writing like this prior to my time with Ron Goba, Keith Nystrom and Prabakar T. Rajan. 

 

So much has changed.

 

In the context of the journal, "Coming to" really marked an evolution in my style since my first poem for the magazine all the way back in issue #14. 

 

I'm grateful to Del for sticking with me through all my "phases."

Now with Shampoo slowing piecing together its forty-first issue, I've been wondering if I have anything in my backlog of poems that's really different, really out there, something that I would hand pick to send to Del for publication. 

 

A piece that would stand as a testament to  how much I've changed since 2002.

I can't think of anything that fits. Not yet, anyway.

And if I can't find anything tonight, there's always the morning, the next day, next week.

 

I'd like to be in the first issue to come out after so long, but I'll have to accept that I might not be ready yet.

 

If the right poem doesn't exist, I'll just have to write it.

I owe at least that much to Del for his support over the years.