The bard of San Miguel County - Durango Telegraph

The bard of San Miguel County
Art Goodtimes releases collection of poetry

by Joe Foster

As if the World Really Mattered by Art Goodtimes. La Alameda Press, 2007. 105 pages.

When was the last time you read a poem? For most of us, it’s probably been quite a while, and that was probably an accident. Why is this, I wonder? Poets are no longer celebrated artists. Most people don’t really care that some of the greatest poetry ever written is being written right now. There’s got to be somebody to blame for such an attitude, right? Does it go as far back as Plato for banishing poets from the Republic as liars? Maybe the blame lies with Wordsworth for placing the poet on a pedestal as a higher being, the arrogant bastard. Maybe it was Pound and Eliot for being so damned proud of being so damned impenetrable. Or perhaps it was the Beats for giving future poets the burden of a uniform, or the innumerable, breathless, young poets writing horrific odes to their cats.

None of these have helped the situation, but I think the most blame can be placed in the classroom. This goes for reading in general. There is such a conservative bias toward “The Canon” that many people truly feel that there have been no great works of art written since Hemingway or Salinger. Somehow, the evolution of genius ended in the ’50s, according to curriculum. Remember studying “that poet” in high school? He died almost a century ago and even then was using archaic language and you were supposed to explain to your teacher what he meant? Granted, teachers today are burdened with shallow budgets, bursting classrooms and compulsory testing that they don’t have the time or resources to discover all this new stuff. Wouldn’t it be great if we could show kids the great works that are relevant to their lives and world today?

There are not only great things being done right now, but right here in our area. We’ve all heard of Art Goodtimes, but we now have the opportunity to read his work. Previously published only in chapbooks and journals, Goodtimes has now published his first major collection: As if the World Really Mattered. Timely and appropriately enough, Art had the good fortune to have Dolores LaChappelle write the introduction for his book. (Is it just me or has her work suddenly popped up all over the place? As I write this, I’m sitting next to a poster in Steamworks that bears a LaChappelle quote. And the answer to your question is yes, I’m acquiring a cozy afternoon buzz whilst “working.”) Dolores refers to Goodtimes as a bard. Actually, hang on. Can we reflect for a moment on how truly cool this guy’s name is? Art Goodtimes. Sweet. Anyway, the bard thing. She says that Art has “the unique ability to take all of our individual stories – each human story within the ongoing human story of our place itself – and combine them into a vast epic.” High praise, no?

I must confess to never having met Mr. Goodtimes, so obviously, I’ve never heard him deliver a poem, which I’m told is crucial to understanding his work, or at least experiencing it as it should be experienced. I think, though, that I can surmise from the cover of his book that he’s a hell of a performer. Activist, politician, basket weaver, bard and now a poet with a published collection, Goodtimes writes of the land, beauty, our national political arena, the nature of man and woman, the work of other artists, and as the title of one poem states, how “To Shit Proper.”

One of my favorites in this collection is the one shown in yon sidebar, “Pilot Light.” According to the notes in the back of the book, this poem is based on a dream that his mother experienced. Poems about death often contain a very beautiful but very simple image that serves to disguise the depths to which the poem reaches. In this case the simple blue rosette of a pilot light. So elemental, so full of possibility. Nice.

Working in the bardic tradition, Goodtimes’ poetry is lyrical, rhythmic, usually funny and often poignant. Place holds a power in his poems, as one would expect from a person so obviously in love with his home. There are great stories, like the poem about the time he didn’t see a bear, and beautiful images, such as in “Kehoe Beach,” which describes a windy day on a beach watching the sheer power of the ocean beating the sand to grayness. Each poem is fairly simple and each hides a lesson that is, perhaps, not so easy to read and learn. A collection worthy of a local legend. •