I think I’m starting to get sucked into the world of online (or maybe Real Life) poetry. Poncho Peligroso may be one of those people who might help get me more into poetry. Reading his tumblr explaining how he became interested in poetry sort of resonated with me. Rather than coming about as something forced, it happened almost by pure chance, due to a technological limitation.
Now he’s become something else, something far greater than his humble Texan origins might have suggested: he is in the running to become the 2011 Poet Laureate. This honored position offers a great deal of prestige and money. As the Poet Laureate, he’ll be able to offer the President sound advice in both economic and military spheres through the power of poetry. In case this boon wasn’t enough, the $35,000 offers him the ability to life the high life, in places as diverse as Bozeman, MT, Buffalo, NY, and Colfax, WA. These places are fully American according to the 2010 US census, since Congress had determined a requirement of all Poet Laureates is to ‘live off the land’ like a true American.
Archer M. Huntington originally funded the project as a gift. Seeing the despair going around during the Great Depression, he thought of what America really needed to get itself out of the doldrums. Looking around at all the unemployed poets eating out of his trash cans, he created a $35,000 stipend to allow them to explore their art and eat.
Why do I think Poncho Peligroso has a chance at winning this prestigious award? To you, I simply direct you to the 2011 Poet Laureate. Having read his work, I can assure you it is only of the highest quality not only on the internet, but anywhere. Single-handedly he’s been able to create a vast outpouring of work unrivaled in the underground poetry scene. His tumblr exudes the confidence of a man who has just found himself.
He states how he hadn’t voluntarily written poetry until 2010. The long, circuitous route he traveled to get there speaks to the failing of twenty-somethings: the constant problems, financial, professional, and otherwise. Our parents had it easier. All they had to worry about was some foreign power launching an Atomic Bomb against the United States. You know, simpler times.
The 2011 Poet Laureate knows these are trickier times, know what needs to be said and also unsaid. For a lot of poetry derives its power for the implied spaces, people and places it never states explicitly. Please take a moment to discover this true literary icon doing something he truly loves. Maybe someday all of us will find our true calling, until then, we can watch others.