Street Poet

Street Poet

A few weeks ago I was taking my lunch break.  I decided to walk over to Whole Foods to get something from their hot food bar.  Whole Foods is about three blocks from where I work.  As I was walking I spotted a young man standing in front of a store.  As I passed he asked me, “Do you like poetry?”  I responded, “I’m totally poetry.”  He said, “Would you like to hear one of my poems?”  “Sure,” I replied.  This sounded good.

He then asked me what topic I would like for my poem?  I hesitated, and he jumped in with a list: nature, work, politics, religion . . .  I said, “God.  I want a poem about God.  I’m a Quaker.”  I added the ‘Quaker’ bit to let him know where I’m coming from.  On the spot he recited:

the strongest force

i can think of is love

and I believe that it’s not

from a heaven above

it resides in each

& all of our hearts

i’m saying that god’s

not separate or apart.

mispelt god

is good within us all

add an ‘o’ to god

& deities fall

seein something beautiful’s

like lookin into a mirror

cause within you is a love

that’s radiantly pure

i once learned, now believe,

that evil has momentum

please embrace all you can

our good that i mention

you can help somebody out

create some righteous art

knowin god’s within

not distant or apart.

Tim Hale

Not bad, not bad at all. 

It turns out Tim is a street poet who has been on his own for some years now.  I’m not sure, but I think he’s in his 30’s.  He handed me a chapbook of his poems with the poem he recited in it.  And I gave him some money in return.

I love running into street poets, but it’s been a long time since I encountered one.  The last time I had a real encounter that included interaction, conversation, and some poems, was Julia Vinograd in Berkeley.  Love her work.  In some ways, Tim and Julia are cut from the same cloth.  Living on the fringes, unconnected with any poetry establishment, lacking MFA credentials or other tokens that get you published in the right journals or invitations to the right conferences.

Tim and Julia have very different styles.  Julia composes free verse, but with a deft touch to her lineation and a distinctive voice that is unmistakable.  Tim writes metrical verse; it appears to me from reading his chapbook that his poetry is strongly influenced by popular song; always a good sign. 

At another level, though, Tim and Julia are birds of a feather.  They both write from their encounters with life and express a point of view which is largely absent from more established poets. 

Here’s one more of Tim Hale’s poems:

The Kinship of Homeless

I slept between boats

Made money off poems

That summer in Seattle

I never was alone

I hung with the homeless

Took care of each other

I was closer to them

Than I am my own brother.

We dumpstered some steaks

Some forty-plus dollars

And fed them to dogs

Who roamed without collars

We gathered and shared

Meals every night

Round fires we’d rambled

‘till dawn brought us light.

There were dreamers and lovers

Addicts and thieves

We share with each other

Our deepest beliefs

About pain from the past

How life had been tainted

Or how life’s just a canvas

Waiting to be painted.

We talked of possibilities

That never really end

How the heart that’s broke the most

Would eventually mend

While some work for power

For gain and for gold

Our possessions were little

But rich was our soul.

Know moments our choices

‘tween love and ‘tween fear

If you open yourself

There’s family near

We weren’t each other’s siblings

Father or mother

Though all of us were family

In Seattle that summer.

I just went over to youtube and found a number of posts about Tim.  If you are interested you can take a look.

So there is poetry everywhere, and good poetry too.