Journal Journal: "The Old Gringo"
https://webmail.unm.edu/Session/1320572-Y1j7gQdjZPpKantrtF1J-kmbdssd/MessagePart/SOLAS/96-02-B/Limon%20Vol.%2026.1%20%20final.pdf
âoeThe Old Gringoâ
With the grandiose Sandias in the background, I sat down for lunch at Lucky Boy Restaurant with local poet David Wilde. While ordering our food, David be-gan swapping insights about Hong Kong with Susie and Ronald, the restaurantâYs owners. Afterward, he shared with me that the snippets of Cantonese that they exchanged had inspired him to write a poem. Commonly, it is everyday life happenings such as this that move him to write poetry. For David, poetry is a means to nail down the essence of a particular mo-ment, feeling, or thought, so that it is forever captured in time. Thus, David WildeâYs poetry becomes a collage of historical reality.
Born in the heart of south Wales, David moved to London to train as a classical musician at the Royal Academy of Music in the 1960s. His passion for music and playing the French horn manifested itself in a rig-orous practice schedule often lasting up to ten hours a day. Although he does not currently play, DavidâYs twenty-five years of musical experience shines through in his statement that he would like his poetry to form oral images rather than visual images. Indeed, music has always served as the inspiration and foundation from which his other artistic endeavors have grown. In fact, it was music that first sparked DavidâYs interest in Latin America, Brazil in particular. In1982 David met an Australian student at the New Kent Hotel in Bayswater, London who told him about Carlos FermÃn Fitzcarrald, a Peruvian rubber baron who inspired the film Fitzcar-raldo (how the locals pro-nounced his name), directed by Werner Herzog. Although Fitzcarrald focused his energy on developing the rubber in-dustry of 19th century Manaus, Brazil, he also brought classical opera to the Amazon Basin. Notably, Manaus is the home of the Teatro Amazonas opera house. As a classical musician, David identified strongly with this romantic visionary story of adventure in Manaus and knew that some day he had to visit this Brazilian locale.
It was also in 1982 that Wilde began work in oil explo-ration in the North Sea of Scotland, an experience that inspired his first poem, âoeNorth Sea Saga: Opera of Oilâ. Not too long after, he ventured out to California and then hitch-hiked to Albuquerque, a quick journey that took only three days. It is here in the Duke City that David has made his home, but since heâYs quite the world traveler, I asked David where in Latin America he would like to visit in addition to Manaus. He ex-pressed a desire to visit a good friend in Colombia as well as to travel further south to see Tierra del Fuego. In the meantime, David is filling his time writing a book on mental wellness and healing, learning about flamenco music and dance, and writing original poetry.
When composing poetry, David likens his exile to the lunar landscape of New Mexico. He says that writing poetry is a discipline that involves the development of a certain technique and mindset. With few exceptions, David leaves his poems in their natural state, meaning that he does not go back and edit or change the vo-cabulary. To do so would pollute the poemâYs true meaning, and perhaps, indicate that it is being written for a specific audience. In reality, writing poetry is a personal act that allows David to arrive at a peaceful clarity, an exercise he likens to Buddhists practicing meditation. In this sense, poetry becomes his lens for the infinite series of changes that comprise life.
According to David, one of the great strengths of po-etry is that it is a strong weapon against the political and military industrialization that is taking us away from our roots by creating an artificial economic world. Therefore, he says that it is important to study poetry as an exercise in conformity so that he knows where he
can deviate into his own unique path of artistic expression. Even though WildeâYs poetry is deeply personal, he enjoys sharing his work with others, and thus, has had his poetry translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, and Austrian German.
In addition to daily events, David feels inspired by the presentations given at the SOLAS Speaker Series events. Be sure to give him a salutation if you see him at one of these events, because who knows, he may be bound for Tierra del Fuego any day now!
To see more of David WildeâYs poetry, please visit http://www.decirdelagua.com/decirsc7/decirsc7.htm
Additionally, videos of his poetry readings can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrbCA3CIEHI
EditorâYs note: David Wilde is very grateful for the chance to share his insights and poetry with LIMON, and is espe-cially appreciate of the work done by Héctor Contreras LÃpez in translating his poems from English to Spanish.
For this article Kira Luna interviewed Mr. David Wilde to find out more about the gentleman who contributes his poetry to LIMON and is a regular at the SOLAS Speaker series. Two more of Mr.Wildeâ(TM)s poems can be found in the Poetâ(TM)s Corner on page 12.
