Pablo Neruda, a great surrealist poet from Chile, said in the preface to a short novel: "In my day to day life, I am a tranquil man, the enemy of laws, leaders, and established institutions.

Tuesday, October 10, 2000

Pablo Neruda, a great surrealist poet from Chile, said in the preface to a short novel: "In my day to day life, I am a tranquil man, the enemy of laws, leaders, and established institutions. I find the middle class odious, and I like the lives of people who are restless and unsatisfied, whether they are artists or criminals."

My dad would have liked what he stood for.

He was a big Jesse and Frank James fan. Other than "The Bridge Over the River Kwai" the only movies my dad watched were Jesse James movies. The one with Henry Fonda starring as one of the brothers was his favorite.

We went to a more recent one with Robert Duval portraying Jesse. He didn’t comment on that one. They were pretty hard on the Younger boys in that one near the end as Jesse and Frank rode south in a buggy, Jesse dressed as a women with a bonnet on.

But getting back to poetry – the governments of South America support poetry. I’ve heard the statues in South America are often of poets unlike here where we tend to depict war heroes but that seems too to be changing here. At 23, Neruda was recognized as a poet, and the Chilean government gave him a post in the consular service in the Far East.

He later went on to serve in the senate as Yeats, the Irish poet, did.

As did Eugene McCarthy, a Minnesota poet and presidential candidate during the Vietnam conflict.

It was a treat to listen to McCarthy read his poetry one freezing February night in that little community store east of Rochester. I wore my "McCarthy for President" pin that night. I wore it in Vietnam too only to be reprimanded by the brigade sergeant major and justifiably so. I obliged him by taking it off.

As I mentioned last week, Austin is honoring its own poet, Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Eberhart this week.

And much credit goes to the Austin High School Alumni Committee for making this happen.

Tomorrow Gretchen and Dikkon, the children of Richard Eberhart, arrive to participate in the activities honoring their father. Thursday will feature an assembly when the media center will become The Richard Eberhart Media Center.

Saturday there will be a public reception at the Austin Public Library where the mayor will present a proclamation at 10 a.m.

Thursday at 7 p.m. there will be "poetry slam" at the library from 7 to 8 p.m. around the fire place. If the numbers are too great the large conference room in the library is reserved.

Last week I dropped my son’s cello off at Banfield and took a few minutes to read some wonderful poetry on the wall by students answering "I am…" This was generated by the Eberhart event and the good work of teachers and Terry Becker-Ersland, the high potential coordinator for the schools.

Eberhart himself, in his poem, "Long Term Suffering" talks about how important it is to save your poetry over the years to look back on and see what you were doing in different stages of your life, at 20, 30, 40, for these kids, 11.

We have Eberhart to thank for this opportunity, for making poetry something students can relate to and be proud of and not be ashamed of.

And it is interesting that Eberhart was also captain of his football team, perhaps giving jocks the courage to lay pen to paper or fingers to keyboard.

Won’t it be nice when someday Austin has a statue of Richard Eberhart sitting on a bench, perhaps on that small stretch of grass in front of the library or in that big yard in front of the high school inviting students to join him?

Neruda’s pleasure in the restless and unsatisfied – the poets and the restless is in all of us. This are people on the fringe, people willing to take risks, willing to push on, push the limits.

I think presidential challenger George W. Bush was way wrong when he stated in the first debate that kids at risk couldn’t learn. No, I think they are the change makers and very often the enemy of law and rules, leaders and established institutions. They want more.

It was also disturbing in the first debate when Ralph Nader, the Green Party candidate was not allowed to enter the building where the debates were taking place, even with a ticket.

This doesn’t sound like America to me.

Bob Dylan, another Minnesota poet, has an album of songs featuring works of other artists – its title, "World Gone Wrong,"

These days I think of that title often.