¡Simpático Patio!

Original cover, 2005

My friends Timothy D. Brady and Terri Jenkins-Brady had started a publishing company, Write Up The Road, and offered to publish a book of my poetry. They designed the book and in September of 2005, Simpatico Patio! became my first published book, and yet it is the only book of mine still needing digitalization as an ebook.

This seemed like a good time for that project, and I decided take another, editorial look at Simpatico Patio while I was preparing to digitalize, even to the point of de-Englishizing the title!

The style was average lyric poetry, with a rookie’s lavish and elaborate language in his own, white, lower middle class with pretensions to artiness way: pitching a motif older than time: the cruise singer who never leaves the ship, and the naturalist who loves him. Type thing.

In the fifteen years since the book was published, I’ve learned a few tricks, tried out different styles, and if the writing has gotten any better it is due mostly to the fact that my reading has gotten a lot better. When I became a real writer, the 80/20 rule kicked in (which I’ve written about elsewhere, “80 percent of writing is reading.”)

The revisited version will be at no little stylistic variance with the original. The spirit will remain, just the letter(s) will diminish as things get tightened up. But no matter how much I mess with it, ¡Simpático Patio! will always be of its time.

I expect an autumn release date for the new and revised 15th anniversary digital edition of ¡Simpático Patio!

Mademoiselle is Very Picky About Her French Fries

If it’s not the container, then it’s the cut or the serving size.
Forget old, cold or soggy.
Fresh and hot is the way she likes her fries.
Fact is she’s particular and picky about everything,
Requiring not just good genes
But particular alleles at particular loci.
For you it’s a privilege, for her simply routine.

© 2020 Randy Stark

Please visit my website at www.randystark.com and my page at Write Up The Road.

1 thought on “¡Simpático Patio!”

  1. Terri Jenkins-Brady

    We were so thrilled at you agreeing to publish with Write Up The Road – and talk about rookies! We made every mistake in the book, about the book, and with the book! And yet the friendship endures and, like true talent, grows stronger with the years. Thank you, Randy, for launching our publishing company with the newest genre of poetry (if that’s the right term) – stand-up poetry. It’s been fascinating to watch your style evolve and your poetry disregard restrictions imposed upon it by critics – futile are their efforts, I may add. Rightly so. Looking forward to many more years of the twists and turns of the high way ramblings of we three at Write Up The Road. – Terri

Comments are closed.