The Venice Beat Poets – The Great River Outside the Mainstream -
Frank T. Rios
By Hillary
Kaye
Frank T. Rios is a man who lives
consciously in a world not only inhabited by form but by spirit. He makes it
clear that his life is not his own, it is given over to the muse who speaks
through him.
The path to his muse was not his choosing. He was
first “guided” when he was studying acting with Sanford Meisner at
the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. American poetry rather than the usual
classic soliloquies attracted his attention. It was his reading of Edwin
Markham’s “The Man with the Hoe” that inspired him to be a
poet.
In 1954 to escape the street drug scene he was
involved with in New York, he hitchhiked “On the Road” style
across the country to Venice and immediately fell in love with it. When he
returned in ‘59 everything seemed to fall into place at Venice West
Cafe.
Frank Rios, Stuart Perkoff and Tony
Scibella became “The Holy Three,” a trio of poet seekers on the
boardwalk. They were "broken wide open" and totally dedicated to poetry. A
mystical realization of this came in Topanga Canyon when the muse appeared to
Frank, touched him on the tongue and ordained him a poet. A ritual offering of a
poem which was written for the muse was then burnt, finishing the
ordination.
Frank has written 11
books of poetry including the following poem from “The Kid in the
Woods” which is available at Beyond
Baroque.
An Interview with Frank T. Rios
appears on page
5.
------------
The
sun is all things
lighting its
way
burning
flesh
separating the
bark
from the
tree
the Kid
must
write
on
wood
put his naked
hand
to its naked
face
they threaten
to put it all on the
Internet
sun &
moon
man &
woman
the giant
oak
the poem is spattered
against
O Lady
of the
woods
give me
power
to keep the
poem
human
&
the hands naked
against the giant
oak
- Frank T. Rios
Posted: Tue - January 1, 2008 at 03:49 PM
