June 9, 1985-San Antonio Express-News

Thank you artists for the inspiration

Readers come into this poet's world and enjoy some of the things that give my life a poetic experience. Yes, do let us both celebrate the human possibility and finality within our human(izing) dance through life.

Existence is venturing into experience along with the exploration of values.

Friday, May 31, I went with Richard Acevedo, a local art-loving barister to Austin to commemorate two poets - Walt Whitman, the patriarch of American poetics, and David C. Yates, a recently deceased New Braunfels publisher and poet.

Paperbacks Plus Bookstore was the setting for an inspired gathering of some of the foremost poets of Texas who had come to celebrate the impact of Whitman and the memory of Yates.

It was a fitting tribute to both, for Whitman had reconfigurated poetic imagery more than a century ago, while Yates had given more than 10 years of his life to Texas poetry and in the process helped poets publish.

Who were the poets paying tribute? Such luminaries as Sandra Lynn, Pat Ellis Taylor, Susan Bright, David Oliphant, Chuck Taylor, Paul Foreman, Albert Huffstickler, Fran Cusack, Eleanor Crockett and many more too numerous to name. Friday and Saturday were filled with images of our mortality - not in fear, but in realizing that life is indeed too precious to waste. It was poetic for me.

Acevedo told me he went in order to see poets affirming life's meaning by festively paying a moving accolade to a departed colleague.

The mood reminded me of a strophe of Whitman's "Leaves of Grass," when he wrote courageously of our existential ying/yang: "O, come lovely and soothing, death/undulate around the world," creating an understandinig of life's meaning that nurtures our human will to become all that we could be.

It was a dignified celebration that brought us together as thinkers - as lovers of the human condition and its arbitrariness. Not one of us can predetermine his/her death, but we can determine the kind of life we want to lead simply by acting.

Quiet study

Returning to San Antonio on saturday, I had decided to just seclude myself for a few days and read some novels. It was to be just a thought, for Sunday would become another day of celebration.

Andy Ortiz, a local publisher of medical directories, and Geraldo Garza, a guitar-playing masseur, invited me for a few drinks. We decided to check out a beer bar. Nothing fancy, just a place where we could philosophize, play the guitar, sing and enjoy our friendship.

We were not expecting anything spectacular, for we sought only the quietude of our camaraderie. The spectacular did happen when we walked banteringly into El Dorado, an ordinary looking bar at Arbor Place and San Marcos streets. To be sure, it was like any other bar in any run down neighborhood in the land.

Filled with just plain folks, yet teeming with warmth and friendliness, its center of attraction was a genial man in his 60s.

Pedro Puente

It was Pedro Puente, a San Antonio based composer whose works have delighted people for more than a quarter century.

Puente was resplendent in his silky guayabera - a formal Mexican wedding shirt. Slickly combed hair, an engaging smile and quick witted language were part of his garb as he regaled us with stories of his travels as a singer and guitarist.

Puente spoke of his experiences with flair, dropping names easily, and sharing the trials, insecurities and beautiful moments in an artist's life.

The irony did not escape us, for here was a man who has given the world numerous hits, yet most people do not recognize him.

The jukebox was playing for the owner had decided to select a number of his songs. Someone asked whose songs they were, and another peson replied that they were songs by Tony Aguilar, Lucha Villa, Lttle Joe, Sunny Ozuna, Lola Beltrán and Joe Bravo.

Aurelio Duque, owner of El Dorado, proudly told us that the songs belonged to "Pedro Puente, un gran compostor."

"His music is our cultural focus Duqué continued "it is part of our family, a estilo mexicano pero lo mejor en Tejas (Mexican style but the best in Texas."

According to Ortiz, Puente "has created many songs... has been the foundation of our ballads, rancheros and has taken Mexican culture beyond its (Mexico's) borders."

I grew up in a border city hearing his music since my childhood. Every mariachi in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua knows who Pedro Puente is and his continuing contribution to Mexican music. His work has traversed the different worlds of Chicano and Mexicano music.

Big band, conjunto, popular, mariachi, rancheras and love ballads are his forte.

Thank you

A poet's life is exploration. It is not static nor can it fit into arbitrary schedules. It is a life of unceasing questions and few, if any, answers.

More than just enjoyment, it is a search for understanding.

Experiencing a poet's death and then entering into the dance of life through music and discussion gave me needed balance.

The balance is precarious, but life is a precarious statement - we are finite creatures who have the means to create and launch expressions that dare to approach infinity.