Guest Lichtenbergian: Danny Maldonado
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poet Danny maldonado at backstreet community Arts
Daniel Maldonado appeared one week at Backstreet, his wife having signed up for a collage/bookmaking class. He gravitated to the writers group and quickly settled in. Two weeks later he announced that he thought he wanted to learn to write poetry.
Okay, I thought, and gave him a quick lesson and assignment on iambic meter to get him started. By the end of the session he had already written poetry worth reading.
Danny Maldonado, tell us about yourself.
I would say I'm a curious person. I'm easily excited and interested. I have a wide spectrum of interests, and I question everything.
I’ve been interested in art since high school, but I’ve been terrible at it until recently.
I grew up in New York City, in the Upper West Side and Harlem. Now I’m in the Georgia countryside where I do farm work. I also lived in Puerto Rico last year.
I’m an animal and nature lover. I would also say I’m an optimistic person who doesn’t feel the need to step into boxes people put me in.
You only started writing poetry very recently. What caused that?
I grew up watching all my favorite characters in stories die. Movies, shows, books, comics, etc., so I grew tired of it in high school and started daydreaming of my own stories. I left it at that, but the stories never left me. They were always in the back of my mind, nagging me. It’s like having a backpack that you fill up with a new book once in a while, but I never take any out. The bag is too heavy, and I have to start taking the stories out. I know that’s a tangent, but my poetry is part of that tangent. I always noticed that there were certain things that were in my bag that weren’t full stories but still in the bag, weighing me down. I couldn’t think of any story to properly express them, so I decided to try poetry. And out of the bag they came.
Since then, it seems you’ve written nonstop. Any suggestions for the rest of us on how to make that happen in our writing?
Make a heavy bag!
No, I would honestly go with what I was taught, which is procrastinate with something else you feel like you need to do. My to-do list is Poems, short stories, and wood carving. Sometimes I feel lazy and write haiku, but I decided to turn them into trading cards. That means I must draw and design a card. So that stops me from making a bunch of haikus, and I only make the ones that are worth it.
There was an old salsa song that went “LSD has a hold on me”, and I would change the words LSD to ADHD for myself. Know yourself, then work around yourself.
Prior to this outburst of poetry, what were you working on?
Comic books, but I had trouble finding artists. Turns out artists are finicky. I had one guy send me a perfect sketch, and he kept saying he couldn’t do it. I told him he did it, it's great, take my money. He wouldn’t take it. So, I decided to go the short story route since I'm not good enough to draw a comic.
Then I thought that learning to write poetry could be a helpful skill for my stories, in case I decided to write a character who knows poetry. And it stuck honestly. I didn’t even realize I had collected all these things in my bag that weren’t stories, but still had a place.
What makes you call yourself an writer?
I have a pen. I don’t feel like I have any special accolades or pedigree to grant myself that title. I’ll call myself that in only the simplest of definitions.
Any influences on your work?
Everyone, to be honest. I see things I like and don’t like in all places. But if I were to pick poetry, I would say William Butler Yeats. “Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven” has always resonated with me.
My parents were older, so I grew up on the original monster movies, so I have always liked Edgar Allen Poe. It's cliché, but I still like his work.
What advice would you give to any artist who is unsure of themselves?
Being unsure of yourself is not a good enough reason not to try. You can feel unsure. It’s fine. I’m always unsure. But sometimes when I'm sure, I'm wrong. And sometimes when I'm unsure, I'm wrong. Life is to be lived, so live and find out.
Danny posts his work at https://danielmalonado.substack.com/. He’s been writing so much that I haven’t had time to catch up. I especially like “Kintsugi” and “City Bird Blues.” (Don’t worry, Daniel, I’ll read everything soon.)
