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As If the World Really Mattered: Poems

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There are as many ways to write poetry as there are ways to be human, but all too often poetry becomes little more than an exercise in ego.

But this book is not written as an exercise in self-aggrandizement. For Art, life is something never to be taken for granted and every action--from breathing, to seeing, to loving, to weaving carefully handcrafted baskets, to gathering mushrooms, to cutting up and planting heirloom potatoes, to sometimes lamenting the destruction of sacred and irreplaceable things--is done thoughtfully, mindfully. That includes the writing of poetry. For one to write poetry "as if the world really mattered," one has to believe that poetry really matters as well.

I had heard many of these poems performed before reading the book. Art is an extraordinary performer, a capable and enthusiastic supporter of the spoken word. Before reading the book I wondered how well his poetry would translate to the page. Have no fear--it does not suffer in the translation. His images leap off the page, and his bold "voice" continues to ring true.

Buy this book. You will love it.

As If the World Really Mattered: Poems

I have read Art's poetry book--"As If the World Really Mattered"--multiple times. With each re-read, within the familiar, I find subtle nuances that I did not notice before.

Art's poetry is honest. His poetry resounds and reverberates with the truth of his perspective. I found solace learning that I was not the lone human feeling or thinking certain things. My mind was expanded by thoughts and perspectives that I had never entertained before.

Art's poetry is accepting. The words on the page beautiful. The ideas and concept combinations are surprising and savory. Art deftly maneuvers through topics like love and birth, and successfully avoids the cheese!

I wondered, when I first read this poetry book, if I would hear Art's thunderous voice crackling out of the page, or if it would be my small voice reading his ideas. I wondered if reading would be the same as a live performance. I found that reading the poems gave me opportunity to meditate and concentrate on the content. And, yes, I could hear the thunderous crackling electricity of Art's voice sparkling across the atmosphere of my mind.

In a deeply heartfelt affirmation of the previous reviews, I must say this book is incredibly, imaginatively artful.

Think of a bear of a man, white hair and long white beard, big-bellied laugh booming out from amongst the trunks of old-growth spruce and fir trees somewhere deep in the San Juan Mountains, off trail and possibly lost. Think of a voice like a bass drum or surf booming in off the Pacific. That's Art Goodtimes, author of As If the World Really Mattered (collected poems, La Alameda Press).

Goodtimes lives in Norwood, Colorado, where the Rocky Mountains meet the Colorado Plateau. Not only a poet, he is a San Miguel County Commissioner. The highest elected Green politician in Colorado, he represents not hippy Telluride, but the very conservative, Republican eastern end of the county and has done so successfully for three terms. He also served for 25 years as the poet-in-residence for the Telluride Mushroom Festival and can be seen almost any day driving San Miguel Canyon in his ancient Datsun pickup truck painted red with white polka dots to represent an Amanita muscaria mushroom. In short, Goodtimes is a truly fascinating fellow and a genuine local icon. As Dolores LaChapelle (a wise and wonderful woman, another icon in the San Juan region who passed away recently) writes in her introduction, "Art Goodtimes is truly a bard. He has the unique ability to take all of our individual stories -each human story within the ongoing story of our place itself - and combine them into a vast epic."

Open this book and get ready for a ride, from Kansas, "the centerfold prime rib wheat heart of America" all the way to the west coast, where "huge waves crash ashore./ I mean break bones, bruisers,/ punch-drunk rollers cooking all the way from China." You can lose yourself in the be-bop, doo-wop, roller-coaster play of Goodtimes' language, where you will find "Coyote's shadow looking for mischief./ Loon Woman diving."

Goodtimes weaves the human and the natural together, so that we realize there is no separating the two. The world is dynamic, always moving, always our home. "What better place to call home/ than this high desert cloud mesa/ high-five rippling of the continental plates/ before they slap down/ fanning towards the Coast?"

I've know Art for at least twenty years, going back to before our beards were gray, in our old Earth First! days. His steps may be slower, but he hasn't lost any of the fizz and fire. Not only is Goodtimes' poetry enticing. Even the introduction, author's preface, and extensive notes make fascinating reading. You can learn about Pomo Indian basketweaving, and why a county commissioner weaves during public meetings, learn where wild asparagus grows on Wright's Mesa, and why Thomas a Kempis was downgraded from "saint" to merely "blessed" by the Catholic Church.

This is poetry to be read out loud, imagining thunder rolling around in a high mountain cirque. Goodtimes is an undeniable feature of the landscape, like Lone Cone Peak, which rises over his home. He's one of the godfathers of bardic, bioregional poetry. Maybe one day they'll name the bridge over the San Miguel River at the base of Norwood Hill after him. The Art Goodtimes Neopagan Zenmother Buddhada Pandemonium Center of It All Bridge.

Poetics Spanning from Womb to World

You can't fake a one-hundred year egg and you can't fake a book of poetics that took twenty-five years to simmer and stew until juicy, tender, complete. Art Goodtimes is one of earth's top students, he's been paying attention and he's not afraid to share. "As if the World Really Mattered" teaches us that everything matters. Like Ram Dass, Mr. Goodtimes helps us see the interrelatedness, the connectivity of all life through rhythm that measures the way things touch. These poems speak clearly, lyrically of our passage on this planet, through the dirt and back into it again, of human sensory stimuli, skin, music, lights, action and emotive reaction; weeping, laughter, love, devotion, honesty, loss, acceptance. "As if the World Really Matters" offers the best kind of entertainment, too, the kind with immediacy and a slow unfurling of sagacity. Like Ghalib, Art Goodtimes sees both sides of a coin simultaneously, knows we are nothing without longing and confusion. He helps us laugh at ourselves because of this, not in spite of it.
Don't be mislead by the cover of this book. Mr. Goodtimes may appear more oversized garden gnome or hobbit like wizard than saint, but Goodtimes invokes us, like St. Benedict did "...to rise from sleep." So all you grassroots, activist and scholarly poets, wake up, buy this book.