Mexican American author and poet Gary Soto and Cal State Long Beach’s HipPoetics treated students to a campus poetry reading on Thursday, March 1 at the Beach Auditorium.
English professor Charles Webb took to the podium and introduced Soto.
Before starting off with reading “Starchy Clothes,” Soto joked that the best thing about CSULB so far was “that [he] was able to find parking.” He also prefaced “Starchy Clothes” with the notion that “poetry often starts with hurt.” He mentioned that his writing style involved both regionalism and his experience as a Mexican American.
When Soto jokingly said he was the “first Mexican American writing in complete sentences” and that “[he] only had a 1.6 GPA in high school,” a few laughs erupted from the audience. Not only was the former UC Riverside and UC Berkeley professor’s work “full of spirit and fun,” as said by Webb, but it was evident right away that Soto himself was, too.
Soto read 11 poems, including one from his new book called “The Dime Store Parrot” and “Ode to the Yard Sale,” one of his favorites, which describes a yard sale in his hometown Fresno. According to Soto, the city “isn’t not exactly hell, but you can see it from [there].”
He also read his well-known autobiographical poem “Oranges.”
Instead of having a question and answer session at the end of the reading, Soto answered questions in between poems.
“[Poetry] is a real tricky profession, writing is tricky, ” said Soto when asked to give advice to young poets and readers.
“Read as much as possible. There’s a great pleasure in reading, and surround yourself with people doing the same thing.”
When Soto was asked if would ever consider writing politics he said matter-of-factly, “I can’t do that. I could be a comedian. I want to make movies.”
The evening concluded with chatter and copies of Soto’s poetry collection books for sale.