Dan Fante

Selections from 'Kissed By A Fat Waitress'

 

 

 

Playing It Safe

 

 

Sometimes

for me

on the border between

reality and insanity

stands

my

pen

 

and the knowing that honest passion necessitates an end to lies

and…compromise

 

When my gut tells me to say it

then I must spit it out

and sometimes puke those flames directly into God’s face

 

and

then be willing to face what comes next

whatever that is

 

A poet’s silence is an act of terrorism

and it is his pen

that slashes the poison from the world’s wounds

and insures

aid

and

comfort

to saying

what is often

 

the unsayable

 

 

 

 

 

No No No No No No

 

 

Ten years ago - between writing novels - I wrote a new play

about my old man, John Fante

and called it DON GIOVANNI

and sent it out

and sent it out

and sent it out

 

And it was like I’d written the piece in Chinese or Farsi

or Sandskrit or some goddman thing ‘cause nobody cared

 

not one blink of interest – not anywhere

 

Then, in my spare time, I rewrote DON GIOVANNI once or twice more and added more conflict and more humor and more madness

and…sent it out again…everywhere

 

And guess WHAT

 

nobody cared – not one blink of interest anywhere - zippo!

 

So that was that

I dumped all the copies of the play into my filing cabinet’s

bottom drawer and chalked the whole deal off as a waste of time

until – nine years later

when I was in Italy and a newspaper guy – a friend – who didn’t know I wrote plays - asked to read it - then wrote back

how staggeringly brilliant a writer I am and how he wants to do a national tour of DON GIOVANNI and then take it to New York and The West End in London…

 

So okay - now here’s the morel: Always remember you’re a goddamn genius no matter what anybody says and do not listen to experts or producers or critics or your old lady

and keep smoking those sixty Camels a day and swindling the IRS 

and watching your internet porn

but

keep writing

for chrissakes - just keep writing – just never give up or stop writing

 

 

 

 

 

copyright © dan fante

2008

 

 

 

Fante's latest book of poetry ‘Kissed By A Fat Waitress’ is out now in the U.S published by Sun Dog Press

 

His critically acclaimed play ‘Boiler Room’ is scheduled for publication by Burning Shore Press in Winter of 2008.