“I write poetry in order to live more fully.” — Judith Rodriguez
Q & A with Poet [Frank Gomez Jr.] 1.) What is Welcome to Irie Park all about? It’s my take of a poetry book…the poetry in this collection represents a wide cross-section of my interests and eclectic thoughts.  Poetically, it combines a descriptive, analytic approach with normative elements, and is marked by a latent reflective spiritual and emotional undertone to go with its expected, customary hypercritical and uncompromising overtone.  As such, Welcome To Irie Park, challenges us to question the way we’ve been living – and ask us not to repeat old formulae, but to rethink thinking – to change individually first in order to better our social ecology!  This poetry collection is thus intended as an open dialogue, instigating personal reflection, critical thinking, and truth-seeking (under the aphoristic mantra: ‘Self-awareness is power!’).  So, yes, you can also say it’s a book about the power of thinking and the need to rethink and question (well, if it’s up to me) everything including thinking itself—that is, the very nature and process of personal modus operandi and social modus vivendi—aka ‘rethinking’.  These poems are not necessarily intended as philosophical poems, but they are certainly tinted and brush stroked with the paint of philosophical thoughts and ideas.  I’m hoping that style will be—for a lack of a better phrase— a stroke of genius 2.) What kind of book is Welcome to Irie Park? I get this question all the time.  As soon as I open my big mouth (in excitement though not gloatingly) and utter I have a poetry book on the market that also proffers a methodology for teachers of poetry, I’m asked two questions:  Is it a book of poetry?  Or, is it a text book (with poetry)?  Well, it is certainly a book of poetry.  It showcases fifty poems.  Yes, fifty poems—forty-five by yours truly as lead poet and five other poems are contributed by my erudite friend and fellow educator, Mathias Vairez, as contributing poet—in addition to featuring twelve photos in color depicting the impressive artwork of a young budding Taiwanese-Belizean visual artist, Julian Veronin Kuo, as well as an explicated prologue on poetry and how to utilize the poems in Welcome to Irie Park as a instructional model/sample to inspire poetic literacy in students, especially high school upper classmen and college students.  So the short answer to the two questions posed is both… Welcome to Irie Park is a book of poetry and a compact teacher’s resource on poetic literacy. 3.) What are the poetic themes of Welcome to Irie Park? This combo book of poetry (as art and text) is divided into twelve distinct but connecting themes that sequenced itself from innocence to finality.  These themes mirror life’s progression…and in the process, they depict life’s developmental evolution and growing pains, address issues of personal digression and societal regression as well as highlight life’s transgressions.  As my friend and fellow writer Indira Chavarria, who penned the forward, elegantly categorized it (Gomez, 2014, p.vii): As I stroll through Irie Park, I…am elated as I read and I remain in a state of total bliss as the lyrical words from (the poetic themes of) Childhood Memories, Dreams and Aspirations, On Being Educated, and Language and Persuasion dance around in my head.  I am mesmerized by the Nature of Poetry and Art skillfully strewn and brushed on the canvas of the page.  As I look out to further enjoy nature at its best, my eyes settle upon our responsibility and call On Stewardship (of Nature).  My ears are alerted by the lingering kiss of For-play and the whispering of Sweet Nothings.  The winds of Power, Race and Politics gently caress my face, as Religion and Spirituality warms my heart and soul, Social Criticism and Commentary along with Thinking and Philosophizing cascade down the pages and then Beginnings and Endings blanket my feet.  It’s a full-body experience…complimented by the contributed poems (which only served to further add fullness to an otherwise complete poetry collection).  4.) Where did you get the idea for Welcome to Irie Park? Poetry is life…it’s in motion everywhere…it’s in silence in the dead of night…it’s in the energetic noise of the young…and the calmness of the wisdom of the aged.  So, it’s no surprise that this title came to my attention as I drove by a local park—to my surprise—by name of “Irie Park” with a definition of what “irie” means ‘muralized’ to the local community and public at large…What a site!  What a cultural oasis amidst the concrete jungle of SoCal.  It is so reminiscent of my childhood and third world reality!  Yes, it’s a small park decorated playfully with childish murals (one of which appears on the cover of this poetry volume) painted on a cinderblock fence around its perimeter on a route I frequented.  It dawned on me instinctually and I said to myself reflectively, wouldn’t that be an interesting name for a poetry collection—my poetry collection—when I put it out?  That was three years prior to formally aggregating this collection…slowly, it became entrenched in my psyche as the name of choice for my poetry collection.  Yes, it’s a title that grew on me and took deeper root in my imagination with each passing of the said park.  And given that I frequently traverse nearby, it gradually became the overarching metaphor to ground my themes in this poetic volume.  Talk about art imitating life! 5.) Is Welcome to Irie Park a descriptor or a metaphor? Welcome to Irie Park is not a description of its name sake—that physical public space, I described earlier, nor is it intended to be a reflection of that (physically or socially).  The latter is simply the inspiration for the title.  Welcome to Irie Park is a metaphor; one that “serves allegorically as an effervescent mode to spark inquiry and curiosity and functions as a social plateau to seek truth” (Gomez, 2014, p.xxiii).  Further, it is “artistically envisioned as…a watering hole to whet one’s poetic appetite…” (Gomez, 2014, p.xxiii).  As such, it’s a metaphor that provided the conceptual framework which in turn guided the selection of poems that fit the bill and made the cut for inclusion and presentation in this, my debut volume of poetry 6.) Who is Welcome to Irie Park intended for? Welcome to Irie Park is best suited for those who desire reexamining previous conceptions, self-evident notions, and held beliefs in order to find morsels [bits and pieces] of truths [to form a better understanding of the ‘real’] as we strive towards completing the puzzle called life!  Hence, these poems are published for the poetic enjoyment of the casual poetry reader as well as those poetic aficionados who have a greater and deeper appreciation of the finer points of the sublime poetic art.  So yes…it’s written for both students of poetry (literally and figuratively, i.e., those who have an interest in poetry) and those who are more seasoned in their poetic awareness! 7.) How long have you been writing poetry? I’ve been documenting my thoughts and ideas in poems—or as I would say, my ‘philosophical expressions via poetic form’–habitually for about a decade and a half.  So the poems that appear in this volume are representative of my poetic style and meaningful to me (and hopefully my readers); they are—in my humble opinion—‘wonder-full’ irie poetic gems of a poetic chef that when pieced together completes a puzzle that epitomized the themes and poetically expressed the message of (‘think for yourself and rethink the ‘sacred cows’ of life’—those entrenched ideas embedded in our psyche à la) Welcome to Irie Park. 8.) Why should one read Welcome to Irie Park? On a literary level, this collection of poetry—or as I often say ‘philosophical expression via poetic form’—is a medium that will make you think—think beyond the prosaic ostensible meaning about (everything and question anything including) the issues of life, sourcing of truth, and the problems of language, which the poems discussed herein.  And from a product focus perspective, I think people—of all walks of life and persuasions—should read this ‘wonder-full’ collection of poetry because it is accessible and varied.  This poetic production is truly the result of pure diligence and dedication by all involved…there were no short cuts, nothing shortchanged, to produce this quality work of art from cover to cover which includes, besides the featured and contributed poems, thoughtful quotes and photos of inspirational visual art depicting my poetic themes. 9.) What do you want for readers to get out of, or take away from, Welcome to Irie Park? I guess I simply want readers to realize that we’re free to rewrite the future we wish to live!  And though “Poetry is creativity inspired (that which comes to a poet’s mind) and inspired creativity (that which flows from a poet’s pen)” (Gomez, 2014, p.xi), it is more than “a work of fiction, it doesn’t necessarily have to lie” (Gomez, 2014, p.xi); it can tell a story anecdotally and is incidentally autobiographical.  In other words, “A poem,” as poetry professor Huck Gutman explained, is human speech about human affairs.”  Poetry, as a work of art, is a human artifact and “a learning tool—perspicacious, didactic, and dialogical—and is intrinsically valuable!” (Gomez, 2014, p.xi).  So, to the students who read this book and the students-of-life (those who are poetically inclined), may your journey be a long winding path that brings you (ever closer, if not) to truth and peace! 10.) What advice do you have for teachers of poetry? Poetry, if you haven’t realized, is wisdom in brevity!  It is, academically speaking, language arts in the miniature.  “Poets distill a novel’s worth of content and emotion in a handful of lines.  The literary elements and devices you need to teach are all there, powerful and miniature as a bonsai tree” (Janeczko, 2011, p.2).  So, teachers, feel free to use this book in a way that best suits your needs and the needs of your students.  You can jump around among and within the themes without fear of losing a sense of the transformative progression in this book.  As teachers (of language or writing), I want you to help your students to get to know themselves, feel joy and pride in their expressions, trust what they feel and think confidently!  As writing guru Natalie Goldberg quipped: “Once you connect with your mind, you are who you are and you’re free” (2010, p.xv).  11.) Who are the poets that inspire you? Many!  Here are a few…I’m always in awe by the great works of American poets Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni, Langston Hughes, Emily Dickinson, and William Carlos Williams, among others, and more recently, Elizabeth Alexander, Terrance Hayes, and Vijay Seshadri.  I’m humbled too by the literary prowess of St. Lucian poet and Nobel Prize laureate Derrick Walcott, Jamaican poet James Berry, British poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, Irish poet Oscar Wilde, Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, and Tanzanian poet Gloria D. Gonsalves.  And I am equally inspired by Belizean dub poet Leroy “The Grandmaster” Young, and the protest poetry of Belizean activists Erwin X and Evan X Hyde as well as the personal poetic reflections of Belizean women poets Adele Ramos and Sr. Sarita Vasquez, and am no less proud of the published poetic/literary works of my former students (and fellow Belizean poets) Ritamae Hyde and Kalilah Enriquez. 12.) Where can I get a copy of Welcome to Irie Park? Welcome to Irie Park—my debut poetry collection—is available in both paperback and as an ebook.  You can find it online at Amazon.com…or you can order copies directly from the publisher, Educational Concept LLC., at: http://www.drtyronetanner.com/Educational_Concepts/Contact_Us.html, or from the authors (email: xsverse@gmail.com). “Metaphors Be With You!” —Frank G.
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