selected poems by dougie padilla: dougiepadillapoet.com

2015 - 2022

Long ago and far away I was a young poet. I wrote constantly. Then came the Vietnam war and all the protests. And then came San Francisco and psychedelics and communes around the country. Zen masters and Indian swamis came. A psychotic break came. Heart failure came. And ashrams and organic farming with horses came. Eventually, there were kids and houses and marriage and businesses and a long career in the visual arts. And even grandkids…

Fifty years later and out of the blue poetry returned quick and sure. I’d moved my art studio to rural Wisconsin to beat rising rents in the city, to concentrate on my painting, to meditate, be in nature, to face my loneliness. Once there, I started working on my memoirs. Instead, poems begin pouring out. Now, another seven years and five books published later they continue to pour out. What a blessing.