Thank you for the compliment of my poem...but...
Giving Anthony Bourdain too much credit? Well perhaps. Why? The cowboy chef,
the biker cook, the enlightened rambler and writer, then television foodie was,
maybe, just another guy in another white/plaid shirt to some. A foodie James
Dean? A Cheffy Kerouac? He was just a guy that was bored with the
establishment world and had no fear to eat organ foods or street foods and walk
among the Natives of any land. To most women he was too much testosterone and
rebel, but secretly they loved seeing his cryptic and acerbic Nature trucking
around the globe. I know I did.
For those that don’t know, Anthony Bourdain came into people’s homes via the
television in America, (CNN) and did shows that were the first of a kind for
CNN. He traveled the world to odd and wondrous places few American’s had gone
and he opened the door to cultures people in the bucolic world or the bourgeois
class would never see. Sass. He was spice and vinegar, and chili peppers all in
one being.
But am I detecting some snobbery here? Because he was just a “cook” or chef? He
captured something both intelligent and manly; a kind of explorer in the modern
world. He was quite bright, well educated, and though very modern in his
literary tastes and style, he continued studying and learning his entire life.
He started in NJ at the bottom and climbed to quite amazing heights and was a
hero to a lot of people. Wild man would be my description of him. He was cool
and hip and quite the rebel. And in the end left us all feeling a bit
unhinged. Maybe he wanted that.
Perhaps he made too many enemies with his criticisms and judgments. Fearless to
call things like he saw them, he created a lot of stir in settled society. I
liked that. Settled and “cultured” society can be bland to some. I am no wild
one, but cowardly enjoy watching the brave explorers live edgy lives...and
write about them. I often cringed at his daring, at his willingness to taste so
many strange things, but loved seeing the world from his eyes. He helped make
my world larger.
I’m sorry he chose the end he did. Suicides are up in our society. He had a
very sensitive inside with an armor thick and strong covering him externally.
Few got to see the softer side of Tony. Too soft to maintain the stress of
being an aging wild man, perhaps.
Too much credit? Did you know him personally? Did he use his criticisms against
you or one of your own? I’m curious why you would say that. Please share.
Well, perhaps too much credit when you think he “wormed out” and left his 11
year old to deal with a world without her Father. Yes. But we will never know
why. We never really do know why some bail out at their own hand. The rest of
us, the still living ones suffer greatly.
Enough of my defense and his.
As for the poem, I have had a few folks like the poem, and one guy, a teacher
of literature, just wrote: “Really great first draft”. Perhaps the critic
expects me to dwell on the poem...too painful. But sometimes, just sometimes,
I feel the need to write my feelings, unpolished...sometimes in song, sometimes
in words. The “first draft” guy complimented me, I guess, because he thought I
was working on the craft and art of poetry. I wasn’t. I was just sharing my
grief. I was just sad.
Here’s an informative article explaining just who he was:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/anthony-bourdain-celebrity-chef-dead-at-61-suicide/
He tried.
Just saying...
Regards,
Sherrie...in WF, NC, USA.
“Clouds come floating in to my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm,
but to add color to my sunset sky.” —Rabindranath Tagore
"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to everything
else in the Universe." --John Muir
“Do What You Can, Where You Are, With What You Have.”- Teddy Roosevelt
"The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are."-Joseph Campbell
