Todd Boss

I think I was at Wilde's Roast in Saint Anthony, down along the river. I was meeting some poet friends who were kind enough to let me horn into their poetry discussion.

This was a couple weeks ago, and the weather was just bright enough where you felt compelled to sit on the patio, but it was kinda cold, so since I was the first to arrive, I chose the inside.

Inside is safe.

So everybody gets there, takes their seat, and somebody point's to a huge tapestry of Oscar Wilde and says......

Look, it's a Todd Boss tapestry.

The entire table laughed.

I'm guessing most of you won't get the humor here, so let me bring you up to speed.

Todd Boss is a successful poet in the Twin Cities.

He has had books published, been awarded grants, stuff like that.

He is also big into making short videos and layering poems over them.

Don't quote me, but I think it's called Poetry in Motion.

I don't know Todd personally, we have been attached by proximity several times, but that's about it.

So now that my table of friends is noting the physical similarities between Oscar Wilde and Todd Boss, a member of the group wonders if Todd might be intentionally trying to bite on Wilde's vibe.

After all.....nobody has sported that hair style since Prince Valiant - LOL.

But that's what makes poets interesting I think.

Who wants to hear observations from cogs within the machine?

The server brings our table drinks, and before the group decided to discuss their own affairs, Todd Boss stayed on the discussion platform.

I can't recall who threw this into the mix, but somebody stated that Todd once claimed the best way to become an author is to write 10 000 poems before becoming serious.

For the record now.....I am not saying Todd Boss said this, I'm just stating that somebody attached this wisdom to him.

I pondered this for a moment, and then I had to be the Pollack in the room.

I had to disagree.

I do believe repetition is good, but I have heard other poets swear by writing a poem every-single-day.

I think when you focus on numbers or deadlines, how can you throw fireballs?

Your content will become deluded.

On numerous occasions I've meant to ask Finley his thoughts on this, but each time I see him, this trivial matter usually gets upstaged by a Poodle puppy named Lucy, or conversations regarding his wifes Opera try outs.

Anyways...I'll throw it out to the cosmos, and who knows?

Maybe Finley can respond to whether a poet needs to write a certain amount of poems to become "Serious".