What My Father Didn't Know I Learned From Him

About the Book

What My Father Didn't Know I Learned from Him, by Harry Youtt, is a collection of poems that are a reminiscence of his father, one that carries within it the seeds of the universal that have meaning for all of us. A photo-album of a man's soul. The first selection: Skyline, sets the tone for the entire work:

When my father died, it was like the towers coming down.

Our skyline was changed beyond recognition.
Now, parts of my father I never recovered are still down there
buried in the rubble.

    The collection has been labeled as almost a new art form, as fresh as Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass was in its time. It is the story of a "simple-complicated man," presented as a series of starbursts, one episode at a time. The result is like a box of popcorn, one can reach in & grab a handful at a time from any place in the box, leaving the rest for later.
Most contemporary poetry strives to be poetry. It tries to twist language into a message the poet wants to get across. It seeks phrases that call attention to themselves as poetry. By contrast, in these poems, as Harry Youtt says, "I just write them down & let them reach back for me."
    This is a different approach. It is what Walt Whitman recognized when he characterized the poet as not an "arguer"but as pure "judgment"itself. "He judges not as the judge judges but as the sun falling round a helpless thing."
    The collection is a long-delayed search for the discovery of the poet's father Ð a search that reveals to all of us a part of the universal quest to find the significance of our immediate roots. As Harry says: "We are all mystified by our parents. Many of us spend a long time trying to make sense of things for ourselves so we can move on into our own individuality. I hope others will gain insight in their own separate singular struggles & will be encouraged/inspired to light out in their own directions. The book will honor me best if it stimulates others to seek to create their own poetic starbursts as they go."

About the Author

    Harry Youtt has become one of our Renaissance People. For twenty years he was an East Coast trial lawyer specializing in Constitutional and intellectual property issues, but he has long since recovered from all that. He moved to Los Angeles in 1987 and currently also spends as much time as he can at a cabin in the mountains near Prescott, Arizona.
    A frequently-published poet and writer of short stories, Harry has been teaching fiction-writing in the UCLA Writers' Program (Extension) since 1990. He also designed and wrote the acclaimed official pilot season website for David Kelley's ABC episodic television drama: "The Practice." He also teaches classes in writing for multi-media in the Digital Arts Program at the University of California, at Irvine.
    For the past couple of years, Harry has conducted a workshop for poets in Wales in the Swansea house where Dylan Thomas was born. He has been a drama critic for local newspapers, and he has served as editor of the literary journal: The Hermosa Review. He has also presented scholarly papers at academic conferences in Wales, England, Canada, Mexico and the United States.
    Find out what Harry is currently up to by accessing the website he leads as the "URL-der" ("You have to say it to remember it!"): www.url-der.org