City of Legends

I have been called to task by friends both within and without the faith of Islam for my recent work "more than five pillars".  I should like to address that criticism.

The poem is not an attack on Islam or those who hold to that Abrahamic faith.  It is a statement that there are those who use it as a facade for their own political and social agendae, just as there are people of the Jewish, Christian and other religious spheres who abuse their theological labels and hypocritically draw to points and purposes outside of or contrary to the faith they claim to adhere to.

It just so happens that, in light of the cruel and self-serving violence fomented by the rulers in Iran, in the name of Allah and the prophet, they have blasphemed mightily, turning their back of the principles of their faith in the name of political expediency to hold onto power.

Don’t worry, they aren’t the only ones who are getting taken to the woodshed out behind the Sapphire Palace.  A similar work involving the Ten Commandments is on the boards, as is a series of works built on almost every other major world religion.

Let’s be clear on this:  I am not anti-religion, an agnotic or an atheist.  I am Quaker, and as such feel a certain disdain for the onion layers of social courtesies and etiquettes that have often over-written the faiths people think they are following.  Christians are not supposed to take up arms to kill, for instance, even in the name of king and country. 

The point is that so many people are alienated from honest questing for truth because of all the hypocrisy they see, everyday, in people who trumpet their religions.  I have my failings, not half as bad as some people believe, but I am far from sainthood.  I do not pass lies as truth, I do not arm people and tell them to kill in the name of God and I do not think you can place a price of a person’s life, integrity or virtue.

In the next few days, and perhaps for the rest of my life and beyond, there will be people criticizing me for what I have written and will write.  I can live with that, as the alternatives are to accept the status quo or to give up, neither of which seems particularly tasty.

Besides, I am in no hurry to die.  I know at least 4 different women who have sworn they will be waiting for me on the other side, to be with me throughout eternity.  I don’t want to be in the room when those four cross paths.  And who says we’re following the same paths?  But that’s a different poetic zone, to be considered later.

A recent note from someone let me know that there had been, once again, an identity issue surrounding me.

Let me clarify who I am (best Christopher Lambert impression, from "Highlander"):

I am William Francis DeVault. I am a poet. I have many sobriquets, but since I gave up on pseudonyms in the 1970’s, just one name. My monogram is "WFDV" and my family motto translates to "Humble only before God".

I am regarded by many as the "Romantic Poet of the Internet", a title originally given to me by Yahoo, in the mid-1990’s. Some consider me one of the fathers of the "Digital Renaissance". I have even been regarded as a possible reincarnation of a Holy Man, a notion I disregard and reject. I am me.

I have written thousands of poems, published several books, been in many publications, toured and presented my works from coast to coast in the United States, and known the love of some truly remarkable friends and lovers along this strange road.

I currently hang my ponytail in Morgantown, West Virginia, where I work as a trainer and coach for TeleTech and also moonlight as a teacher with Monongalia County’s Technical Education Center.

I used to write a comedy column for AOL’s Writers Club and used to write film reviews for AOL’s Roadside, USA hub. My favourite movie, all time, remains Bob Fosse’s "All That Jazz".

I am also called "The Amomancer", as one who "casts spells with words of love". It comes from the word "Amote", which I coined as both a contraction of the Latin for "I love you" and as meaning "To speak of love".

I have three wonderful children, all by my first wife: Perelandra (Peri), Elric and Dante. I have married and divorced, twice.

I host the podcast show "From Out of the City".

I graduated from Morgantown High School, in Morgantown, West Virginia, in 1973…a school that has never invited me to speak before even a single English class. I briefly enrolled at West Virginia University. I suppose attending classes would have helped, but I was off, in my own sphere, writing all the time.

I’ve survived gangrene and pneumonia, both in my younger days. At one of my last physicals, the doctor told me it would take kryptonite to kill me, but that I’d look better if I lost some weight. I have dropped almost 50 pounds since then.

Thanks in part to my relationships with psychologists and psychology students, I have taken just about every psychological test there is, and I know the results. Neurotic, bright and mercurial. I achieve emotional satisfaction from gratification of my very strong sex drive. In the absence of sex, I eat. I am conquering this as we speak, and to that I attribute this incredible run of productivity over the last three years. I have learned to sublimate to editing and writing and recording and painting and engineering and composing.

I am shy with women, my poetry being where the romantic can express himself.

But I am not psychotic and not pathological. Most lies I have told in this life (a bad habit for any cause) were told at the behest of others to cover their sins, not my own. I know my demons, I converse with them, and I keep them under an iron fist, but I keep them. I have sworn to fulfill the "Nosferatu’s Dream"…that if I ever see myself turn evil, I will destroy myself. I don’t hide from those who seek me, I don’t charge for good acts, I believe that any person who gets rich off of spiritually by making others pay to find their paths is a charlatan and a fraud. All truths are to be freely given, as is all love. Love = truth.

My favourite person is my father.

Perhaps the most famour quotations from me are: "A quote is just a tattoo on the tongue" and "The existence of a single atheist does not disprove the existence of God".

I am overly generous, sometimes taken advantage of for that. I have been an ennabler. I do recall the middle name of every woman I have ever been with. I am a natural flirt, something my daughter pointed out to me years ago, and I like bright, articulate, beautiful women. Despite my failings in my first marriage and some rather aggressive temptations, I did not cheat in my second marriage. I still haven’t taken a lover since then.

I was once given a tryout at Marvel Comics at the behest of Stan Lee. I didn’t make it.

I hosted the Mississippi Gathering of Poets in Bay St. Louis, three years ago. I headlined with the Southern Poets Reading Tour, twice, in 1997. I am featured in the Appalachian Education Initiative’s "Art & Soul" volume, celebrating arts education by honoring 50 "outstanding creative artists" from West Virginia. I was a featured in the Edinburgh International Internet Festival of the Arts. I have read in schools, churches, bars, coffee houses clubs and colleges across the United States.

I hosted the Writers Club Party at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City in September of 1995.

I have lived in South Carolina, Alaska, Washington, Colorado, Michigan, West Virginia, North Dakota, California, Maryland, Mississippi and Virginia. I have been homeless.

I have a tattoo. It is of a lion, on my right shoulder, mtching the lioness on my second ex-wife’s shoulder, as she requested. Duh.

I used to teach "Youth Alternatives to Violence" for Monterey County Probation in California and was the county coordinator for Monterey County for the California Friday Night LIve Partnership’s FNL program for young people. I was the Alcohol and Drug Resource Specialist for Harden Middle School in Salinas, California.

I have never eaten a live hamster. I love chicken livers. I do not like broccoli.

That is a picture, from 1974, of me on the cover of my book "The Morgantown Suite Poems". Those are pictures of my second wife on the cover of "from an unexpected corner" and "Love Gods of a Forgotten Religion".

A mystic once predicted that I would die a violent death. If so, I hope it is for a purpose and not just as a random target of random violence. I do not attend funerals, as I find them barbaric. Celebrate life, not death. Jesus said "Let the dead bury the dead".

I designed the cover of Daniel S. McTaggart’s book "Midnight Muse in a Convenience Store". I sometimes, in my spare time, edit books and design covers for other authors.

I don’t drink or do drugs, never have, never will. I believe sleeping with a person under the influence is rape.

I have made, in the past, a healthy salary as a manager of software development teams, a proposal writer and manager, and as a consultancy director.

I am an ordained minister. I have been admitted into both the Southern Baptist church and the Episcopal Church, but I count myself a Quaker (Society of Friends).

I prefer Macs to Windows platforms. My drink of choice is Diet Dr. Pepper, which is unfortunate as I do believe Splenda to be a much safer choice for artificial sweetener. I tend to wear black because it simplifies my life, I have bad taste in colour coordination. I love jasmine tea, as to me it tastes like a woman.

And, until proven otherwise, I am immortal.

At least spiritually and literally. Check in with me in 500 years to see how the physical side goes.

I’ve gotten a few comments from people who’ve noticed that I’m packing an EXPLICIT label on my iTunes podcasts. They want to know why.

Yeah, for a guy whose raciest works might be on a plane with a book in the Holy Bible (Song of Solomon) it’s tough accepting the notion that there are people who consider my stuff unfit for the kiddies. I recall a few years back when an invitation to speak to a Christian Writers group was withdrawn because I was hosting the Romantic and Erotic Poetry Group on AOL. It seems Christians don’t ever have sex or make love. Ever. Yeah, and they don’t go to war, execute prisoners or cheat on their tax forms (let’s not even start on that whole "Should a Christian own a radar detector" issue, shall we?)

Truth us, within the bond of marriage, Chrstians are completely free to express themselves sexually, and that means that compared to the other topics I just mentioned, it’s the only clean zone.

Yeah, I’m a Christian…there are those around me, even friends and family, who do not approve of or accept my decision to join the Society of Friends (Quakers)…but that’s because the level of awareness in modern society of what this group stands for is roughly akin to those 1st Century groups who thought that Christians were a sect of cannibalistic Jews (because they ate the flesh and drank the blood of their Messiah as part of their rituals…) I’m with the Quakers because I believe that Jesus did teach about non-violence and telling the truth, more succinctly than abortion, adultery, or whether or not to place the Ten Commandments on public property.

So, I placed the EXPLICIT label to make sure that anyone who wants to indulge their whim for outraged hypocrisy has a moving target in me.

Now, go play in traffic. I’m busy.