Mapping the Artist: Keith Van Vliet

Keith Van Vliet and wife Eileen (Photo – Junnie Starshine).

Keith Van Vliet, is a fine poet, who welcomes other poets as creator and host of The Valley Poets in Glendora for over thirty years. I know him as an alchemist with words and images, and admire his adventurous spirit.

By Kathabela Wilson

He and his wife recently smilingly celebrated 70 years of marriage. She is still baking the cookies for his poetry meetings.

A telescope on the poet

I have loved your poetry, philosophic thinking and approach for a long time. I asked you for some stories of your early days to get a sense of your beginnings. Where did you come from?

I was a child of the depression. My family moved to Southern California in 1926 when I was two months old. They tell me I traveled in a cradle hung from the ceiling braces of the car, and I’m sure it must have taken some weeks to arrive here. The years of the depression were very trying for the family. Just how trying is illustrated by the house we once rented. The rent was $5 a month. The house was two bedrooms, but not large. The lot was deep and contained a lovely peach tree that gave glorious fruit once a year. It was there that my growing-up years took place.

A microscope on the poet

An alchemist with words.

I think of you as an alchemist with words, a man of fire and water. Your poems are elemental, combining nature and language. How did this happen?

Fire and water are exciting to me. A spark, chip of ice, a poem is born. One event I remember from my early childhood was when I was three or four. I remember getting up, by myself, early on the morning after a 4th of July celebration. I wandered down the block looking for fireworks that hadn’t exploded, and I found one called “cherry bomb,” one much more powerful than your average firecracker. I had brought some matches with me and I lit the short stub of a fuse, which quickly exploded with a loud bang right by me. I wandered home with my ears ringing. I don’t believe I told anyone about it.

In later years, I wrote a poem called “Alchemy”. Looking over a neighbor’s fence at fiery backlit sunset leaves. Alone, that enigmatic spark, that sets us and nature alight:

“Momentary good fortune
a gift from beyond, causing
gratitude in my awareness
for being a receiving vessel.”

We were free to roam as children, There were vacant lots to dig in and alleys with horse drawn ice wagons in them, whose driver’s would sometimes grant us a shiny chip of ice on hot day. I still feel “In the Chips”. Not so long ago I wrote a poem about this “rare transaction” with a grownup when we were “treated as customers” even without money, and said

“Years later I finally learned
it was truly a child’s domain
No adult would stand and wait
for a few simple chips of ice.”

Pulse of the Poet

Valley Poets meeting at Keith’s home in Glendora, CA (Photo – Junnie Starshine).

As well as those singular moments of personal insight, there has come to be a community of poets that you have created and maintained for many years. How has this become a central part of your life?

Being 89 years old causes me to reflect on the meaningful elements of my life. The enjoyment that being sponsor of the poetry group has brought me (I have hosted 31 years of meetings) would be hard to properly describe. Knowing great poets that you meet with week after week, brings an appreciation of poetry, self expression and humanity like nothing else. Such amazing poets became friends, such as Dr. Jack Fulbeck who kept our group amused with his quick wit and inspired us with his verse. Sometimes I feel like I welcome Abraham Lincoln, whose birthday I share, to our meetings. I have always admired his writing.

Though I wrote some poetry as a child I feel the first real first stirrings of literary inspiration were from my interest in alternative medicine, in the 1970s. Dr. Arthur Lerner was teaching a course at UCLA, on the use of poetry in Therapy, and after I attended that class it led to a poetry workshop there. Though I learned a lot working with the Therapy group, I was determined to find local poets, to avoid the cross town drive. That was the beginning of The Valley Poets, which began early in 1983, meeting one evening a week in a commercial office building I had recently built. It still continues today, meeting once a month in our home in Glendora now. I give them a word ahead of time, as the theme for poems to bring, and my wife for 70 years, Eileen, bakes the cookies.

A compass on the poet

Keith Van Vliet

The wind in your sails, your own inspired poetry, your inspiring friends, at 75 you set out on a new adventure! What was that?

I used to fly kites as a young boy and the thrill of seeing the soaring kite, and feeling the tug on the string, produced a feeling of accomplishment and freedom.
Then, Having owned a power boat most of my adult life, it was a special thrill the first time I felt that silent surge of power moving the boat forward that sail power brings. I began sailing with my friend Skipper Bob when I was 75 years old, and have been going out once a week ever since. Seeing bright blue sky, feeling the wind in our faces, occasional dolphin, numerous sea lions, and once in a while a whale, makes it all very much worth it.

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Keith Van Vliet has published two books of poetry in recent years, ‘Amber Eyeshades’ in 2004, and ‘Painted Edges’ in 2008, as well as a book of his own photography and poetry, “Perception’s Journey: A Visual Adventure” in 2006.

He has present 150 colorslide programs with his own narratives to groups, including for Poets on Site in Pasadena.

Keith Van Vliet also served for years as an editor and vice president of The California State Poetry Society.