Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Eulogy for poet Frances Dean Smith aka francEyE.

It's likely that Frances Smith, also known as francEyE, will be known to future generations not as the talented Los Angeles poet she was--but for her relationship with Charles Bukowski, which produced their daughter, Marina. And this is unfair, since her poems were marked by truth and accessibility-to=everyone and don't deserve to be consigned to footnote status.

My memories of francEyE are mostly good ones. I loved the poetry she would contribute to readings at L.A. venues and on Scott Wannberg's Yahoogroups site Ongoing Dancers. And for a time, she was friendly to me and even let me drive her home on occasion from readings at a venue in the South Bay. All that came to an end early in 2005 when I had a confrontation with a local literary poet (someone who once said that my death "couldn't come soon enough") at that venue. francEyE was angered by this and, as a result, we pretty much avoided each other for the rest of the time she was in L.A.

After she entered the care facility in Northern California, I ordered a copy of an anthology of her work and was suprised and happy when receiving the book with her signature inside.

It's a statement that's been said before--but I, and other poets in LA/Orange County, can consider ourselves fortunate for living in her time.

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