David Trinidad was born in Los Angeles and raised in the San Fernando Valley. He attended California State University in Northridge, where he studied poetry with Ann Stanford. He is associated with a group of poets including Amy Gerstler and Dennis Cooper, who gave readings at Beyond Baroque in Venice, California in the early 1980s, but he moved to New aYork City in 1988. As editor of Sherwood Press, he published books by Cooper, Flanagan, Gerstler, Tim Dlugos, Alice Notley, and many others. Trinidad’s first book of poems, Pavane, was published in 1981. Since then he as published more than a dozen collections. Reminiscent of the work of Frank O’Hara, Trinidad often uses everyday life and pop culture as the basis for his poetry.
As a Eric McHenry from the New York Times Book Review observed:
“[Trinidad’s] most impressive gift is an ability to dignify the dross of American life, to honor both the shrink-wrapped sentiment of the cultural artifacts he writes about and his own much more complicated emotional response to them.”
Links:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/david-trinidad
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/david-trinidad
My below poem was inspired by Trinidad’s use of the Malaysian form pantoum, which repeats the second and fourth line of one stanza as the first and third lines in the following one. While Trinidad uses the career and life of Nancy Sinatra as a theme for his poem, I chose the Wikihow for buying and preparing pomegranates.
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pick the right fruit.
choose the heaviest pomegranates.
examine the shape.
choose the one with a deep coloured rind.
choose the heaviest pomegranates.
the rind should also be glossy.
choose the one with a deep coloured rind.
unripe pomegranates are round, like apples.
the rind should also be glossy.
their shape changes slightly as the fruit ripens.
unripe pomegranates are round, like apples.
a ripe pomegranate will have more of a square shape.
their shape changes slightly as the fruit ripens.
the sides will be flattened.
a ripe pomegranate will have more of a square shape.
test the fruit for any soft areas.
the sides will be flattened.
make sure your pomegranates aren’t bruised.
test the fruit for any soft areas.
hold each pomegranate and gently squeeze it.
make sure your pomegranates aren’t bruised.
they should be hard, with no mushy spots.
hold each pomegranate and gently squeeze it.
select pomegranates with smooth, unbroken surfaces.
they should be hard, with no mushy spots.
the rind should be soft enough to scratch.
select pomegranates with smooth, unbroken surfaces.
dress appropriately.
the rind should be soft enough to scratch.
you may want to grab an apron or change into an old shirt.
dress appropriately.
cut your pomegranate into quarters.
you may want to grab an apron or change into an old shirt.
fill a bowl with water.
cut your pomegranate into quarters.
a medium size mixing bowl should be deep enough.
fill a bowl with water.
place your quartered pomegranate in the water-filled bowl.
a medium size mixing bowl should be deep enough.
the seeds will sink to the bottom of the bowl.
place your quartered pomegranate in the water-filled bowl.
separate the seeds from the flesh.
the seeds will sink to the bottom of the bowl.
hold the pomegranate quarter with one hand.
separate the seeds from the flesh.
run your thumb around the clumps of seeds.
hold the pomegranate quarter with one hand.
enjoy eating the plump seeds.
run your thumb around the clumps of seeds.
examine the shape.
enjoy eating the plump seeds.
pick a the right fruit.
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