Story by: Martin Chang
Photos by: Greg D. Cook and Martin Chang
top box photo provided by Chris Fendt
Chris Fendt is inspired by different aspects of life. For Fendt, a chance meeting with a stranger, his favorite music, or quiet moments in Bakersfield, can inspire him to write.
Growing up in Orange, California, Fendt describes his home life as supportive. “My parents were great, very nurturing,” he said. In kindergarten Fendt was picked on and his parents found a solution. “My parents could sense that I wasn’t very happy,” Fendt said. “So, they gave me an option, they said “would you like to go to a different school? I jump at the chance. Saying “yes please get me out of here.”
So Fendt spent first through eighth grade at a private Catholic school called Holy Family. Some writers find the rules and conformity of private school unenjoyable, Fendt enjoyed the experience. “private school you have to wear uniforms; everyone looks the same, dresses the same. It was a very harmonious experience.”
It was also at Holy Family that got the first taste of attention and recognition for his writing talents. “For a brief time I was an altar boy, and I remember in seventh grade that I got some recognition from one of my instructors. I got a creative writing pin,” Fendt fondly remembers.
Although he does not consider himself particularly religious, Fendt’s time spent being exposed to religious belief as a child led him to believe that artistic talent comes from a place outside of the person. Fendt has had experiences with what he calls the “unknown” and “mysteries that I can’t wrap my head around.” He said, “that ability to write, that talent, you wonder where that comes from. It makes me wonder if there is a God.”
“Cozy,” one of Fendt’s recent poems, captures a moment of clarity that he experienced here in Bakersfield. “I was sitting on the bluffs overlooking the oil fields. I didn’t have much sleep that night and the sounds of the city, the traffic, barking dogs, captured that way I felt within,” recalls Fendt. “It always feels like I’m looking for something, but I can’t have the answers. I think that might be the human condition that you’re always searching, that you will always be learning something till the day you die. So I guess that why I wrote this poem. “
Fendt titled the poem “Cozy” because he wants to create the feeling of that moment he experienced. He describes that feeling, “finally I feel that I have a warm blanket around me and everything will be okay.” “Cozy” is below:
Cozy
People pass right through me
Like mourners in a line,
Not a word
Nor laughter.
Passing away in time.
Shadows seem to threaten,
And I can’t get warm.
This climate can be oppressive
As chaos seems the norm.
Damn these hellish cities,
Where is my sacred bliss
As I lean upon the fence
Of limbo’s woebegone abyss?
And then in that moment
Of self perpetuating despair…
An impartial blood moon to greet me
Releasing me of care.
Fendt finds inspiration in everyday meetings. One of his poems was inspired by a chance meeting with a stranger. “There was one guy who came up to me, he had on a motorcycle helmet straight out of Easy Rider. He had a pink Frisbee around his neck. I don’t know how he got it over his neck. He just looked so weird.” The poem inspired by this meeting is “Homeless Man” and reads as follows:
Pink frisbee like a halo
Around his neck-
Light er’ up
What the heck.
The world can end at any time.
All he wants is a thin dime.
Fendt has been a lifelong fan of music and is a musician himself. He is a fan of music with a darker edge and is a particular fan of Depeche Mode and their song “Everyone Counts.” The lyrics of rock music was his first exposure to poetry.
In his poem “Hope” He responds to a song with a whaling child in the background. “In the song you hear a baby’s cry, then as the song progresses it turns in an adult’s voice. The song is trying to say that the suffering will continue,” Fendt said. ““Hope” is kind of putting that into words. Then I add my own answer to that dark environment that the song creates.” In “Hope,” Fendt attempts to put some light into the dark themes of the song, he wants to create the feeling of believing in “greater things then yourself.” “Hope” is as follows:
Cries of infancy
Carry over into adulthood-
The wailing
And suffering
Of want.
The drone of existance
In the backdrop-
Dull routine
That we resist
Only leaving us
Incumbents of incapacitation.
Who will resusitate
Our will
But by faith alone
In greater things
Than ourselves
Fendt’s poetry can be found at emptyglassgeometry.com
