She Turned Them Into Poems

Ecstatic would be the word that described the moment Cinequest sent a documentary my way about the beat poet, ruth weiss. I was asked if this documentary would be a good fit for Cinequest film festival’s event that I had founded a few years ago called Poets N Film. After watching Melody Miller’s documentary, ruth weiss, the beat goddess, my answer could only be YES! It was obvious to me and everyone who knows her or knows about her that she holds the true spirit of the maverick.

Melody had set up a phone call for me and ruth to meet. It was fitting when I received the call because I was on the top floor of the Asian Art Museum looking at the frantic motion and beats of people down on the streets of San Francisco. I made a few discoveries in this conversation. The first discovery was ruth’s love for not only poetry but for the theatre. I had to talk to her about the theatre since it played so strongly in my early days. She wrote plays and performed an obscure act with a drag-queen artist in San Francisco. It was an off-beat counter culture routine full of improv. (She even directed a film she wrote called The Brink.) Another discovery I made while conversing was her inspiration to be a part of the dramatics and storytelling was puppetry. As a child her father took her to puppet shows in Vienna. She expressed how much she loved it. My day job is working on puppet shows. I felt a connectionwith ruth right off. She had her hands in so many forms of art that her life took on its own art form, I love this about her. Her whole being is a never-ending poem, continuing to create itself like a wild, chaotic, bohemian fractal.

Kimy Martinez and ruth weiss. Photo by Chris Knight.

When ruth and her loving entourage came to San Jose, they came to the puppet theatre I work at. I couldn’t wait to show ruth all the types of puppets we had, and to show her the main character in the puppet show, Reyna, was a fox.  ruth had become friends with a fox behind her house in Albion, located in the redwoods of Northern California. Melody informed me that ruth believes in symbolic meanings. This is what I love about ruth’s poetry, her use of symbolism, and is what I thought made her work unique from other works by beat poets. 

Video by Melody Miller

The vibe and sense I got from ruth when getting to know her for a brief moment was that she was open to new experiences and new people in her life; Not just open, but welcoming. ruth’s work was experimental. It was as if she were a scientist for humanity. This is what it is all about for me when I read her book, can’t stop the beat; The Life And Words Of A Beat Poet. She not only wrote about the people close to her even about people she just met, she turned them into songs, into poems. Some capture people’s spirits in photos, ruth captures people’s spirits in poems. 

The day came and ruth wasn’t going to miss the Cinequest event, Poets N Film, for anything. She was an absolute delight as she performed on stage. A true performer, engaging with the audience between her poems she recited. It was exciting to see a woman who had quite the journey in life, up on stage, bringing it all home to us. She had survived the Holocaust, she steered strong and forward as a woman poet and artist, she was one of the most innovative voices of the beat generation as she hitchhiked from New Orleans to the West coast bringing words with jazz, writing plays, performing in plays, and directing her own film based on a poem she wrote. She dyed her hair green in support of the orphans of war and spelled her name in all lowercase. She was connected to the nature that was all around her. Her unique rhythm, her unique beat has been heard and will continue to be heard. Of course, she would receive the highest honor at the film festival. She was/is a maverick through and through. CEO and Co-Founder of Cinequest, Halfdan Hussey says, “Cinequest was deeply honored to pay tribute to ruth weiss, her life and legacy, and were thrilled to spend time with her and experience her poetry, performance, and power.”

Melody Miller escorting with ruth weiss to receive her Maverick Spirit Award.