The Young Poet: Brandon Villasenor

The Young Poet

by, Billy Mumphrey
 







Brandon Villasenor is the Unlikely Poet.

 

But as far as poetry goes, the more suited you are to write Poetry, the more likely that poetry is going to be garbage. With all my literature background and liberal arts education, in my findings, the most respected poets were the ones who wrote “struggle” from the heart. It wasn’t their social standing, wealth or poverty; the best poets, and writers for that matter, were the ones who challenged their emotional mind. And the modern Poet, Brandon Villasenor does exactly that.

 

When looking at Villasenor as a poet and writing subject, on the outside looking in, you may think there is a lack of substance or a lack of poet-right-of-passage for this young writer, as most well-renown poets are decades older than Villasenor. You may see the things you can Google about Brandon and think, what makes this kid’s writing valuable to me?

 

Brandon Villasenor grew up wealthy. His parents had money and right off the bat, most people’s reaction is that if you grew up with money, how could your writing have any sort of worldly value if you haven’t experienced the struggle of life? My initially rebuttal to this as a writer is, if you only value art made by “poor” people then we wouldn’t value most of the art made in Europe during the renaissance era. But that’s not the end of Villasenor’s story.

 

 

During his upbringing, Villasenor’s parents divorced and things changed.  Moving all over the place took its toll on the emotional mind of Brandon, his whole life suddenly became different. The thing I enjoy about poets is that their writing is a concentrated version of a feeling, a tight wrapped bullion nugget you let sit in your hot water. These jarring experiences for Villasenor and drive to express personal relationships, are concentrated and sprinkled throughout his poems.

 

Villasenor left home and began writing. He spent a year traveling all over Southern California, one day in high end apartments with friends and then the next day on the benches at Venice Beach. The new poet became determined to allow life to speak to him because writing allowed Villasenor an outlet for what was going on inside him. He let life’s circumstances push him from one day into the next, making money doing small jobs and living a Travelers life.

 

That’s when Villasenor fell in love with a girl. His first collection of poems called, I Can’t Stop Drinking About You, is about Villasenor’s relationship and subsequent break up with a girl he had met and loved very deeply. The poems in his first collection ooze this feeling. You can truly understand the love and angst the poet is experiencing.

 

Poets take time to develop. Because the specific art form demands a concentrated level of feelings and writing, it takes years for poets to find their voice and their themes. Brandon Villasenor, is a young poet learning to craft his art. He is dedicated, prolific, and determined to remain sensitive to life’s turns to produce valid art.

 

 

Local Big Time had the opportunity to chat with Brandon about his development as a Poet and about his recent work.

 

1. Poets, well-known ones, are notoriously older individuals. Do you have to be over a certain age to be a good poet?

 

Villasenor: I don’t think so. For me, I just started writing because it allowed me an outlet for my feelings. I was seeing things and experiencing things and I began writing to deal with that and then began molding those writings into poems because what I was feeling was so intense. Poetry was a way of expressing that intense feeling.

 

2. As a young poet, do you find more support or more opposition from people about your work because of your age?

 

Villasenor: It really is person to person. I find that when I think a certain person is going to feel one way about me, they usually feel the other. It’s hard to make generalities, but I usually get met with two different reactions. One is the person who is shut off and is like, you grew up with money and you’re young so you can’t be a good poet, and the other is the person who feels what the poetry is trying to get across. So, it’s a mixed reaction, but I just keep writing.

 

3. In your first collection of poems, I Can’t Stop Drinking About You, you write a lot about youth and its themes tied to love and moments in time, how has your upbringing in Southern California been an influence on your work?

 

Villasenor: So, when I was writing, I Can’t Stop Drinking About You, I was madly in love with a girl and then we ended up separating and it was extremely painful for me. I just started writing everything I was feeling and experiencing and then I would build the writings into poems. I thought I was going to be with that particular girl forever and when it ended, I was just overtaken with this deep sadness and immediately memories we shared started flooding my brain and so I wrote it all down.

 

4. What can we expect from the upcoming Villasenor writing? 

 

Villasenor: I am always writing but I try not to force writing. Right now, I am working on a series of poems that have a different subject other than just love and relationships. I am always looking for new experiences, but I mainly just let the writing come to me.

 

 

Brandon Villasenor Tumblr