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The Peddling Poet

Photo by Dante Graves.
Photo by Dante Graves.

It’s an unusually warm day for January, and I’m standing outside Cartel Coffee Lab in Tempe. As I’m waiting, all kinds of people walk in either direction down Ash Avenue. This is one of the most unique and close-knit neighborhoods in the Valley, hosting popular shops, bars, cafés and restaurants. This is where I'm meeting William Wonderful, a local poet.

If nothing else, Wonderful, 62, is known around the neighborhood as one of the most recognizable faces in downtown Tempe. On any given day, chances are you have walked by him. Or, if you’re lucky, you’ve been able to name your own price for some of his poetry. But either way, he’s become something of a cornerstone in Tempe over the years.

We sit down in the café, Wonderful wearing a blue button-down shirt and jeans. Not even 30 seconds after walking in the door, Wonderful has already recognized several people. Names are called out, smiles are registered and improvised handshakes are performed.

“I’m able to connect with someone everywhere I go,” he says. And he’s right. One of the most striking things about Wonderful is a stranger’s inability to turn away from him.

Growing up in Chicago, he was the youngest of seven children. Being raised by his single mother profoundly affected young Wonderful, as he began realizing that life was about the people around him. Their house was always filled with people and extended family stopping in.

According to Wonderful, he earned his master’s from ASU in 1981. He says he has taught English at numerous universities and colleges, including Pima Community College, Mesa Community College and ASU. He was first published in 1978. After that he published one piece a year until 1981, when he decided to stop publication attempts. He has self-published six books of poetry, and has consigned a few of them at local bookstores. He has a;sp taken up personally selling poems to people he meets on the street.

“I realized I could do it better myself,” Wonderful says.

From a literary standpoint, Wonderful’s poetry is free form: short and rarely rhyming. His poems often paint a picture of a dislocated figure, or of someone in a place they cannot understand. “Connectedness” is the word that keeps popping up when Wonderful discusses his poetry, as does a sense of self-responsibility and introspection.

His focus is to illuminate the truth in people, objects and what we spend our time trying to attain. When I ask about one of his poems, “Metaphysical Blues,” he tells me that it’s actually quite simple.

“The world is just space,” Wonderful says. “And when people fill that space with things, rather than people, then you’ve got metaphysical blues.” A smile rises to his face.

He left Arizona in 1996, teaching in Chicago and Orange County, before coming back to Tempe in 1998. He was teaching creative writing at Pima Community College when his life started taking unexpected turns. In 2005, Wonderful found out he had prostate cancer. He retired from teaching and worked to beat the cancer. Meanwhile, he was struggling to balance a failing personal relationship and reluctantly turning to substances. He ran out of money and found himself homeless for almost two years.

Wonderful quickly realized not only how he got into his situation, but also how to get out of it.

“I cut expenses and really starting pushing my poetry,” he says. He worked hard at his writing, completely dedicating himself to it. In 2006, he was the subject of a short documentary film by Eli Kruger. Meanwhile, he managed to maintain his modest reputation around the neighborhood through his friendly attitude to store employees and patrons, as well as his unflinching kindness to strangers. He has been off the street since February 2007 and says he has been three years sober.

“We allow things to overwhelm us,” he says. “And we turn to substances. Not necessarily drugs or alcohol, but any kind of substances.”

It’s hard to say which is more uplifting, Wonderful’s writing or Wonderful himself. It’s possible that they are both one in the same, and his words may be the only reason Wonderful got his life back on track.

“If I don’t let the world in, I don’t have anything to write about,” he says.

Wonderful hopes to launch a website featuring his work, as well as record a spoken word/music album. He is releasing another book, “Waiting for Snow,” next month. He’ll sign copies Feb. 16 at 7 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church on University Drive and Forrest Avenue. The signing will be his 63rd birthday.

Reach the reporter at dante.graves@asu.edu


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