David Mayes in La Canada Flintridge Aug. 7

On Sunday, August 7, from 3 – 5 P.M., Flintridge Bookstore and Coffeehouse welcomes David Mayes to present the poetry and life of his father, Richard Inskip Mayes. David reads from “Zero Tolerance Factor and Other Poems,” a compilation spanning thirty years. This selection offers a time portal into a Mexico of 40 years ago and the tumultuous times from the late 1950s to the 1980s, seen through the romantic and curious eyes of a young Princeton educated beat poet.



Richard Inskip Mayes was a poet from Metuchen, moonlighting as an English Lit professor in Chicago. After developing his Beat sensibility over drinks with Allen Ginsberg at the San Remo Room in New York City in the late 1950s, Mayes later packed up his young family to move to San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico.



Mayes’ collection of poems in “Zero Tolerance”, illustrated with his photographs, is both a record of his years in San Miguel, as well as his reactions to the Vietnam War, baseball, dancing girls, fist-fights, cars, academia and comely bar-maids.



“The Zero Tolerance Factor”



cars,vans,yachts,

fishing boats,

next, your house, pal,

remember

our fuhrer

started with the jews’

cars, shops, boats,

paintings, diamonds,

the jew or coke,

sigmund or sherlock,

any excuse’ll do

to steal your stuff

the banks or the government,

remember, pal,

we gotta

balance the budget,

dontcha see,

it’s the Amurikin way,



and then the gold teeth.



In addition to the poetry, David Mayes shares stories and photographs of his early life in Mexico with his father and family.



For more information about the reading, call (818) 790-0717. Flintridge Bookstore and Coffeehouse is located at 1010 Foothill Blvd., La Canada Flintridge CA 91011, at the intersection of Foothill Blvd. and the Angeles Crest Highway. Take the Angeles Crest exit off the 210, turn south, make a right onto Foothill Blvd., and turn left onto Chevy Chase. Parking is in the rear of the store.