They Said I Wasn't College Material
From the preface: I read somewhere that poets write for themselves and the novelist writes for others. If this is in fact true, I still hope the reader will find something in these pages they can relate to or at least realize that they are not alone. To me, poetry is telling your story and sometimes the story of others.
The majority of these poems were written before 2009. They are a part of me, a snapshot in time, like mom’s old photo albums she would pull out when you really didn’t want her to.
The title, They Said I Wasn’t College Material comes from a conversation and response I had with a high school counselor back in the early 70s. As adults and educators we like to pigeonhole children and track them as vocational or college bound without ever really getting to know them past the test score. They did a version of that in the 70s and continue to do that today. Oftentimes, we ignore some groups of children and they fall through the cracks. Their stories are equally important and you will find them here as well.
"They Said I Wasn't College Material by Scot Young is a collection that spans time and circumstances, by a poet willing to resurrect the sting of assumptions and expectations to turn the lens in the other direction. He challenges social gatekeeping, and the classist label culture that nurtures the privileged and pushes the rest of us toward their service. He understands what feeds self doubt and steers destiny away from us, and he goes after the source. His poems celebrate the capacity to experience and feel honestly, when that is often suppressed: "when young boys cried/wiped tears before dads could see." These poems convey love, nostalgia, hope, fear, anxiety, and more in connection with identity in a body of work that speaks to peeling back those expectations. Authenticity and humility draw people to connect with his poetry, and this is what he is after: "I only strive/to put one word in front of the other/ and hold it there long enough/ for it to matter/ to somebody." It matters to us, for sure.
Young knows that crushing aspiration and potential crushes people, particularly at times when we have every right to see a future that is ours to shape. For those of us lucky to know Scot Young, we know that this is his cause- to remind us all of that most fundamental right. He shares what he has learned about the breakers and the broken, and he rejects the perpetuation of that power. Besides, there is dignity in choosing our own damage: "even bluebirds/ that are set free/ fly into windows."
This is not the same as holding up the glass."
—E. Lynn Alexander, Co-Founder and editor of Collapse Press
"Scot Young has mastered the great poetic art of saying big things with a few, humble words. His latest collection, They Said I Wasn’t College Material, is a straight forward, globe crossing, collage of spot on observations from a clear-eyed outlaw cowboy poet that found his own overgrown Ozark path from pen to paper. From the rowdy rodeo booze poems of a young bronc buster trying to keep himself together, to busted blue collar hopes, heartbreaking poems of lost sheep students, the tender apologies of a callous handed and feather-hearted father, and love poems so pretty you’ll want to put them in a jar of water and leave them sitting on your kitchen counter so you can enjoy them for days. There’s prose poems and short story snippets, and words all over the book, written in styles that can’t be taught in classrooms, or replicated in workshops, they must be experienced and felt. Like all good literature, this book will hover in the weather patterns of our hearts for days."—Dan Denton, blue collar writer. author of The Dead and the Desperate.
"In They Said I Wasn’t College Material, Scot Young walks the reader through a coming of age tale: the back seat of cars, five card stud, cigarettes, and the first drink of Colt 45 ... Young doesn’t run at you with the screaming discovery of an empty touch, rather he invites the reader to glide with him into a world that only extends gentle invitations. Young’s new book, They Said I Wasn’t College Material, is good for nightstands, airplane rides, and to sip warm drinks with someone when she or he is cold. Enjoy."—Bill Gainer: A True Story
