The Willow Glen Resident

Photograph by Skye Dunlap

Pebble Poetry: Stones on the floor of poet Cindy Williams Gutiérrez's Willow Glen studio form a more earthy variety of magnetic poetry, some spelling out, 'Dare to dream a love.'

Glen poet makes the leap from the everyday to the unknown

Williams Gutiérrez will read from new book on April 20 at Willow Glen Books

By Rebecca Wallace

Sometimes you have to turn your life upside down to make sense of it. Last year I left everything behind to board a plane to Europe without knowing when I'd be back. It was head-clearing--and frightening.

But, as I sat on a creaky old bench by the Seine with the freedom to think--and write--it all out, I knew my decision to leave the country for a while was the best one I'd ever made.

Which is why I felt an instant connection with Willow Glen poet Cindy Williams Gutiérrez when I read these words in her poem "The Thin Dark Line:"

If you dare to narrow the gap into a thin dark line,
You could step across, leave expectations behind...
It could easily mean
The difference between
Guarded dreams and reality...

Surrender is the name of Williams Gutiérrez's new book and spoken-word compact disc--and the theme of her journey to finish that project. In her case, the voyage was an escape from the Silicon Valley lifestyle and a surrender to the rewarding uncertainty of a creative life.

After nine years at Sun Microsystems, Williams Gutiérrez, 40, took what she thought would be a sabbatical last year from her position as director of marketing. She had just ended a relationship and needed to start over. She never went back.

"I really was destroying life as I knew it," she says, relaxing on a couch in her studio behind her home. Her large brown eyes dart from my face to other points around the room: a dish filled with shells, a framed Jetsons poster, a piece of driftwood shaped like a dancer. "What is that possibility that could be? None of us can see that."

And yet her poetry foreshadowed her life, as it sometimes does. "The Thin Dark Line" was written six years ago, long before Williams Gutiérrez took that leap to bring her poetry together into a book and musicians together to blend their notes with her words on the CD of poems.

"The poetry knows things I don't know," she says with a gentle smile. "It's frightening and validating--I was supposed to turn my life upside down."

Her book has five sections of poetry; "The Thin Dark Line" is the first poem in the section called "Surrender to the Unknown."

Writing in and of itself is relinquishing control, Williams Gutiérrez says. "I can write for hours and get lost," she adds. "You lose yourself, and that's where you find yourself."

Poetic heritage

So there can indeed be two worlds in this valley: high-tech and structured, and creative and poetic. But for Williams Gutiérrez, there are also the two worlds of her bicultural heritage: her Welsh-American father and Mexican-American mother. She grew up in the border town of Brownsville, Texas.

Some of her poems are in Spanish, and she has founded ¡Grito! Press (named after a festive shout used in Mexican music), which she hopes will produce multimedia works by other spoken-word artists. She is also president of Sage Marketing, a high-tech marketing consulting firm.

The traditional Spanish song "La Malagueña," performed on guitar by Mariano Córdoba, accompanies her reading of her poem "Serenata Mexicana" ("Mexican Serenade") on the CD.

And her connection with her heritage is evident in lines such as "Rich aromas of warm bread and hot coffee/mixing with the sweet perfumes/of garden flowers/and of three generations of Gutiérrez women."

Williams Gutiérrez says her poetry has also brought the joy of other connections: with the "wonderful" musicians who played on her CD and had never accompanied poetry before, and with the audience at her poetry readings.

It was ultimately the spoken, not the written, word that allowed her to find a strong tie to others through her poetry, she says--which was odd for the woman who had been leery of showing her work to others.

At her first reading, the link with the audience was tangible and exhilarating, she says: "When you reveal yourself, it's scary, but you're not alone."

And this feeling is so important to bring to others, she says, especially in this area.

"Silicon Valley is so lonely," she says. "We all talk about how technology connects us, but I think it really isolates us."

With a broad smile, she says, "Poetry is my safety valve, and it can make a connection to others."

Cindy Williams Gutiérrez will read from "Surrender," accompanied by Glen percussionist Michael Vaughn, at Willow Glen Books at 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 20. For more information, call 445-1654.

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