Told in poetry and pictures, this is the story of Richard Musto, a homeless man who lives on the streets of New York City with aplomb that not many of us would be able to keep if we found ourselves without a roof over our heads, a bed to sleep in, or a refrigerator full of food.
This book is the result of the author’s chance encounter with an old man on the streets of New York. Joe Lamport felt compelled to tell his amazing story. Photographs of Richard and his artwork are spread throughout the poem.
The photographs show you that Richard Musto is a real person, not someone from the author’s imagination. They are snapshots of his life.
The way Richard Musto seems to make the best out of his circumstances without complaining reminds me of Sarah Crewe from A Little Princess. For example, he would build a shack from cardboard and would use a milk crate as a coffee table. Plants thrown away by shops would make a garden where he lived for the admiration of all who passed by. Sometimes he would return home after a day of walking around to find the trash men had mistaken his meager possessions for garbage and taken them away. His only reaction would be to find the supplies to rebuild his shack.
A veteran, civilian life did not suit Richard well when his military duty was over. You learn how he dabbled in odd jobs and worked in several different careers.
All his mental faculties are intact. No trace of memory loss or Alzheimer’s here. He shares his unique memories of the wars and the Great Depression. If you had the chance to chat with him, you would have the opportunity to discover a treasure trove of information.
I have to say that I’m not really a fan of poetry, but the way Joe Lampost told Richard Musto’s story in such a way that it interested me. Even though I knew that living on the streets would be rough, this book showed me what it is like for this one man.
How Writers Could Use This Book:
This book is the ultimate character study of a homeless person. Not only do you learn one set of circumstances that could make someone homeless, but you learn how one could survive on the streets of New York City for such a long time.
girl writing, etc.usf.edu
Writing Prompts:
Create a character who lives on the streets or use a previous character you’ve written about and write the following things.
Write about how he survives without a place to call home when he is used to being wealthy and living in a mansion.
What happened that made your character homeless? Or is he that way by choice? If so, why?Your character is witness to a crime, but the one who commits it doesn’t realize he is being watched because the place your character has “built” to live just doesn’t appear to be a place where someone lives. And your character recognizes the one who committed the crime as someone who is well respected and powerful. How does your character handle this?Write about how a normal day is spent. Then write about another day that isn’t so normal.Write about how this character becomes one of the most respected citizens of the city even though he is living on the streets.
Once you read this book, I’m sure you will find many more writing prompts through the words and pictures used to tell Richard’s story.
Amazon Link: The Life and Times of Richard Musto
Recommended Article: What Inspired Me to Write Poetry – Guest Post by Joe Lamport
About the Author:
Joe Lamport is a translator and poet who lives in New York City. His translations of classic Chinese poetry have been published extensively online by The Epoch Times and Brooklyn Rail. He is also the co-founder of the website and newsletter Tang Spirit Network. He has published a chap book of his own poems online and maintains a blog for other work. He isalso the author of a novel called Dinkelmann’s Rules.
About the Photographer:
Michel Delsol’s photography has been shown in solo exhibits at galleries such as the Japanese Information and Cultural Center, the Japanese Embassy in Washington, DC, Kinokuniya in New York and La Gaia Scienza in Venice, Italy as well in many group exhibits in New York. His work has been selected for “Le Journal de la Photographie” and F-Stop magazine. His portrait work has been commissioned by leading magazines, book and music publishers and major advertisement agencies. His work has received awards and nominations from the Society of Publication designers, the International B + W Spider awards, PX3 and One Life International photography. Several additional collections of his photographs are available on his web site.
Favorite Lines:
The two following selections come from different parts of the book.
All of this sounds
Incredible and strange
That’s just because it is
As life can often be
As I have seen him
Return from a jaunt downtown
To find his possessions scattered
And his habitation demolished
No doubt hauled off
On the whim of a passing
Sanitation truck
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New Words Learned:
This author has an impressive vocabulary. Since there are some French and Latin terms in the following words, I had to use several dictionaries as well as Google to find the meanings of all of them. I wouldn’t have enjoyed the story nearly as much if I hadn’t taken the time to look up each one of them. When you run across an unfamiliar word, it pays to find out its exact meaning.
anodyne – anything that relieves distress or pain
apercus – an immediate estimate or judgment; understanding; insight
apropos – appropriate; pertinent
autodidact – a person who has learned a subject without the benefit of a teacher or formal
education; a self-taught person
boulevardier – a person who frequents the most fashionable Parisian locales
copasetic – very good; excellent; completely satisfactory
disparate – distinct in kind; essentially different; dissimilar:
emblematic – symbolic
ephemeral – lasting a very short time; transitory
flậneur– idle man-about-town
gustatory – of or pertaining to taste or tasting.
ipsi dixit – This is Latin for “he himself said it.”
louche – shifty or disreputable
malapropism – an act or habit of misusing words ridiculously, especially by the confusion of words that are similar in sound
noir sensibility – a feeling or attitude that invokes that evokes the features and effect of noir, a genre of crime film or fiction characterized by cynicism, fatalism, and moral ambiguity
oeuvre – all the works that a writer, an artist, or a composer has created
orthographically – pertaining to the art of writing words with the proper letters, according to accepted usage
outré – unusual and startling
pablum – trite, naive, or simplistic ideas or writings; intellectual pap
parimutuelists – gamblers
philippic – a bitter attack or denunciation, especially a verbal one
scabrous – indecent or scandalous; risqué; obscene
shambolic – very disorganized; messy or confused
shtick – (especially in comic acting) a routine or piece of business inserted to gain a laugh or draw attention to oneself
splenetic – irritable; peevish; spiteful
