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gypsytasha -> me in seattle (4/28/2006 9:33:56 AM)
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Subject: original profile and other writings
The Poetry of valerie mcdaniel
Article by Rene Rodriguez
Published in the May 2nd 2005 Issue of the City Collegian
Since 1991 Valerie McDaniel has been a student at Seattle Central
Community College. valerie who at one point lived on the street, now
balances her time at college with bipolar disorder. While most
students have had some life experience before school, such as summers
at work, travel, etc., valerie’s experiences have been very extensive and colorful.
As a child, valerie could not attend school with other children due to an illness she had. Instead, she went into a special learning program. When she began attending regular school at the age of fourteen, she was placed in the sixth grade. It was there, however,
that she discovered a life-long passion for literature and poetry.
After reading Alfred Knolls' the Highwayman, she was determined to be a writer. To date, valerie has published several chapbooks, including Journeys of a Moonchild, and Moonlight Reflections.© 1991 tapestries © 2000 shadowdancer © 2003
After leaving the Women's Army Core in 1961, valerie had no place to go. She stayed in all-night movie theaters in San Francisco, where she would survive off of popcorn, soda, and the kindness of strangers. Occasionally she would accompany a stranger to a hotel where she could at least sleep in a room with a bed.
Valerie graduated from Seattle Central in 1995 with a 3.68 GPA and an associate's degree in Social and Human Services. She began working at Harborview Mental Health Center as a mental-health counselor. There, she was put in charge of the clients' lounge, where she would talk with people and encourage them to join programs offered at the hospital.
Having been a patient herself, she found a connection with others.
"The clients seemed more comfortable speaking with me, rather than
someone who was just book-learned," she said.
The job did not last long as valerie’s own mental problems surfaced once more. She was "made to quit" by the hospital when things became severe.
In her poems,valerie is very romantic. They range from
existential poems of love and longing to simple odes to an attractive stranger at the café. Her words are filled with optimism and a gratitude for people, despite all of her misfortunes. In her book *tapestries, she mentions how she met her late husband. One day,Howard approached valerie and told her that she was going to be his wife. "He took me by the hand and led me to his beautiful hotel room, carpeted and all. When we entered the door he said, 'Lets talk, but first I want you out of those clothes.' Well, I thought he's not completely out of his mind, he at least wants sex." But instead, he prepared a bath for her. And bathed her sensuously and lovingly But Howard was strict. He demanded complete obedience and would discipline valerie physically. She wrote that on one occasion when she used a curse word he slapped her across the face. "I soon learned the king's English," she said. But to hear her talk about those days, she doesn't seem to hold any resentment towards him.
"I still remember how happy, loved, protected and provided for I was, and I loved being under his control," she said. The two were married four years until Howard died from an accident at work.
Valerie holds the instructors and teachers who have helped her during her time at Seattle Central, in especially high regard. She writes her most enthusiastic words about what a wonderful environment the school is. Although she graduated when many of the current students were still in Junior High, she continues to come to the school. In many ways, she is part of the scenery here. valerie is a person who has been knocked down one time after another by life, but has always risen again. She lives ten blocks from the school with her cat, Lady Ripley, a pure white Turkish Angora, and is currently working on two more books.
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