First Kiss...maybe, tonight?



Art by Barbara Alfaro.

Maybe, by Joan Baez

From: Gabriele Rico’s University of California at Berkeley Workshop

How idiotic – sixteen years old, never been kissed, well not really. Maybe, tonight?

I like the way this Johnny smells and the feel of his arms, his collar turned up, and maybe he likes me too in the dark and the color turquoise.

He slows down on the dead streets of my neighborhood. Maybe my mother and father are asleep. Maybe the lights will be out.

Johnny turns off the engine a half a block from the house. Maybe we will glide just under the street lamp or just past it to the black shadows of the neighbor’s magnolia trees. Johnny knows. Maybe I should say something. Maybe I should duck my head. Maybe, maybe, I won’t appear too stupid or unappealing. Maybe I have the Indian Princess look, especially here in the dim glow of the light from the radio that he’s clicking off now. So maybe…oops it’s all dark. Maybe it’s time to get out. Thanks it was really nice. Maybe, Friday? Maybe, oh please stop me. Don’t let me go so quickly. Maybe you know exactly how I feel – so flustered. There’s your arm. Maybe you love me in some way. Maybe I love you. Well, maybe I love your mouth in the shadows, the smell of roses from my mother’s little garden, my mother’s little garden along the edge of the lawn. Your mouth, maybe it would fit on mine, like my drawings of couples kissing. What happens? Do I tilt my head? Like this? Uh-oh, I thought it would be dryer. I have to go. My parents will be angry. Maybe they’re right. Maybe your not suppose to do that – what I just did, Christ, it was only a kiss in the dark. I am a fool. Maybe I’ll look different in the light in the mirror. Maybe he thinks I’m an idiot. Maybe I am.

Joan Chandos Báez is an American folk singer and songwriter. People know her because she sings very differently from most singers. for her very individual vocal style. She was born January 9, 1941. She is a soprano with a three-octave vocal range (she can sing a lot of different sounds) and a distinctive throat vibrato. Many of her songs talk about with social issues. She is best known for her 1970s hits "Diamonds & Rust" and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down". She is also known for "Sweet Sir Galahad" and "Joe Hill." She sang these songs at the 1969 Woodstock festival and the songs became famous. She is also well known due to her relationship with Bob Dylan and her love for activism in areas such as nonviolence, civil and human rights and the environment. She has performed for nearly fifty years and released over thirty albums. She has recorded songs in over eight languages. She is considered a folksinger, but after the 1960s her music became a lot different from folk. She sings many kinds of music, including rock, pop, country, and gospel. Baez is famous for singing other peoples' songs very differently. She sang songs by The Beatles, Jackson Browne, Paul Simon, The Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder and many others.

Gabriele Rico Dr. Rico's path of personal discovery has included a Ph.D. from Stanford University and the publication in 1983 of the classic book Writing the Natural Way, which has been reprinted more than 50 times. She was President's Scholar of the Year in 1986 and began putting more of herself into her work with Pain and Possibility: Writing Your Way Through Personal Crisis, published in 1991. She is in great demand to present workshop which integrate her interests in writing, higher level thinking skills and the role of the emotions in learning. Dr. Rico lives in Cupertino, California and continues her roles of Professor, speaker, author, involved with brain research, Chaos science, poetry, creative nonfiction.