I'm Your Huckleberry
Page 21
I’m not going to pretend to know how that quote fits in here. I just like it. I wish to be those wings. I believe I am. I believe I am on a flight that, day by day, is generated by the poetry of my heart. The poetry was there from the start. It was born inside my grandmother, grandfather, father, and mother. Born inside my brother Wesley. I have his poetry and his wings. He has mine. You have mine and I have yours. Those wings, that ability to transcend the suffering of human drama, is the gift of the inaudible and invisible spirit whom we hear and see as clearly as Stevens’s undulating pigeons. We see spirit in the mist and fog; we hear spirit in the silence of the stones. Polish those stones; they make a noble life possible. We feel spirit every time we love, every time we forgive, every time scorn is overwhelmed by empathy and bitterness overcome by compassion.
The song says we shall overcome. My voice will come back. If I recall, the scripture says joy will come in the morning. It isn’t just that everything is going to be all right. Everything is all right. Right now. Right now, the energy grows. I feel it more now than at any other moment in my life. The energy allows me to channel the gratitude that drives me home and drives me to you. The energy is transferable. The energy is contagious. The energy is eloquence. I offer it to you. It is this energy, this crush on the beauty of the universe, that makes everything deeper, every act of tenderness, every optimistic thought. It is exquisite, and it isn’t going anywhere. It is the energy of eternal Love.
MIND’S MOVIE
In my mind’s movie
After the very last party
After the razor blades have gone home
Irena will not return
And all that’s left are aesthetics
And the work is here at hand like a sundance
Like a boy dancing as the sun goes down
Right before the credits
—New York City, 1978
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to all those who helped in this literary effort: Sean Manning, David Vigliano, Veronika Shulman, Brad Koepenick, Daniel Voll, David Ritz, Mary Moran, Lisa Katz, Suzan Alparslan, Nate Talbot, Grant Hayunga, Tom Stratton, Ali Alborzi, Cher, Miguel Silva, Virginia Harris, Leo Scott, Ting Poo, and Barry Hirsch. Ongoing gratitude and boundless love to my children, Mercedes and Jack, and to countless others who have supported me with full hearts during good times and bad. And above all, I thank God.
More in Personal Memoirs
The Glass Castle
Shoe Dog
The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo
Year of Yes
An Invisible Thread
Primates of Park Avenue
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
VAL KILMER is an American actor known for his roles in Top Secret!, Top Gun, Real Genius, Willow, The Doors, True Romance, Tombstone, Batman Forever, Heat, The Saint, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and more. A graduate of the Juilliard School’s Drama Division, he has appeared on Broadway and London’s West End. He has also toured his acclaimed one-man show, Citizen Twain, and its film version, Cinema Twain, around the United States. He has published two books of poetry and received a Grammy nomination for Best Spoken Word Album. An accomplished visual artist with work exhibited in galleries worldwide, he is the owner of HelMel Studios & Gallery in Los Angeles.
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PHOTO CREDITS
Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images: ii, 243
Author: 10, 14, 26, 33, 93, 179, 215, 283, 298
Bettmann via Getty Images: 18
Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images: 21
Robert Carelli: 44, 45
Jessica Katz: 57, 65
The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images: 69
Martha Swope/The New York Public Library: 73
Photo © Johan Elbers 1985/Courtesy BAM Hamm Archives: 75
Dave Hogan/Hulton Archive/Getty Images: 77
TCD/Prod.DB/Alamy Stock Photo: 80, 117, 199
David Montgomery/Premium Archive/Getty Images: 82
Walt Disney Television via Getty Images Photo Archives/Walt Disney Television via Getty Images: 85
Michael Ochs Archives/Moviepix/Getty Images: 99
Ronald Grant Archive/Alamy Stock Photos: 119, 184
LUCASFILM/Album/Alamy Stock Photo: 137
Courtesy of Colorado Shakespeare Festival: 142
Moviestore Collection Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo: 146, 150
Sally Shorkend: 194
PictureLux/The Hollywood Archive/Alamy Stock Photo: 205
Robert Reck: 222, 223
Georges De Keerle/Hulton Archive/Getty Images: 229
Dave Hogan/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images: 233
Donated by Jessica Ambrose: 249
AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian: 258
Evan Agostini/Getty Images: 267
Jeff Kravitz/AMA2009/FilmMagic/Getty Images: 271
Author/Neil Jacobs: 281
Rob Kim/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images: 292
Bei/Shutterstock: 300
Nik Wheeler/Corbis Historical via Getty Images: 301
RGR Collection / Alamy Stock Photo: 170
Photo 12/Alamy Stock Photo: 177
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Interior design by Lewelin Polanco
Front cover photograph by Andrew Macpherson; Back cover photographs from top to bottom: Michael Ochs Archives/Handout/Getty Images; REAL GENIUS © 1985 TriStar Pictures, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Courtesy of TriStar Pictures; TOP GUN © Paramount Pictures/Alamy Images; WILLOW © MGM/Alamy Images; BATMAN FOREVER Licensed By Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved; Still from THE DOORS appears courtesy of Studiocanal S.A.S./Alamy Stock photo; HEAT Courtesy of New Regency; THE SAINT © Paramount Pictures/AF Archive/Alamy Stock Photo; TOMBSTONE © The Film Company Buena Vista/AF Archive/Alamy Stock Photo
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Kilmer, Val, 1959- author.
Title: I’m your huckleberry / Val Kilmer.
Other titles: I am your huckleberry
Description: New York : Simon and Schuster, [2020]
Identifiers: LCCN 2019058577 (print) | LCCN 2019058578 (ebook) | ISBN 9781982144890 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781982144913 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Kilmer, Val, 1959- | Actors--United States--Biography.
Classification: LCC PN2287.K66848 A3 2020 (print) | LCC PN2287.K66848 (ebook) | DDC 791.4302/8092 [B]--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/20190585
77
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019058578
ISBN 978-1-9821-4489-0
ISBN 978-1-9821-4491-3 (ebook)