Daniel is originally from Alaska, although he moved around a lot when his father joined the Air Force. Starting at age 6, he moved between New Mexico, Texas and Washington.
When Daniel’s dad retired in Seattle, Daniel thought it would be best to finish high school in Everett, where many members of his family ended up.
Daniel received his GED, and shortly after found his way to Astoria to begin work.
“Man, I thought if I ever got the chance to come back to Astoria I would stay for good. I don’t feel that way anymore, Portland is where I call home now.”
It was hard for Daniel to live in Astoria because of its small-town vibe, and when a major storm hit in 2011, it left Daniel with no electricity for nearly a week.
“I moved to Portland as soon as I could after that storm,” says Daniel.
In addition to the cold weather affecting his ability to access basic needs, in early adulthood, Daniel suffered a massive injury to his knee during a car accident, and his knee did not do well in the cold.
“When the car accident happened, the doctors told me that I couldn’t receive a new knee because I was too young, and now I’m worried about going back because I’m sure they will tell me that I’m old enough now,” Daniel laughs.
Daniel exclaimed that he tries to have a sense of humor towards most situations, claiming that he would have preferred a pirate’s peg leg over a new knee. He likes jokes so much that he has even thought about performing a stand-up comedy routine at a comedy club.
“There was a comedy club right up the street, and I thought about going for so long, but I never did. I never got the courage to go up and tell my jokes,” Daniel said. “Even though, if I bombed one of the jokes and they threw tomatoes at me, I could grab some lettuce and have a salad for lunch, and I would have a good meal that night.”
When asked if comedy was Daniel’s favorite way of expressing himself, he replied by telling the story of how he chose poetry as his artistic medium.
“I found Street Roots not long after I moved to Portland from Astoria, and I was just getting on my feet,” Daniel said. “I was sitting in this room, and a guy told me that I could get 10 free papers if I got published in the newspaper. So I sat down with a notebook, and I started to write. I wrote my first poem right here in this room, and that was nearly ten years ago.”
Daniel says the guy was impressed by how fast he wrote his first poem, and Daniel explained that his mom had a part to play in that. As a child, whenever Daniel would get into trouble at home, his mom would force him to sit down and read the dictionary for at least 15 minutes.
“I used to just sit there and find words that I wasn’t supposed to know, and I would read them, and she would just say to me, ‘your mind is on that?!’ and I would laugh, and she would tell me to keep reading.”
Daniel’s mom moved to Albuquerque when Daniel’s father passed away. She really preferred the sunny, warm weather in New Mexico. She lived a long, full life.
“There was a woman who used to come into Street Roots, her name is Helen, and she put a book together for me of all of my poetry. It was a total surprise, a great surprise,” Daniel said.
Daniel says he is most appreciative of Street Roots because it has helped him become financially stable by being a vendor.
“I found housing almost immediately after I started selling papers. Not because I was great at selling the papers, but because of the connections I made while I was at work.”
Somehow, someone at Street Roots found out that Daniel was camping under the bridge down the street. A few weeks later, JOIN Outreach came by van to help clean up his site, gather his things and put him in housing.
“The man who told Join Outreach where I was will never admit that it was him, Street Roots hooked me up, and I am eternally grateful.”