Writing Poetry Around The Age Of Twenty - 1257 Words

When I became â€Å"serious† about writing poetry around the age of fifteen, I thought it was only a matter of time before I was discovered for the genius I was. My example was Rimbaud, the visionary French poet, discovered in his teens, celebrated by the literati of his time, some of whom -- literally -- fell in love with him; one of them even shot him in a pique of passion. Rimbaud’s light burned bright, he took Paris by storm, seized his world and made it his oyster, set it on fire, and painted it red. Almost as quickly as he ascended, Rimbaud burned out. Fame and adulation wasn’t worth the price of his vision. He gave up poetry, left Paris, ran guns in Ethiopia, imported coffee, and became a legend. His works are still read today. Works of†¦show more content†¦I even had a â€Å"one-man show† in Lakewood, Ohio, in 1986 – albeit, in a booth I purchased at an art street fair. Preparing for that show killed my interest in painting, although I still have a handful of them. (Three of my paintings hang in our Brooklyn house because my wife and kids and an art framer friend thought them worthy.) There was an earth sculpture wherein I moved a pile of dirt from one location to another, an installation in a field behind a friends farmhouse made from discarded plumbing fixtures and farm machinery, and a performance art piece in a gallery in Cooperstown, NY, that featured a mime, Jacques Cousteau, and Harry Belafonte in a surrealistic dream-of-consciousness dialogue poem. If I wasn’t a genius, who was? By the end of the decade, I had a few poems in magazines, was part of the Hoboken poetry scene at Maxwell’s and Cafà © Elysian, and self-published several chapbooks of my poems under the l’etoiluna press. With a few friends, I started a writing group called the Decompositionalists – our work was decomposing rather than composing, like the society around us. (Deep, man.) The common denominator of the work I produced back then? It sucked. I was neither a genius nor a savant about to be discovered by a patron and rocketed to fame and fortune. I’d fooled myself into thinking I was what David Galenson calls a â€Å"conceptual innovator.† Would that I’dShow MoreRelatedSylvia Plath s Life And Life1209 Words   |  5 Pagesis also from one of her many poems, which were greatly influenced by her life. To learn how Plath’s life affected her writing, researchers studied main topics on her life and her works, including her early life, career, and literary works. To begin with, one of the topics that researchers studied was Plath’s early life and her family history, as events that occurred at an early age had a huge impact on the rest of her life. Sylvia Plath was eight and a half pounds when she was born on October 27,Read MoreEssay about John Keats: Amazing Poet and Hero1357 Words   |  6 Pagesdeath at the young age of twenty-five, Keatss poetry was scrutinized. If not for several profound occurrences in John Keats’s lifetime, and without the friendships that he made, he never would have been able to address the political issues at the time or find a way to release his feelings of heartbreak John Keats was born on October 31, 1795 on a small farm in London, England to Thomas and Frances Keats. He had a relatively stable early childhood, he lost his father at the age of eight when heRead MoreEssay on Kahlil Gibran941 Words   |  4 Pagesof Arabic speaking people, familiar with his writing consider him a genius of his age. However, his fame and influence was not limited to the Near East only, but far beyond these borders. His poetry has been translated into more than twenty languages. His drawings and paintings have been exhibited in the great capitals of the world and compared by Auguste Rodin to the work of William Blake. In the United States, which he made his home for the last twenty years of his life., he began to write in EnglishRead More Kahlil Gibran Essay912 Words   |  4 Pagesof Arabic speaking people, familiar with his writing consider him a genius of his age. However, his fame and influence was not limited to the Near East only, but far beyond these borders. His poetry has been translated into more than twenty languages. His drawings and paintings have been exhibited in the great capitals of the world and compared by Auguste Rodin to the work of William Blake. In the United States, which he made his home for the last twenty years of his life., he began to write in EnglishRead MoreJimmy Baca s Life And Destiny1174 Words   |  5 Pages Born in 1952 in Santa Fe of Chicano and Apache descent, Jimmy Santiago Baca was abandoned by his parents at the age of 13 years old, he got placed in an orphanage by his grandmother which he ran away from as soon as possible. He was convicted on drug charges in 1973 and has spent five years in prison. While he served prison he learned to read and began writing poetry. Jimmy Baca recaptures his life and his struggles in A Place to Stand. When Jimmy was young he saw his father go to jail, addictedRead More Poe and Morrison Transformed Jalopies into Hot Rods 1478 Words   |  6 Pagesout so cautiously by others or to forge a unique path and travel it fiercely with reckless abandon and ambition guided by extreme individuality. What is this perplexing, intangible thing we call the subconscious? And what role does it play in the writing process of a poet? In general, when given the task of defining the subconscious, the initial impulse is to provide an ordinary idea such as, â€Å"on e’s natural instinct that lies beneath the actively aware mind and its intentional thoughts†; however,Read MoreElizabeth Barrett Browning Essay1059 Words   |  5 Pagesearned their wealth from a sugar plantation in Jamaica (EXPLORING Poetry). When Elizabeth was â€Å"three years old, the family moved to Hope End in Herefordshire,, and she spent the next twenty-three years of her life in this minareted country house overlooking a lake† (Hayter). Since a young age Barrett Browning had shown significant amounts of interest in poetry and literature. By the age of four she had began reading and writing verse. â€Å"She was educated at home, and learned classic Greek, LatinRead MoreRecipe, By Janice Mirikitani And Mr. Z By M. Carl Holman1473 Words   |  6 Pagesâ€Å"Recipe† by Janice Mirikitani and â€Å"Mr.Z† by M. Carl Holman are two poems that were written twenty years apart. Even with the large year gap the two poems can be compared to one another. Poetry is the art words. Sometimes what the words say and other times how the words look on the page. Either way poetry is a beautiful thing that is greatly needed and beneficial for life. A major concept on the poetry world is the speaker. The speaker is basically the voice that the poem is supposed to be read inRead MoreCummings : The Childhood Home Of Edward Estlin Cummings1252 Words   |  6 Pageswhere he began writing, at the early age of three, with the a ssistance of his imagination and his mother, Rebecca Clarke. Rebecca encouraged young Edward to write verse and keep a journal, along with helping him record his thoughts until he was old enough to write himself. He grew up surrounded by many forms of nature, allowing his imagination to soar. His family supported him throughout his life and taught him the importance of independence and individuality. Every step of his writing process, includingRead MoreThe Life and Work of William Blake Essay601 Words   |  3 PagesCatherine Harmitage Blake (Britannica). Some say that the Blake’s were Swedenborgianism (Ward, Walter, 181). The second born out of six children, was Blake, his older brother’s name was James. In 1760 his brother John was born. In 1761 at the age of four he envisioned â€Å"Our Lord’s† Head in a window (Britannica). In 1762 his brother Richard was born, but passed away as a baby. Then in 1764 his sister and only girl were born. William was ten in 1767 when his brother, Robert