Author Information
October 13, 1975
Sometime in the early afternoon of Monday, October 13th, 1975, I decided I wanted to be a poet.
This date fell within the first quarter of my Senior year in high school. For the previous four years, I had aspired to write prose tales that would have been designated as science fiction, horror, or detective mysteries. In all attempts, I failed.
My first poem was to have been about the first scholarly Christian historian, Euseibus of Caesarea (on whom I would wrirte my Senior Thesis, in January and February, 1980, during my last collegiate year). The first line I wrote, after making the radical resolve to become a poet, and to study, at that early date, the imabic pentameter of John Milton. I wanted to write about Christian spirituality; romantic love; and erotic intimacy. I have done so since that time.
The first line I wrote after making this resolve, to begin my description of Eusebius at work on his ecclesiastical history, was: "In th'warmth and beauty of great Palestine . . . ." I did not realize, then, how childishly flawed that line really was.
Between October of 1975 and May of 1976, I wrote three poems, a little more but not much more, refined than that first line aboput Eusebius: one was a description of the murder of John the Baptist; next was a paraphrase of the Epistle of Abgar, King of Edessa, to Jesus Christ; and the third was a parapjtase of the Epistle of Saint Jude, which I had not read prior to that time.
My parents' dismay about this decision and new interest is described elsewhere in my poems.
I did not know yet who I was. Starwatcher, as an appellation, would not occur until Saturday, July 10th, 1976. It would not evolve to Starward until 2017.
Starward
This is a very important date
This is a very important date and you are blessed to remember and document it. For my part the date is now lost in time as there was not much of a real decision to make, our home abounding in Shakespeare and Wordsworth among the other seemingly countless poets and literatti, both reading and writing and even on occasion, 'performing.' But I do recall when the tide turned and the pen was taken up with more intention and determination around the pubescent years onward when the personal independent voice became a growing force and jealously guarded component of self and individuality. And there is that angle to be witnessed in your history of 'life-poetry.' Thanks for sharing your writing journey.
here is poetry that doesn't always conform
galateus, arkayye, arqios,arquious, crypticbard, excalibard, wordweaver
Thank you for that comment,
Thank you for that comment, and the compliment it contains. I especially enjoyed your reminiscences---especially that wonderful phrase, "jealously guarded component of self and individuality." That feeling of self and individuality did not come, for me, until July 10th of the following year, when Cerulean helped me find the appellation Starwatcher; but the first steps toward receiving the gift of that name were taken on October 13, 1975. I remember very few dates from that period; I was not wise enough to document stuff in a journal.
To have grown up in a home as you have described it must have been a most delightful experience. Poetry, except for limericks, was pretty much avoided in my parents' house. I had been disappointing them for years, and this choice aggravated them more than any other that I had made.
I am very grateful for your comment, and what you shared with me about your background. Knowing that information equips me to enjoy your Poetry the more.
Starward
You are most welcome. And
You are most welcome. And indeed there are fond memories from that home environment but it could also have been somewhat a burden. In homes where traditions are strong there is this unspoken expectation to carry on or to conform whereas the almost infinite varieties of poetry and art are available, certain ones are preferred by those that guide and mould you. So, in fact it can be a typecasting and stereotyping on the one hand and on another extreme could be brainwashing. By the time I was in "middle school" (not what it was called back then) our family was well and truly dysfunctional and technically a single parent home. During that period, art, music and literature became flotation devices and carried the siblings through to adulthood. And our preferences are varied and differing although we share like core influences. The range is quite astonishing, a contrast in some cases as different as night and day.
here is poetry that doesn't always conform
galateus, arkayye, arqios,arquious, crypticbard, excalibard, wordweaver
You explain it very well, and
You explain it very well, and your explanation reads quite philosophically. I really like that aspect of your comments.
Starward