So it goes...

When I first started my writing class at AllWriters' , the last thing I ever expected was to write poetry. I went in with the purpose of writing nonfiction and pretty much nothing else. Well, people like Mario Medina and a couple other classmates inspired me with their poetry, and I decided to start writing it myself. I didn't know where it would lead, but thought what the heck? It's just like a really, really short story. "I tell you we are here on earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different." - Kurt Vonnegut So, I started farting around with poetry. I didn't really know what I was doing, but it was a nice diversion. Before long, I submitted the poem below to Verse Wisconsin and, lo and behold, they accepted it. It was a great feeling and I daresay was the inspiration to my "push to publish." Writing is one thing, but I started submitting because it is a really cool to have someone say, "this is good; I like thi...

I am not a poet.  I've beat this saying to death. I've joked about it and denied three times my loyalties to Ginsberg, Keats, and Brautigan. People occasionally refer to me as a poet and it always catches me off guard, like they're saying I have a goiter or saying I don't look like I'm 52 (I do). It took me long enough to convince myself I was a writer, and even longer to call myself one. I think I have label issues. It has something to do with my perception of masculinity, which I realize is totally stupid. Totally. But that's what some of the hangup is. I had a great discussion with a friend and his wife over dinner a couple of weeks ago. He mentioned that some primitive cultures believe there are actually 5 genders: Masculine, Masculine-Feminine, Neutral, Feminine, and Feminine Masculine. Masculine Feminine included men who had feminine qualities about them like compassion, social needs/skills that are more like women than men, artistic types and the ...