A few interesting tidbits
memoir
I was ten years old when I won my first essay contest for the elementary schools in the Vernal, Utah area. Also I published my first poem that year in the church’s bulletin for Jensen Ward.
You might say I was published that time because I new the bulletin editor. It was my mother. In the church various members would take voluntary positions to help make the church run smoothly.
At the time my mother would make the stencil and then she used a mimeograph machine on Sunday morning to print out enough copies.
I remember the smell of the chemicals as she slowly rolled the mimeograph onto the paper. It had to be done slowly because if you didn’t, then the paper would smear. The reason I like copy machines so much is that you can make a single copy or fifty copies in a few minutes. It took much longer using the mimeograph.
But it was much better using this machine than typing single bulletin at a time.
Yes, I got a lot of kudos from that poetry, but I didn’t get serious about writing more than a few a year until I was working on my BA in English Literature.
By the time I earned my degree in 2001, I had already been a missionary to South Africa and joined the US Navy, where I became a CTM (electronics technician with a security clearance). I had also left the Navy and was a xerox copier tech for a year before going to Panama, and then Germany, working as a contractor for the DOD and other agencies.
In every occupation I have done, I have always known that deep down I was a writer and a poet.
My big achievement in poetry was when I was published in the Acumen, a yearly poetry journal from the UK. It was the same journal that published much of Seamus Haney’s work. He was an Irish poet that won the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Seamus Haney’s Beowulf was the best translation of that saga in my humble opinion.
As I reached new heights in my poetry and dabbled in sonnets, villanelles, and haikus, I realized after a few years that no one paid for poetry. It was a hobby at best. I had thought that I would teach creative writing, but only two years after earning my BA, I became ill. I even had a class lined up in the community college on Ramstein AFB.
But it was not to be— I have spent the last twenty years dealing with a chronic illness that almost killed me in early 2003. In the meantime I began to write stories and novels.
I still write poetry for my own enjoyment.
Recently when the AI revolution started happening with AI art, music, and chat, I wondered if I could repurpose my poetry into something more visual. So that little thought has brought me back to my beginnings.
You can find a few of my pieces on Cynfully Poetic. I have married AI art with words that I have written throughout the years. Words that show my emotions this poetic journey.
Thank you.