Two Oldies

I think what I really enjoyed about college (the run at college that ended in a degree) was that I was vested in being creative while attending. Perhaps it was due to asking if people wanted oil and mayonnaise for a living at that time, but I really was into the experience.

While at ECC City I had a teacher named Bill.  Now Bill was an excellent teacher and in many ways a better mentor. I used to get pissed when Bill would harshly rip apart some of my work, but in hindsight (oh that hindsight it gets ya every time dontcha know?) I should have been grateful for it and acted very Kevin Bacon in Animal House, thank you sir I will have another.

I took a few classes with Bill and two of them were creative writing ones. If you have never indulged in the experience, I highly recommend it.  I get my introvert groove on in these scenarios too, but it was worth doing.

Our class did a story called Blue… damn, I can’t remember what the second part of the title was, how about that?  Anyway (in my best CAL tone), we did a class story where everyone did a page to a page and a half portion. I was either second or third in a story about a boy and a girl falling for each other and deciding to take a busfrom Buffalo to Cleveland… at least that is where the story was left at my feet.

I had them arrive in Cleveland on the weekend of a Rock n Roll Hall of Fame ceremony.  I packed the bus station with people dressed up for the look a like contest. I had Jim Morrison acting like Chief Mojo Risin (hitting on the protagonist who was female due to our 8-2 class ratio).  Jerry tried to break it up. I received kudos for adding details like mention of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.  It was a lot of fun and if I recall correctly some people took the story in some Skinimax direction.  It was fun though.

Here are two of the poems I wrote during this time period.  One was about being at Disney World on a family vacation with a fever and the other was about breaking out of a shell of sorts.  The second poem- Stepping Stone No More features some of my strongest and weakest writing rolled up into one poem. How about that?  Anyway, enjoy.

 

Disney at 102 Degrees

Family vacation

in Walter’s Wonderful Kingdom

unable to hold down dry toast

trembling with convulsions

Mikey’s Tiki Hut holding

no answers to my pain

The Magic Kingdom

at 102 degrees

 

Hallucinatory heat

makes my head throb

my sister and mother

trying to soothe my sickness

with Mickey Mouse ice cream

the melodic music of a Small World

brings the bile bursting

from below

Three days later

my fever subsided

meandering near the

sterling silver globe at Epcot

a bird shits on my shoulder

 

Stepping Stone No More

By nature and nurture

I am a loving, giving soul

Jonathan- God’s gift

Quiet and brooding

a gentle giant

in a world that exacts

its toll on those not bold and brash

all good deeds done considered cold ash

But Listen!

I’m tired of the facades

laid before me

I’m tearing through

I’m going old school

Old Testament- I’m Jonathan Michael

God’s Gift and his avenging angel

 

 

And now for our regularly scheduled Phish.

 

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