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.
Balazs
02/19/2012 at 2:19 AM
The version of you that you are referencing in Stepping Stone No More reminds me of the troll in one of the Discworld novels. (If you have read the series I will try to look up what his name was to see if you agree or not.)