Paul on Poetry

My interest in poetry began in sixth grade when my English teach Mr. O’Mara made us memorize poems and recite them in front of the class. It was during one of these exercises that I went beyond simple memorization and began to see the grace, the power, the potential, the beauty of words.

That Poem “Concord Hymn” by Ralph Waldo Emerson began my love of poetry. The stanza that so unleashed the power of poetry to chronicle life, epic events and more is,

“By the rude bridge that arched the flood
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world”

From that moment on I not only memorized our assignments but began to actually savor poetry. I started to take it in, to notice how it made me feel, what it made me think and imagine.

Several years later in high school, while in another English class I was introduced to Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. This more modern more freestyle form of poetry, less reliant on rhyme and meter took my love of poetry to an entirely new level.

I began writing poetry after college but not with any serious bent. I wrote when an idea came to me. But I was more dabbling in poetry than pursuing it as an art form. As the years past I continued to write, sometimes though going years without putting pen to paper.

Now in my 50s I have discovered my passion for reading and writing poetry again and have jumped off the precipice, and taken the plunge to publish my first book of verse.

This book contains poems from the past 25 years including more than two dozen new poems composed within the last few months. Inspiration for my work comes from my life and my experiences – I embrace that adage – “Write what you know!”

While I love all types of poetry from the classics to modern my favorite poets, those that inspire me most are, Walt Whitman, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg, Jack Kerouac, William Carlos Williams, Langston Hughes, and John Lennon.