THE ARTIST'S LOUNGE: February 2025

Wednesday, February 26, 2025

Reading the biographies of my favorite authors has helped me to understand who they are and why they write/wrote the way they did. Sylvia Plath was the most difficult poet I had trouble understanding until I read her life story. Jack Kerouac was another author I understood when I read his bio.

William Shakespeare is the only person when I read his biography I ended up knowing less about. I'm sure there are others. I believe that biographies help me understand the era the author lived in.

NEW WORD

Saturday, February 22, 2025

NEW WORD

OBSCURE POET

ALEXANDER PUSHKIN (1799-1837)

Russia's most famous poet

Poet, playwright, novelist

From a family of nobility

Exiled (1820-1823) for outspoken political views

Evgeny Onegin (Eugene Onegin) his masterpiece published in 1833

Invented iambic tetrameter with alternating feminine and masculine rhymes

Life marked by political and romantic scandals

Died in 1837 two days after losing a duel

Tuesday, February 18, 2025

NOVEL? NOVELLA?

I have stated in the past that writing a novel wasn't in the cards. Did not think I had the patience. Now my thoughts about doing it is changing.

I have been writing about a character who forays into the world of adult entertainment. From a celebrated college athlete, he is introduced to a world far different from his own through a chance encounter.

My encounter with people outside the norm is a thread that runs through my life. It seems, for some reason, that they are drawn to me. As I have tweaked this story, I have developed a fondness for the character. He is stabilizing force in a sometimes chaotic world.

This could be a novel or a novella. I thought that this would just be a couple of short stories. Now I see that this could be something more. I'm writing and adding more to the story. I will see how it goes.

NEW WORD

Wednesday, February 12, 2025

WORDS OF WISDOM

NEW WORD

WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK

I first hung out here in 1968. It had a bohemian vibe where liked minded free spirits came to listen to music, talk, get high (which I didn't), ND enjoy the many various people. I have written some poems about this park.

When I enter under the arch, I am transported to a different world. As a writer , I see the similarity as I'm going into another world. Many writers have hung out here. Many still do. Would love to get with a group of writers and poets to share our work and ideas. Spirits are freed here, so there's no better place.