Category Archives: Essay

Essay insights into the work

Remembering

Remembering
In the northern hemisphere, the Andromeda Galaxy is visible with the naked eye throughout the year. When I first learned of this as a school boy I was astounded to think that it had been there all along, shining down on our entire history, unrecognized. In 1929,  with the aid of the 100 inch telescope at Wilson Observatory,…
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Leaves of Grass

Leaves of Grass
Twenty-one years ago I visited Walt Whitman’s home with my sister. He had lived in New Jersey, and we visited his house there, which has been preserved, and walked where he had spent time strolling and writing. It was a blessed connection for me. Whitman is America’s first Transcendental poet, whose embrace of life heralded a new…
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Howl

Howl
In 1987 there was an event reuniting the Beat Poets for a week-long series of performances, exhibitions, and happenings in the Midwest. William Burroughs lived in Lawrence, Kansas at the time, and Allen Ginsberg thought it would be a good time to call all of the troops home for a reunion in Burrows' honor. It was…
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Sculpture Fields

Sculpture Fields
In Chattanooga I went to work for John Henry in building Tatlin’s Sentinel. It was one of many monumental sculptures in steel and aluminum fabricated at his Chattanooga studio. And at 101 feet tall and 100,000 pounds, it is one of the largest contemporary sculptures in the world, and the second tallest in the United States. I drilled the steel…
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