| When young students get good marks in English and | | | | traded his notoriety and wealth for the life of a |
| enjoy reading, they always wonder what it would be | | | | Buddhist monk. The wheel of life comes full circle. I |
| like to be an author. Then they think of stories | | | | worked my hands off playing my guitar and I sang |
| they'd like to write about and ways to change the | | | | across the country until I was blue in the face. I |
| world through the power of the mighty pen, more | | | | couldn't understand why I couldn't make a decent |
| powerful than the sword as the saying goes. I first | | | | living. There was one medium I hadn't tried and that |
| applied my language skills to enter college in Radio & | | | | was prose. I decided to write a novel and there it |
| Television Arts, but I found more and more that the | | | | was...thirty-three years later I finished the book, The |
| type of writing needed was not at all creative. The | | | | Golden Blues. It's a journey through altered states of |
| set formula was to write commercials or television | | | | consciousness to form a plan to correct a mistake |
| content that was the same as other T.V. slush. | | | | and alter the fate of a traveler looking for a lost love |
| Fortunately, I knew music and began to pay | | | | by understanding the nature of the universe by |
| attention to lyrics. This was the medium that could | | | | practicing Buddhism and attempting a guided |
| give expression to my ideas. Fame was not in the | | | | reincarnation. |
| cards, and I lost more than I made on a regular basis. | | | | Now that Leonard Cohen has renounced materialism |
| In need of money, I turned to the financially | | | | in favor of nirvana, he's several steps ahead of the |
| promising world of poetry. Now, even the bill | | | | trend to seek enlightenment. The discipline of fasting |
| collectors won't call me. | | | | can be mastered quickly by would-be bards. Going |
| I developed an ability to remember my English | | | | without food comes naturally for a starving poet. If I |
| classes and the heavy emphasis on poetry that I | | | | were to give my best advice for young writers, it |
| used to pass tests when I couldn't think of any other | | | | would be: see if the Post Office has any openings. |
| project to submit. I traveled and loved women, giving | | | | Get a secure job with good benefits because old age |
| them poems written especially for them. They love | | | | sneaks up without warning, and then the romantic |
| poems, but relationships with underfinanced | | | | thought of gaining inspiration in a Greenwich Village |
| boyfriends usually end in rejection. They | | | | hotel washing down pizza crust with red wine while a |
| complimented my writing ability as they drove me | | | | mysterious French woman wearing a beret taps |
| away into the drunken darkness. Now I'm artistically | | | | bongos as you write doesn't seem that attractive |
| satisfied and poor as a church mouse; I don't even | | | | anymore. The next generation will be too busy |
| know why the mice living in churches have less | | | | playing computer games to muse over the writings |
| money than other mice, but apparently that's the | | | | of a sensitive genius in the candlelight. The next time |
| state of things. I forgot that the great Leonard | | | | your pen runs out of ink, don't fill it up again - light up |
| Cohen had money to start out with, became slightly | | | | a stick of incense, shave your head, and repeat your |
| less rich being a poet, and got rich again by writing | | | | mantra until those annoying rhymes flow from your |
| music. His books sold well at first, and when he | | | | ears. Poetry is a vehicle that has the power to drive |
| become a famous folksinger, his book sales were | | | | you straight to the poorhouse. |
| better than ever. Fame breeds more fame. Now he's | | | | |