Growing up, my plan was to move to North Beach in San Francisco and live with the beatniks. Granted I was around 50 years too late, but no matter- I would bring a Revival of the culture if it didn’t exist. I began looking into who influenced my favorites like Jack Kerouac and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and over and over was led to Dylan Thomas. Later in my 20’s, I tried to tell myself my heavy drinking was romantic and a creative necessity to write poetry, that everyone went through it (look at Dylan Thomas! Such a drunk yet such a huge inspiration!).

I knew it was just an excuse, and ultimately had no desire whatsoever to turn out like him (although I still visited the White Horse bar in New York City where he did his final drinking, claiming to take “18 straight whiskies” which makes me nauseous just thinking about). The lesson I took from Thomas was to feel and observe your emotions fully, really explore your feelings and get it all down.

photo taken at Sloan’s Lake – Denver, Colorado