Tim Ornes Education Portfolio

Let me start of this post by sharing a little background information about my formal relationship with poetry…

There is not one.  Throughout my education I was exposed to a poem here and a poem there, but literary terms have long since vanished from my working vocabulary.  The poetry that sometimes finds its way into songs I hear is the closest I have been to anything like what I am about to experience.  So I am venturing into this first poem by Allan Ginsberg with the impression that I just may totally miss the intended message.  However, I am content on creating my own meaning from what this man has created for me, and am not too concerned with missing the point.  I will claim ownership to my individual experience.

A Desolation – Allen Ginsberg

Now mind is clear

as a cloudless sky.

Time then to make a

home in wilderness.

What have I done but

wander with my eyes

in the trees? So I

will build: wife,

family, and seek

for neighbors.

Or I

perish of lonesomeness

or want of food or

lightning or the bear

(must tame the hart

and wear the bear) .

And maybe make an image

of my wandering, a little

image—shrine by the

roadside to signify

to traveler that I live

here in the wilderness

awake and at home.

Hmmm….what was that all about?

It was not possible to avoid my egocentrism.  Reading this made me think entirely about me.

I could relate my own quest to create music and experience life on my own terms with this sense of wilderness.  The experience is ever so isolating, and toxic to those around me.  Unfortunately, there has to be a compromise, a balance if you will.  Stability will prove necessary in my present and future life.  I have found that life is more to me than just a selfish, exploration into myself and the world around me.  Life is about the greater good.  This does not come without sacrifice.  A part of me must be tucked away.  I have a healthy relationship with my child and my partner.  I have a house.  I have two snakes.  I do not visit the wilderness much anymore.  I’ll have to schedule some time….sometime.