First started writing to keep myself company age 7 scribbling more adventures of LOST WORLD giant lizard murders - I was 13 when brother Ross turned me on to Beat poetry, extension of the wild movie image, metaphor's delight - attempting to record without hesitation, cutting where the mind gets stiff, I write because I'm afraid to stop but also need to tell all, confess perfect at last, make word-movies, huge flashings, my eyeball thrill.

Teenager 20 - nearly gave up writing after running into academy wall of college - same old story: your mind ain't o.k. as is - met Allen Ginsberg who gave permission - sanctity of the ordinary-basic haiku moment, H. Miller's matchstick in gutter, Howl's holy bum and asshole refined through Buddhist practice - everything's o.k. but we still need discipline - I was big confused pain early 20's, later relaxed due mainly to that original permission, a meadow for me to see I didn't have to be tortured, though took a good 10 years and will always be a mess, probably, still in better shape than that kid who first saw him lead drunken Trungpa Rinpoche to stage - Ginsberg's contribution: beyond poetry, politics, to show the space of mind both exist in, where problems unravel, poetry rises and self lets go - a chance for us all to the last outbreath.

II.

Interested in carrying on the Beat lineage: reflecting culture as a means of deepening the values that will preserve compassion and wisdom in both aesthetic and behavioral considerations. The emphasis is on precise image over vague editorial language - Williams' "No ideas but in things", Pound's "The natural object is always the adequate symbol." Also Kerouac's "Mind is shapely, art is shapely" - a call to training the mind itself, or Ginsberg's Tibetan teacher Trungpa Rinpoche telling us "First thought, best thought". Poetry/journal observations in the tradition of Kerouac's "sketching" - poem snapshots.

I'm Buddhist, but want to inspire in a non-sectarian manner - and delight in any cultural or individual expression that celebrates a sacred world with an inherent dignity - even if that expression is a struggle or a questioning if such a view is possible.

The essence of this view is to trust a primordial wisdom which is seen by the Buddhists as our birthright, recognized in meditation.

Sacred view relieves suffering by inspiration, and suffering's relief for all is a Buddhist vow. Can an artist aspire to less?

[2000]