In 1951, I embarked on an educational journey at the very prestigious and progressive Bard College in upstate New York. I was seventeen years old, internally frightened and outwardly pretending I knew it all.
I made a conscious decision to keep my mouth shut and my brain open to new discoveries and ideas so I would actually learn things that would make me feel less stupid.
By the time I reached my junior year, I became savvy, less afraid and sometimes cocky. It was then I met author and professor Saul Bellows, who spent that year at Bard writing his first novel, and teaching creative writing and poetry.
His class had filled up immediately but I heard he had an eye for the ladies so I put on my sexiest outfit and sidled up to him in the coffee shop, introduced myself and begged for a place in his poetry class. He acquiesced and I had the privilege of spending an amazing semester with him. Just listening to him speak was pure poetry. He had a way with words that was both inspiring and empowering. It was a semester filled with self exploration and an opportunity to view my soul. Our final assignment was to write a sonnet in iambic pentameter, and so after thirty hours of intense work, I did it. I’m both thrilled and honored to report I got an A+ from Saul Bellows, who I grew to admire and respect and lost my heart to at the same time.
Shortly thereafter Saul Bellows published “The Adventures of Augie March” which immediately became a best seller and the catalyst for his very long writing career which took off like wildfire.
The following is the only sonnet I ever wrote and I dedicated it to one of those teachers that moved me and helped to transform my thinking in a very profound way.
In 1998 my sonnet was chosen to be included and published in “Of Time and Tide”, a collection of poetic artistry and literature.
Sonnet 1
Our paths entwined beneath the lunar rage.
Tempests unleashed within, were greater still.
My fiery core set blazes to its cage
And we, fused with the earth at (corpus) will.
Unbound by shackled bodies blend, unchecked
Blood merged with blood.
At the periphery
Of heavens portals spread, reborn, we waked,
but then descended into space and sea.
You left, and I in solitude had drawn the shade.
Perception failed where blindness took its place
to blanket embers.
They extinguished, bade
forth outer frost perplexing in disgrace.
The ebb has passed, like tidal waves.
On shore the fire lumens brighter than before.
Saul Bellows became one of the great writers of our time and I was left with one of the greatest memories of my time. When I think about that experience, I smile. He had a huge influence on me choosing to live a magical life.
