Community Publishing
My new poetry book release, Eons In A Moment, available for free to read or download from Scribd.com:
Eons In A Moment - 2007 - An Experimental Poetry and Photography Fusion
Who I am has been defined by places both inside and outside of the United States of America. I was born in Ocala, Florida. When I was a kid, I had a golden retriever named Lady. She was my best friend. My parents had split when I was around age 12. I was sent to a children's home near Deltona, Florida and later on a foster home in Ocala due to problems at home. In a nutshell, I would say I was a suburban kid in central Florida.
My foster parents were black. The foster home where I lived was on the outskirts of Ocala. A lot of roads were dirt, dust, and sand that blew away. Already I had my first car which was named The Lemon. In Ocala, on the weekends there were bands playing death metal, ska, hip-hop, and alternative rock music at a local concert hall. Most of the time, I crashed at an open house hanging out with best friends Whores, artists, and psychonauts. I did not know who paid for our house. I brought food for the house cats. I drove overnight regularly between Ocala and Deltona to visit friends from my teen years.
I moved to Daytona Beach, Florida on a whim with friends from that house. My roommate physically abused his girlfriend. I counseled my roommate's girlfriend. I dropped ecstasy for the first time with my co-workers. They were people who thought they were vampires. My best friend at the time was a hot lesbian. I decided to move to my own rental beach cottage. I can recall the joyous feeling of using paid vacation days to go body surfing in the Atlantic Ocean. I lost my spectacles in the sea. I can still feel the waves in my sleep. I decided to lose my $600 deposit on the cottage in order to move to an apartment block four blocks away. During major hurricanes I would go out on the beach to feel the strong winds in my face. I started going to wild rave parties with Internet friends.
My poetry is everywhere that I have ever wrote. Each poem I wrote helped to highlight an adventure of mine, display an idea, and made me to think outloud. In 1999, I did not have every minute to devote to poetry any longer. By 1999, I was already addicted to the Internet.
On a whim in 1999, I moved to California at the request of friends on the Internet. I continued the tradition of going to parties, in California, which included throwing some infamous house-parties. I got involved with teaching people how to safely use recreational drugs, E.G: Harm reduction / Harm minimization. I became a moderator and an administrator for several years on the informational and social Bluelight web site.
I worked for a year in Los Angeles before my journey began overseas to The Fiji Islands and Australia. I wrote a dozen poems in a V.W bus on a week long trek across Australia from Melbourne to Perth. Four months later, I went for a second time to The Fiji Islands. I was in love with the country, people, and one person in particular. I lived with families in villages all across the remote islands of Fiji. There on a daily basis I saw the absolutely most beautiful rainbows, sunsets, sun-risings, and deserted white / black / red sand beaches and traditional ways of life that revolved around family. During the day I chopped coconuts, harvested taro, taught groups of young girls the game of basketball, and volunteered with an Australian based medical outreach program.
In 2002, I waved goodbye to Fiji to return to the United States. I got invited to work as a caregiver in Seattle, Washington for a summer after I posted on the Internet. My next move after the summer was to Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada for six months. Vancouver Island is a majestic place covered with stormy beaches, hippies, sprawling rain forest, quaint / interesting towns, and an astute capital city. I spent the winter of 2002 in the Canadian Rockies watching the northern lights in the sky.
I did a driveaway road trip from Portland, Oregon through the states Idaho, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and California stopping everywhere nice along the way in early 2003. I was then based in northern California leading groups of European tourists around on treks with an outdoor trekking outfit for the summer of 2003. One trip involved driving from San Francisco to Anchorage, Alaska (3,307.59 miles) in only a few days! By fate, I discovered San Francisco, which is the place that I still like to refer to as my first home. Proudly I protested against the War In Iraq and got down to block parties in the streets. In towns north of San Francisco I started to take a keen interest in growing organic foods.
I decided to find myself again overseas in Asia after a close friend suggested that I was meant to be in Thailand and that Thais are sweet and sincere. I flew to south-east Asia in the later part of 2003. I taught English for an EU Micro-Project Development Through Local Communities (MPDLC) project at a rural village in Laos. The classroom was basic and the village located between Thailand and Vietnam. I ended up here because fatefully a bus broke down. The next year in central Thailand I volunteered with Hmong refugees at a Thai temple. I resided in Thailand for three years, excluding stints to India, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Singapore.
In India, I was able to immerse myself for six months in the birthplaces for the Buddhist, Sikh, and Hindu religions. I stayed at ashrams along the path. Being able to visit ancient towns, ruins, and cities in India is incredible! The highlight of India for me was that I traveled across the Himalayas by bus from Manali. On the other side of the Himalayas is the district of Ladakh in Kashmir state where many Tibetan people live. Many connections were made there.
I returned to Thailand in September of 2004. I worked as a teacher in Bangkok, Thailand for two years. I taught various subjects like English, Math, Science, P.E, and Computer classes for many different age groups. I relocated to Portland, Oregon from Thailand in late 2005. Portland feels like a second home in America.