{"id":4957,"date":"2014-08-25T09:36:11","date_gmt":"2014-08-25T13:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aboutrc.com\/?p=4957"},"modified":"2025-04-11T23:02:55","modified_gmt":"2025-04-12T03:02:55","slug":"fleeing-my-master","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aboutrc.com\/?p=4957","title":{"rendered":"Fleeing My Master…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"loengard\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“Ah, dear father, greybeard, lonely old courage-
\nteacher, what America did you have when Charon quit
\npoling his ferry and you got out on a smoking bank
\nand stood watching the boat disappear in the black
\nwaters of Lethe?”<\/p>\n

\u201cA Supermarket in California\u201d by Allen Ginsberg<\/i>

<\/p>\n

When I was about to leave high school at the tender age of 15 , I was completely enamored with writing and poetry. I studied a lot of poetry in high school.-Of all of the genres, I really gravitated to\u00a0the Beat generation. ee Cummings, William Carlos Williams. While everyone around me was fascinated with hip hop and TV, I secretly wished that I could be as cool \u00a0as these poets. Chief among them for me was Allen Ginsberg<\/a> \u2013<\/span> one of the most seminal poets of the period. While I was dead set to go to school to become a teacher of the deaf (something we can totally talk about another time<\/em>), reading poetry and \u00a0doing any kind of writing at the foot of Ginsberg for me was just one of those dream things to do.<\/p>\n

I had applied and had been accepted to the State University of New York, College at Plattsburgh<\/a>, a<\/span>nd really loved being an incredibly far amount from New York City. I remember the morning when I heard that a representative from the school was at my high school to speak and found Plattsburgh to be a very funny name. I marched into my guidance counselors office and asked her where this place was. She slowly stood up, looked at a map behind her.. then turned to me. \u201cPlattsburgh is about 370 miles due north, as the crow flies\u201d

She took a swig of her coffee and then looked dead at me as if what she was about to say didn’t need discussion:

\u201cIt\u2019s the furthest you can actually get from here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Headed to Brooklyn<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n

So, I was accepted, but I was also accepted to CUNY Brooklyn College. After coming to the harsh realization that it would take a lot of money for me to go away for school, I settled into the idea of commuting to Brooklyn college to go there. I felt that I could get everything that I needed if I just went and studied from someone whom I considered a master.<\/p>\n

The train ride from where I lived to Brooklyn was abysmal. It felt like days had passed when I finally got to the college. The college seemed nice enough, and everything was pretty much all set. There \u00a0I stood at the main registration area – two people ahead of me. All I needed to do was turn in the form I had in my hand. Classes were picked out. Bursar just needed these last documents. I waited in line and just felt more and more uneasy as I got closer to the Bursar lady.<\/p>\n

I finally got there, and the lady looked at me quizzically. Truth be told, I wasn\u2019t really there. I\u2019d checked out already. As much as I wanted to be<\/em> there, at the foot of Ginsberg, something told me that I couldn\u2019t. While following my master felt like the best thing to do, It felt like what I needed to do was flip him off on the way to a much more unpredictable future. I looked at the Bursar lady and asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cListen. If I dont give you this paper, and I take six months off.. will I still be able to be accepted into this college?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHoney.. your grades are fine. Do what you gotta go.\u201d<\/p>\n

I immediately turned around and walked away. The reality of what I had just done didn\u2019t hit until I was sitting at a Kentucky Fried Chicken not too far from the college. There, I sat and planned how I would come home and tell my parents that I was taking six months off to work as hard as I could to get the money to go away to school..<\/p>\n

.. as far as I could get from this place.<\/p>\n

*************<\/b><\/p>\n

I started thinking about all of this because of John Loengard<\/a>\u00a0. \u00a0This is \u00a0picture that he’s made of Ginsberg. It feels exactly as he sounds. \u00a0Recently I had a chance to visit with this picture at the Monroe Gallery in New Mexico<\/a>. \u00a0I’m headed back there this October\u00a03\u00a0for a Joe McNally show<\/a>. \u00a0If you guys are in the area, make sure you check it out!<\/p>\n

You can also read about my Monroe gallery experience at this link.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n



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