Date: Mon, 14 Apr 1997 19:59:07 -0400 From: "The Misanthrope (and his goat)" Organization: State of Chaos, Department of Justice Subject: Re: SUB: Dressing for Rain Judy Ray wrote: > > Hi whoever you are,;) I would be me. Known mostly these days as TM(&G), but you can still find evidence of me as Xanathar (in the ISP ID, which goes down the tubes once I switch my ISP... soon! soon!). I was known for a very long time on various pay-per-hour services which shall remain nameless as Forkboy. And, very, very far in my past, I was once known as Robert P. Beveridge. I published pomez under said name, ;cause no one would let me publish under any of the others. :) The guy who used to run _Antipoetry and the Corruption of the Muse_ once suggested I change my name to something else (Beveridge was a bit too proletarian for him), but I respectfully declined. > I think you have a good poem here, but I'm not gonna > crit it publically until you do introduce yourself to the list. Okay. Here's the nutshell bio. Born DC 1968. Adopted soon thereafter. Travelled around to various places in VA, PA, MD, and WV. Went to ten schools in twelve years. Ended up at Washington and Lee U. through no fault of my own. Wrote my first "real" pome in Feb. '86 and still consider it one of my better ones. Muse was set free to do consistent high-quality work on St. Pat's Day 1989 after a friend was killed by a hit-and-run drunk driver. Muse stayed potent and pumped out 1200+ pomez between 1989 and 1994. Reached something of a lull after that most likely due to my (a) cessation of heavy drinking and (b) not moving around so damn much. After graduating from college (BA in English) in 90 I moved back home with the parental units who had gotten themselves to suburban Philly (and still reside there today, the longest they've lived anywhere since getting married in 57). Lived at home and went through a long succession of jobs (and Southern Comfort bottles) until everything blew up bad in 92. Went homeless for a month and a half, found a home again when my girlfriend and I moved in together. Married a month later. Divorced six months later (the poem that crowned that divorce, "Atom Smasher," I still consider my best work, and will post it later if I can think straight between now and then). Bounced around for about six months after that while living at home again. Situation unbearable there. Moved to NJ. Wrote a lot. Drank a lot. Moved out to Cleveland (through the actual process was much more complex, and maybe I'll tell it sometime). Now in Clevetown with the same lass I came out here to meet, married two years plus with a 16monthold daughter. Influences: dada and surrealism were what I first read and are still the focal point. During my time in Philly I was under the influence of the Bloody Someday Poetry and Purgatory Troupe, aka Stan Heleva and T. H. Cornell, who are simply the two best poets I have ever met. Since coming out here, I've found something of a mentor in local poet Major Ragain, who's become a very good friend and a fine teacher (as well as a fellow horseplayer who's as bad at picking the Kentucky Derby winner as I am-- between the two of us we're 0 for 9). > critted' file for a while, to see if you a) post a bio, b) post > some more work, and /or c) do some crits for other people. I rarely critique other peoples' work, mostly due to a severe inferiority complex, but I'll see what I can come up with. And have ne fear about posting other work. Two or three hundred relatively recent pieces have yet to see the light of day anywhere. > And welcome to the list, by the way. I hate to start > out suspicious of new folks, and I don't want to give you the > impression that you're not welcome, because you are. But > given that this list has been plagued by a flame war in the > last weeks, I'm just a little cautious right now. I've been lurking for a week or so and have caught a bit of it. I have to say I'm not a stranger to some of those involved, being a veteran of two other lists that were infected by the same virus (Trepan-L and Social Deviants). As such, I could offer my opinions on most of the major players herein, but since I know everyone is sick to death of hearing about them (and, if you've all read this far, about me), I won't. If you want to check my status as a true human being, I would direct you to the following zines, which have my name & address on file (or should, since I've published there within the past few years): New York Rvw, Hawaii Rvw, Cicada, God's Bar: Unplugged. Plus a raft of others who have gone the way of the great auk, unfortunately (and a few I'm embarrassed to say I was ever involved with). I can also throw a host of references in from rec.arts.pomez, etc., but don't want to seem TOO defensive... I'll toss a few other pomez up before signing off tonight. TM(&G)