Somebody here, Kent I think, said (and I precis from memory), 'maybe I
should not have gone the PhD path but the drugs and driving a blue car into
the stars path' ... As with Groucho's famous remark about rich/poor, I can
say I have been a stride or two down both paths, and the academic path, for
all its faults, is better. Moderation in art is restricting to the
practice, granted, but to burn out like a fast-burning candle is often the
result of a romantic notion which has been taken to a destructive extreme.
(This has little to do with John Weiners as his problems were many and
mostly medical.) The majority of people I see at the local mental hospital
here, and that come into various detox centres around the city, have
swallowed the rock'n'roll dream whole and not handled life well. To
paraphrase Robespierre (?), drugs have become the religion of the people.
I'm still a romantic, but older and slightly wiser. Experimenting with
poetic forms keeps my art alive, but leading a somewhat balanced life keeps
my body alive.
To say 'I'm crazy like a daisy' and 'I'm wild like a wildflower' (Corso and
Ginsberg, I can't remember in which order) is very lyrical but both of
these plants need nurturing and care to stay alive more than one season.
Ginsberg progressed, Corso burnt out. There is a lesson there with those
two for us Happy Fools who write Poetry.
Andrew
I have retrieved the quote from Kent for your interest:
>Have I wasted my life on the Ph.D. track
instead of disarranging my senses with smack
and driving a blue car through the stars?<
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Andrew Burke Copywriting
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http://www.bam.com.au/andrew/ Editing
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