I was born in New York City in 1943. I began writing poetry in the fourth grade and eventually attended the poetry workshop at the University of Iowa. I graduated from New York University. I did a year of graduate school in English Literature before working
in journalism at the New York Times and Bergen Record.
In the mid sixties I learned to play the guitar and started writing songs. I also began to become interested in photography. To support myself I worked as a carpenter, cook,
teacher, healthcare worker, glass blower etc.
I had three sons in my first marriage which ended after we lost our eldest in a car accident.
I found painting as a way of coping with my grief and coming to terms with my loss.
I have explored many mediums and the art making has been a transformational journey that has put me in touch with my soul in a new and deeper way.
I remarried and my wife and I have two daughters.
When my father died a wrote a book to help me come to terms with a long difficult relationship and put the past behind me. The book is called Forgive Myself.
The day we brought you home
There was a storm.
The sky grew black as night, thunder shook,
Like pages in a ghostly horror book.
...
Cleopatra’s Needle threads the earth at noon
Through the warm gaze of the eye of the sun.
I look into the sky and see your face
And think somehow the world is kept in place
...
My bags are packed, I’m ready
And heading for the door,
Where I will once again become,
The nothing I was before.
...
Beneath this civil surface
There’s someone you can’t see
He’s the howling, growling monster,
The wild man in me.
...
It was a long time ago you left us,
You went without a warning or a sign,
You took all you wanted to take with you,
Running like a memory from your mind.
...