Jack Worthington Biography

I'm an American from the west coast. I live in Bodega, California. I lived on the east coast for a few years. It was too different for me to stay. The people, the weather, were all so different. People say you have to follow your career wherever it goes. That may work for some, but for me place is even more important than what we do, because we can 'do' anywhere. Place can be its own purpose, and my place is the west coast.

I have not had any more hardships in my life than anyone else, maybe a few less. I'm not a damaged person tying to work things out, although I do come from a damaged age group. I think history will say of my generation that we were raised like hothouse flowers, and one day the doors of the hothouse were flung open, exposing us to an uncomfortable world that we were never prepared for.

In my opinion, humanity goes through long term cycles, nations are born and die like people. They are born through sacrifice, and die through avarice. The era in which we currently live is one of avarice. Nothing ages well. Everything is created to be ground down. The only thing we can do is attempt to preserve our own dignity.

I started writing poems as an escape. I continue to write for that reason, however, on occasion, I'm awestruck by something I've seen, so escape is slowly turning into inspiration. I hope you find my poems as satisfying a read as they were to write.

Everyone tells us to believe in ourselves. Self respect is important, but what about believing in each other?