A Time of Change

All of the poems in this work were written in the 1960's, a very traumatic time for most people, young and old alike. This really was a time of change not only for me as a teen (when I wrote them), but for everyone the world over in terms of what historical events were taking place. I found writing poems to be a way of dealing with the stress and uncertainty of the times. I started writing in high school in 1962 as a fourteen year old, following a summer of intense scares during the "Cuban Missile" crisis. The years following were filled with civil unrest, race riots, assassinations, and ongoing nuclear weapons testing by the U.S. and the USSR. I tried to be hopeful, but had a definite preoccupation with the fear of death and possible annihilation. I started college in the fall of 1966. It was a small liberal arts college surrounded by cornfields in Monmouth, Illinois. That summer there had been race riots and the mass murder of eight student nurses in Chicago. Throughout the U.S. there was mounting opposition to our involvement in the Vietnam War. I felt lost and alone in the middle of nowhere at first, but made new friends, joined a fraternity and managed to begin enjoying college life for what it was. My poems began to echo this, but also began to show influence from the music and musicians of the times. By the time I transferred to a much bigger school (Syracuse University) closer to home in 1968, MLK Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy had both been assassinated, and the Vietnam War was in full swing on the nightly news. My writing continued to reflect the times, but was now influenced more by my personal search of self and for the kind of person I'd turn out to be. Love, friendship, and the fully giving up of my personal and spiritual selfishness were constant struggles. Who would I share the rest of my life with? Did I want to share, or did I want to be a loner for the rest of my life? As graduation approached in 1970, I had pretty much figured out who and what I was.