Welcome to The Barnacle

Hello,

This is the Gongya! Back in my college days I was the editor of a literary magazine called The Binnacle. It's a very fond memory for me. Long days sitting in the office looking over submitted poetry, prose, and visual art. I know, that isn't a sentence, how could I be an editor? Well, I left the grammar to other people. English majors!!! That's the other thing, I was a science major and I think I was viewed in a sort of blasphemous way by some of the English major staff. But, I've always enjoyed putting my thoughts and feelings to paper, mostly in the form of poetry. And so, I thought it would be great fun publishing other folks work as well as throwing a few of mine in as well.

For me, poetry is a purging. I can't complain about my life right now. I have a beautiful wife who I've been married to for just over a year. I also have a beautiful little daughter who is 4 and a half months old. I've decided that I want to become a teacher and have an impact on the youth of America (scary!). However, that doesn't mean I don't have dark thoughts and feelings that need to be released. I could be violent or destructive but that wouldn't serve me or the ones I love any good. No, for me I use the pen as my weapon of choice to slay the ghouls. Usually, I'll have some music playing to kind of help me exhume the emotions. I encourage all to give this a try if you haven't already. You don't have to be Edgar Allen Poe or Allen Ginsberg (sp?) to write poetry. You just have to have a heart.

So, with this particular writing I open up my blog. I never knew what a blog was until I came to this site to start one. Anyway, my plan for The Barnacle is to throw out some of my poetry as it is created. If anyone happens to run into this little niche of the World Wide Web and would like to comment about what you read, please by all means. But, here's my disclaimer: I don't claim to be a master poet by any means so if you don't like it that's fine. But please avoid any simplistic banal criticisms such as "you suck!" I will put as much thought into such a response as the composer of it. So, please sit back, grab some Joe or jolt or whatever suits you and enjoy!