Mary Jane Oliver (September 10, 1935 – January 17, 2019) was an American poet who won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. In 2007 The New York Times described her as “far and away, this country’s best-selling poet.”

I started writing poetry back in early 2000's but never took it seriously until recently. I love to write and will write when my emotions bring me to that point. My poems are dedicated to my daughter, Melissa and to a man who has always been a friend and encouraged me to continue writing; to Marcos Adrian, I will always be your "La Poetisa Oscura". http://lapoetisaoscura.weebly.com/

Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist and journalist. His work is marked by clarity, intelligence and wit, awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and belief in democratic socialism. Considered perhaps the 20th century's best chronicler of English culture, Orwell wrote literary criticism, poetry, fiction and polemical journalism. He is best known for the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) and the allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945), which together have sold more copies than any two books by any other 20th-century author. His book Homage to Catalonia (1938), an account of his experiences in the Spanish Civil War, is widely acclaimed, as are his numerous essays on politics, literature, language and culture. In 2008, The Times ranked him second on a list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945”.

I'm just a student and I Wright when I'm bored and for fun. I love poetry and words .

Wilfred Edward Salter Owen (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was an English poet and soldier, one of the leading poets of the First World War. His shocking, realistic war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was heavily influenced by his friend Siegfried Sassoon and stood in stark contrast to both the public perception of war at the time, and to the confidently patriotic verse written by earlier war poets such as Rupert Brooke. Among his best-known works – most of which were published posthumously – are “Dulce et Decorum Est”, “Insensibility”, “Anthem for Doomed Youth”, “Futility” and “Strange Meeting”.

A Christian teen who writes when she can :^)

John Boyle O’Reilly (28 June 1844–10 August 1890) was an Irish-born poet, journalist and fiction writer. As a youth in Ireland, he was a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, or Fenians, for which he was transported to Western Australia. After escaping to the United States, he became a prominent spokesperson for the Irish community and culture, through his editorship of the Boston newspaper The Pilot, his prolific writing, and his lecture tours.

Wow....I have written a four hundred page book on that under the guise of fiction! ! Grew up in Bermuda, went to Boarding school in England, transferred to High School In Canada, Attended RMC Sandhurst and was commissioned as an officer.Graduated University with a degree in Environmental Planning, Was a Planner in Bermuda, started an Architectural design firm, designed and build several thousand homes, churches, and buildings over a thirty five year career. Moved to the United States twenty odd years ago with my wife and settled in her hometown of Princeton N,J, We have two amazingly talented and beautiful teenaged daughters. Presently starting a new career path in manufacturing...Writer, Artist and poet and dangerous critic.

Francis Russell “Frank” O’Hara (March 27, 1926– July 25, 1966) was an American writer, poet and art critic. Because of his employment as a curator at the Museum of Modern Art, O’Hara became prominent in New York City’s art world. O’Hara is regarded as a leading figure in the New York School—an informal group of artists, writers and musicians who drew inspiration from jazz, surrealism, abstract expressionism, action painting and contemporary avant-garde art movements. O’Hara’s poetry is personal in tone and in content and described as reading “like entries in a diary”. Poet and critic Mark Doty has said O’Hara’s poetry is “urbane, ironic, sometimes genuinely celebratory and often wildly funny” containing “material and associations alien to academic verse” such as “the camp icons of movie stars of the twenties and thirties, the daily landscape of social activity in Manhattan, jazz music, telephone calls from friends”. O’Hara’s writing “sought to capture in his poetry the immediacy of life, feeling that poetry should be ”between two persons instead of two pages.” The Collected Poems of Frank O’Hara edited by Donald Allen (Knopf, 1971), the first of several posthumous collections, shared the 1972 National Book Award for Poetry. Life Frank O’Hara, the son of Russell Joseph O’Hara and Katherine (née Broderick) was born on March 27, 1926, at Maryland General Hospital, Baltimore, and grew up in Grafton, Massachusetts. He attended St. John’s High School. He grew up believing he had been born in June, but in fact had been born in March, his parents having disguised his true date of birth because he was conceived out of wedlock. He studied piano at the New England Conservatory in Boston from 1941 to 1944 and served in the South Pacific and Japan as a sonarman on the destroyer USS Nicholas during World War II. With the funding made available to veterans he attended Harvard University, where artist and writer Edward Gorey was his roommate. O’Hara was heavily influenced by visual art and by contemporary music, which was his first love (he remained a fine piano player all his life and would often shock new partners by suddenly playing swathes of Rachmaninoff when visiting them). His favorite poets were Arthur Rimbaud, Stéphane Mallarmé, Boris Pasternak, and Vladimir Mayakovsky. While at Harvard, O’Hara met John Ashbery and began publishing poems in the Harvard Advocate. Despite his love of music, O’Hara changed his major and graduated from Harvard in 1950 with a degree in English. He then attended graduate school at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. While at Michigan, he won a Hopwood Award and received his M.A. in English literature in 1951. That autumn O’Hara moved into an apartment in New York City with Joe LeSueur, who would be his roommate and sometime lover for the next 11 years. It was during this time that he began teaching at The New School. Known throughout his life for his extreme sociability, passion, and warmth, O’Hara had hundreds of friends and lovers throughout his life, many from the New York art and poetry worlds. Soon after arriving in New York, he was employed at the Museum of Modern Art, selling postcards at the admissions desk, and began to write seriously. O’Hara was active in the art world, working as a reviewer for Artnews, and in 1960 was Assistant Curator of Painting and Sculpture Exhibitions for the Museum of Modern Art. He was also a friend of the artists Willem de Kooning, Norman Bluhm, Larry Rivers and Joan Mitchell. In the early morning hours of July 24, 1966, O’Hara was struck by a jeep on the Fire Island beach, after the beach taxi in which he had been riding with a group of friends broke down in the dark. He died the next day of a ruptured liver. Attempts to bring negligent homicide charges against 23-year-old driver Kenneth L. Ruzicka were unsuccessful; many of O’Hara’s friends felt the local police had conducted a lax investigation to protect one of their own locals. O’Hara was buried in Green River Cemetery on Long Island. The painter Larry Rivers, a longtime friend and lover of O’Hara’s, delivered one of the eulogies, along with Bill Berkson, Edwin Denby and René d’Harnoncourt. Poetry While O’Hara’s poetry is generally autobiographical, it tends to be based on his observations of New York life rather than exploring his past. In his introduction to The Collected Poems of Frank O’Hara, Donald Allen says "that Frank O’Hara tended to think of his poems as a record of his life is apparent in much of his work.” O’Hara discussed this aspect of his poetry in a statement for Donald Allen’s New American Poetry: What is happening to me, allowing for lies and exaggerations which I try to avoid, goes into my poems. I don’t think my experiences are clarified or made beautiful for myself or anyone else, they are just there in whatever form I can find them. . .My formal “stance” is found at the crossroads where what I know and can’t get meets what is left of that I know and can bear without hatred. . .It may be that poetry makes life’s nebulous events tangible to me and restores their detail; or conversely that poetry brings forth the intangible quality of incidents which are all too concrete and circumstantial. Or each on specific occasions, or both all the time. His initial time in the Navy, during his basic training at Sampson Naval Training Center in upstate New York, along with earlier years spent at St. John’s High School began to shape a distinguished style of solitary observation that would later inform his poems. Immersed in regimented daily routine, first Catholic school then the Navy, he was able to separate himself from the situation and make witty and often singular studies. Sometimes these were cataloged for use in later writing, or, perhaps more often, put into letters. This skill of scrutinizing and recording during the bustle and churn of daily life would, later, be one of the important aspects that shaped O’Hara as an urban poet writing off the cuff. Among his friends, O’Hara was known to treat poetry dismissively, as something to be done only in the moment. John Ashbery claims he witnessed O’Hara “Dashing the poems off at odd moments– in his office at the Museum of Modern Art, in the street at lunchtime or even in a room full of people– he would then put them away in drawers and cartons and half forget them.” In 1959, he wrote a mock manifesto (originally published in Yugen in 1961) called Personism: A Manifesto, in which he explains his position on formal structure: “I don’t... like rhythm, assonance, all that stuff. You just go on your nerve. If someone’s chasing you down the street with a knife you just run, you don’t turn around and shout, ‘Give it up! I was a track star for Mineola Prep.’” He says, in response to academic overemphasis on form, “As for measure and other technical apparatus, that’s just common sense: if you’re going to buy a pair of pants you want them to be tight enough so everyone will want to go to bed with you. There’s nothing metaphysical about it.” He claims that on August 27, 1959, while talking to LeRoi Jones, he founded a movement called Personism which may be “the death of literature as we know it.” He says, “It does not have to do with personality or intimacy, far from it! But to give you a vague idea, one of its minimal aspects is to address itself to one person (other than the poet himself), thus evoking overtones of love without destroying love’s life-giving vulgarity, and sustaining the poet’s feelings toward the poem while preventing love from distracting him into feeling about the person.” His poetry shows the influence of Abstract Expressionism, Surrealism, Russian poetry, and poets associated with French Symbolism. Ashbery says, “The poetry that meant the most to him when he began writing was either French– Rimbaud, Mallarmé, the Surrealists: poets who speak the language of every day into the reader’s dream– or Russian– Pasternak and especially Mayakovsky, for whom he picked up what James Schuyler has called the ‘intimate yell.’” As part of the New York School of poetry, O’Hara to some degree encapsulated the compositional philosophy of New York School painters. Ashbery says, “Frank O’Hara’s concept of the poem as the chronicle of the creative act that produces it was strengthened by his intimate experience of Pollock’s, Kline’s, and de Kooning’s great paintings of the late '40s and early '50s and of the imaginative realism of painters like Jane Freilicher and Larry Rivers.” O’Hara was also influenced by William Carlos Williams. According to Marjorie Perloff in her book Frank O’Hara, Poet among Painters, he and Williams both use everyday language and simple statements split at irregular intervals. Perloff points out the similarities between O’Hara’s “Autobiographia Literaria” and Williams’s “Invocation and Conclusion.” At the end of “Autobiographia Literaria,” the speaker says, "And here I am, the/center of all beauty!/writing these poems!/Imagine!" Similarly, Williams at the end of “Invocation and Conclusion” says, “Now look at me!” These lines show a shared interest in the self as an individual who can only be himself in isolation. A similar idea is expressed in a line from Williams’s “Danse Russe”: "Who shall say I am not/ the happy genius of my household?” In popular culture In music In First Aid Kit’s song “To A Poet”, there is the lyric, “But Frank put it best when he said ”you can’t plan on the heart"", a reference to Frank O’Hara’s poem, My Heart. In films In the 2011 film Beastly, the lovestruck main characters read O’Hara’s poem “Having a Coke with You” aloud to each other. In literature O’Hara is a minor character in William Boyd’s 2002 novel Any Human Heart. In television In the season 1 episode of the HBO series Bored to Death, “The Case of the Missing Screenplay”, the main character loses a screenplay written by Jim Jarmusch about the life of Frank O’Hara. Several episodes of Mad Men (season 2) reference O’Hara’s collection of poetry, Meditations in an Emergency. The first episode shows a character reading from it over lunch in a bar (recalling O’Hara’s 1964 collection Lunch Poems) as does the last episode, which uses the book’s title as its episode title. In the twelfth episode, Don Draper finds his copy of Meditations in an Emergency in Anna Draper’s home in California. Landmarks On June 10, 2014, a plaque was unveiled outside one of O’Hara’s New York City residences, at 441 East Ninth Street. Poets Tony Towle, who inherited the apartment from O’Hara, and Edmund Berrigan read his works at the event. Bibliography * Works by Frank O’Hara at Open Library * Works about Frank O’Hara in libraries (WorldCat catalog) Books in lifetime * A City Winter and Other Poems. Two Drawings by Larry Rivers. (New York: Tibor de Nagy Gallery Editions, 1951 [sic, i.e. 1952]) * Oranges: 12 pastorals. (New York: Tibor de Nagy Gallery Editions, 1953; New York: Angel Hair Books, 1969) * Meditations in an Emergency. (New York: Grove Press, 1957; 1967) * Second Avenue. Cover drawing by Larry Rivers. (New York: Totem Press in Association with Corinth Books, 1960) * Odes. Prints by Michael Goldberg. (New York: Tiber Press, 1960) * Lunch Poems. (San Francisco, CA: City Lights Books, The Pocket Poets Series (No. 19), 1964) * Love Poems (Tentative Title). (New York: Tibor de Nagy Gallery Editions, 1965) Posthumous works * In Memory of My Feelings, commemorative volume illustrated by 30 U.S. artists and edited by Bill Berkson (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1967) * The Collected Poems of Frank O’Hara. Edited by Donald Allen with an introduction by John Ashbery (1st ed. New York: Knopf, 1971; Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995)—shared the National Book Award with Howard Moss, Selected Poems * The Selected Poems of Frank O’Hara. Edited by Donald Allen (New York: Knopf, 1974; Vintage Books, 1974) * Standing Still and Walking in New York. Edited by Donald Allen (Bolinas, Calif: Grey Fox Press; Berkeley, Calif: distributed by Bookpeople, 1975) * Early Writing. Edited by Donald Allen (Bolinas, Calif: Grey Fox; Berkeley: distributed by Bookpeople, 1977) * Poems Retrieved. Edited by Donald Allen (Bolinas, Calif: Grey Fox Press; Berkeley, Calif: distributed by Bookpeople, 1977) * Selected Plays. Edited by Ron Padgett, Joan Simon, and Anne Waldman (1st ed. New York: Full Court Press, 1978) * Amorous Nightmares of Delay: Selected Plays. (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997) * Selected Poems. Edited by Mark Ford (New York: Knopf, 2008) * Poems Retrieved (City Lights, 2013) * Lunch Poems. 50th Anniversary Edition (City Lights, 2014) Exhibitions * Jackson Pollock. (New York: George Braziller, Inc. 1959) * New Spanish painting and sculpture. (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1960) * Robert Motherwell: with selections from the artist’s writings. by Frank O’Hara (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1965) * Nakian. (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1966) * Art Chronicles, 1954–1966. (New York: G. Braziller, 1975) On O’Hara * Frank O’Hara: Poet Among Painters by Marjorie Perloff (New York: G. Braziller, 1977; 1st paperback ed. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1979; Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, with a new introduction, 1998) * Frank O’Hara by Alan Feldman (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1979 . . . frontispiece photo of Frank O’Hara c. by Richard Moore) * Frank O’Hara: A Comprehensive Bibliography by Alexander Smith, Jr. (New York: Garland, 1979; 2nd print. corrected, 1980) * Homage to Frank O’Hara. edited by Bill Berkson and Joe LeSueur, cover by Jane Freilicher (originally published as Big Sky 11/12 in April, 1978; rev. ed. Berkeley: Creative Arts Book Company, 1980) * Art with the touch of a poet: Frank O’Hara. exhibit companion compiled by Hildegard Cummings (Storrs, Conn.: The William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, 1983 . . . January 24-March 13, 1983) * Frank O’Hara: To Be True To A City edited by Jim Elledge (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1990) * City Poet: The Life and Times of Frank O’Hara by Brad Gooch (1st ed. New York: Knopf, 1993; New York: HarperPerennial, 1994) * In Memory of My Feelings: Frank O’Hara and American Art by Russell Ferguson (Los Angeles: The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles / University of California Press, 1999) * Hyperscapes in the Poetry of Frank O’Hara: Difference, Homosexuality, Topography by Hazel Smith (Liverpool University Press, Liverpool, 2000) * Digressions on Some Poems by Frank O’Hara by Joe LeSueur (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003). * Frank O’Hara: The Poetics of Coterie by Lytle Shaw (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2006) Painting * Alice Neel, Frank O’Hara, 1960, 85.7 x 40.6 x 2.5 cm, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution * Larry Rivers, 'O’Hara Nude with Boots’ (1954), 97" x 53", Larry Rivers Foundation * Jasper Johns, ‘In Memory of My Feelings - Frank O’Hara’ (1961), 40 1/4" x 60", MCA, Chicago * Wynn Chamberlain, Poets (Clothed), Poets (Naked), 1964. Earl McGrath collection. * Alfred Leslie, a link to The Death Cycle, 1966, - The Death of Frank O’Hara [2] References Wikipedia—https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_O’Hara

I was born in Oriental Mindoro, a province in the Philippines. We didn't have many neighbors, I only had few close friends despite my being quite approachable. I used to like the idea of being famous by performing onstage, having the typical talents that my classmates had -- like singing and dancing -- but I wasn't good at both. And so, I grew up into a very introverted person. I rarely speak; although when I do, some of my friends think that my words are always full of sense and humor. But their words didn't help much in my personality development, so, I decided to search for other talents that I could possibly have. That's when I decided to write things (weird or extraordinary, sometimes stupid) random things just popping up inside my head. Some people liked my writings-- my teachers, classmates, friends and my high school crush :). I started reading other people's writings, too, so I could learn more, impress those people some more (possibly gain confidence from their praises). Then I learned how to write poems and how amazing it is to be able to write one's thoughts in verses. I wrote some, and they had been published in our school paper back in high school. But, I didn't take creative writing or anything alike as my course for college. I had to follow what my dad wanted me to take-- Accountancy (it's quite easy to find a job here in the Philippines if you are an accounting graduate, and I badly need a good job to help my poor family). I'm doing fine, but not as fine as I would have been if I had taken creative writing. So, I tried to find a place where I could post my poems and possibly have some people to read them, then, I found this site and I hope it'll be a good refuge for me when I need to let out words that I can't let out with accounting. :) ETA: I have not been in this site for seven years. Yes, seven long years. I actually forgot I had this account (my cousin accidentally found it after searching my name on Ecosia). Lol. The cringe I feel about the things I said here... Beyond explanation. I won't delete them though. It's kinda nostalgic. Just in case anyone may find it interesting, in the last seven years, I have become a CPA, a financial analyst, an even worse introvert, BUT I have not lost my love for poetry. I haven't written much in years, but I think I'd like to give it a try once more.

Sharon Olds, born November 19, 1942 in San Francisco, California, is an American poet recipient of many awards including the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, the 1984 National Book Critics Circle Award, and the first San Francisco Poetry Center Award in 1980. She currently teaches creative writing at New York University.

Born in 1966, lived in Minnesota most of my life except for three years in Arizona. Graduated from HS in 1984, continued onto college at the U of M, Crown college and Northwestern Christian college. Married in 1990, to Charles who has worked at Cargill for over twenty-five years as an accountant. Together we have two boys. I have mainly been a stay at home mom, an have worked part-time mainly in child care. In my spare time, i like to sew, scrapbook and bead. I also, like to write poetry and read short stories.

Amelia Opie, née Alderson (12 November 1769– 2 December 1853), was an English author who published numerous novels in the Romantic Period of the early 19th century, through 1828. Opie was also a leading abolitionist in Norwich, England. Life and work Amelia Alderson was the daughter of James Alderson, a physician, and Amelia Briggs of Norwich, England. She was a cousin of notable judge Edward Hall Alderson, with whom she corresponded throughout her life, and also a cousin of notable artist Henry Perronet Briggs. Miss Alderson had inherited radical principles and was an ardent admirer of John Horne Tooke. She was close to activists John Philip Kemble, Sarah Siddons, William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft. Marriage and family In 1798 Alderson married John Opie, the painter. The nine years of her married life before her husband’s death were happy, although her husband did not share her love of society. With his encouragement, in 1801 she completed a novel entitled Father and Daughter, which showed genuine fancy and pathos. Writing career Amelia Opie published regularly after that. Her volume of Poems, published in 1802 went through six editions, and was followed by The Warrior’s Return and other poems in 1808. More novels followed: Adeline Mowbray (1804), Simple Tales (1806), Temper (1812), Tales of Real Life (1813), Valentine’s Eve (1816), Tales of the Heart (1818), and Madeline (1822). Opie wrote The dangers of Coquetry at age 18. Her novel Father and Daughter (1801) is about misled virtue and family reconciliation. Encouraged by her husband to continue writing, she published Adeline Mowbray (1804), an exploration of women’s education, marriage, and abolition of slavery. The novel is noted in particular for engaging the history of Opie’s former friend Mary Wollstonecraft, whose relationship with the American Gilbert Imlay outside marriage, and later marriage to the philosopher William Godwin caused some scandal. Godwin had previously argued against marriage as an institution by which women were owned as property, but when Wollstonecraft became pregnant, they married despite his prior principles. In the novel, Adeline early on becomes involved with a philosopher who takes a principled stand against marriage, only to be convinced to marry a West Indian Landowner against her better judgment. The novel also engages abolitionist sentiment, in the story of a mixed-race woman and her family whom Adeline saves from poverty at some expense to herself. Amelia Opie divided her time between London and Norwich. She was a friend of writers Sir Walter Scott, Richard Brinsley Sheridan and Madame de Stael. In 1825, following the death of her father who objected, she joined the Society of Friends through the influence of Joseph John Gurney and his sisters who were longtime friends and neighbors in Norwich. The rest of her life was spent mostly in travelling and working at charity, though she published an anti-slavery poem, The Black Man’s Lament in 1826 and a volume of devotional poems, Lays for the Dead in 1834. Opie worked with Anna Gurney to create a Ladies Anti-Slavery Society in Norwich. Opie went to World’s Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840 where she one of the few women who was included in the commemorative painting. Even late in life, Opie maintained connections with writers, for instance receiving George Borrow as a guest. After a visit to Cromer, a seaside resort on the North Norfolk coast, she caught a chill and retired to her bedroom. A year later on 2 December 1853, she died at Norwich and was said to retain her vivacity to the last. She was buried at the Gildencroft Quaker Cemetery, Norwich. An somewhat sanitized biography of her, A Life, by Miss C.L. Brightwell, was published in 1854.

Gary Oliver is a writer, poet, and performer born in North Staffordshire in 1966. He spent much of his early years as a club MC and hip-hop rapper before pursuing higher education. Oliver holds a BA in Theatre and Performance from Staffordshire University and an MA in Applied Arts from the University of Manchester. Oliver began writing poetry and short stories to pay for the magazine adverts of his coffee shop. His first book, Woodun Indians, sold out in six months, and he recently celebrated the launch of his book Dear Love Powa by serenading lovers on Valentine's Day. Oliver is widely regarded as one of the foremost and influential writer performance poets of his generation. His new book, SONNETS OF SOLACE, is a profound collection of work inspired by Shakespeare published by Quhwah publications on worldwide release. In 1991/2, Oliver toured with Happy Mondays, and in 1994/5, he wrote The Rave Poems: BOMB MAGAZINE, a series of comic rhymes inspired by modern youth culture. In 1994, he became a promoter and DJ/MC at Sin City, a poetry and art club night. In 1994/5, he co-founded the Deep Theatre Group, and from 1996 to 1999, he co-founded, organized, and compared Sunday in the Park, an annual charity event. In 1999, Oliver became a Quhwah Publications Author, and his works include Captured Letters: a collection of love Poems, Young Black Teenager: an epic verse lament tribute to Stephen Lawrence, Verbal Dexterity: In The Face Of Incredulity, Woodun Indians: a book of global stories, urban rhymes, and eco poetry, and DEAR LOVE POWA, a book of sonnets, love songs, and verse. In 2000, Oliver founded and became the Director of Verbal Arts, an arts company based in North Staffordshire and serving the North West and Midlands. In 2002/3, he founded Trade, a live rap/poetry night, and in 2004, he started DJ SCHOOL, the first music and arts group for young people in the UK. In 2005, he published MC RAVE, a fictional book exploring the rave scene, and in 2007-2021, he opened the U7 Arts and Cultural Centre, an independent arts centre for young vulnerable artists. In 2008, Oliver led the youth festival for Liverpool 08 city of culture, and in 2009, he led a project exploring War poets and contributed to a book called Remembrance Poets with a group of new writers, published by Quhwah. In 2010, he ran youth projects in Longsight Manchester to decrease anti-social behaviour and to increase participation in the arts and education. In 2011, he ran a series of small arts activity days across Staffordshire exploring the environment and mental health wellbeing in poor communities. Since 2012, he has been running a weekly multi-arts program drop-ins for people suffering from mental health problems. In 2015, he started u7 sound, an accessible sound and recording for poor artists. From 2017 to 2019, he expanded and developed the provision of arts at DJ School, and in 2020-21, he published SONNETS OF SOLACE, which is now available worldwide. #poetry #desire #inspire #love #climate #new

William Henry Ogilvie (21 August 1869– 30 January 1963) was a Scottish-Australian narrative poet and horseman. He was born near Kelso, Borders, Scotland and arrived in Australia in 1889, returning to Scotland after a decade. He had a deep love of horses and riding and he became interested in the outback. Before long he became an expert station hand, drover and horse breaker, working on such stations as Belalie on the Warrego, and Maaoupe near Penola in South Australia. He was a friend of Harry “Breaker” Morant and was described as a quiet-spoken Scot of medium height, with a fair moustache and red complexion.

The seasons of life. Everyone has a safe house. A sanctuary. A place they go to escape from the snares of their reality. Mine is through writing. Poetry has always been my shadow through the years of struggle. It carried me through the ups and downs and showed me how to believe. It helped me to embrace everything this life holds. Good and bad. I hope you will find encouragement to face your fears, fight your battles and turn to God for help when all seems lost. May you always stay true to yourself and find some counsel or comfort in the stories hidden within. (I welcome any comments or criticism) Peace \/

Gregory Orr (born 1947 in Albany, New York, United States) is an American poet. He received a B.A. degree from Antioch College and an M.F.A. from Columbia University. He is a professor of English at the University of Virginia where he founded the MFA Program in Writing in 1975, and served from 1978 to 2003 as Poetry Editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review. He is also a columnist and editor of the magazine, Sacred Bearings: A Journal for Survivors. He lives with his wife, the painter Trisha Orr, and their two daughters in Charlottesville, Virginia. Featured on National Public Radio’s This I Believe, Orr has been the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, and of an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Orr is the author of eleven collections of poetry, including City of Salt (1995) which was a finalist for the LA Times Poetry Prize. He is also the author of a memoir, The Blessing (2002), which was chosen by Publishers Weekly as one of the fifty best non-fiction books of the year, and three books of essays. In reviewing Concerning the Book That Is the Body of the Beloved (Copper Canyon Press, 2005), Ted Genoways writes in the Virginia Quarterly Review: “Sure, the trappings of modern life appear at the edges of these poems, but their focus is so unwaveringly aimed toward the transcendent—not God, but the beloved—that we seem to slip into a less cluttered time. It’s an experience usually reserved for reading the ancients, and clearly that was partly Orr’s inspiration.” In reviewing How Beautiful the Beloved (Copper Canyon Press, 2009) in Bookslut, Sean Patrick Hill writes that Orr’s “poems themselves are as Frost said they must be: momentary stays against confusion.” Gregory Orr wrote an opinion piece in the Sunday Magazine of the New York Times on August 29, 2014 about accidentally killing his brother in a hunting accident in response to the fatal shooting with an Uzi machine gun of a gun instructor by a 9 year old in Arizona. Selected works Poetry * “Burning the Empty Nests’’ (Harper & Row, 1973) * “Gathering the Bones Together” (Harper & Row, 1975) * “The Red House” (Harper & Row, 1980) * “We Must Make a Kingdom of It’’ (Wesleyan University Press, 1986) * “New and Selected Poems’’ (Wesleyan University Press, 1988) * “City of Salt’’ (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1995) * “Orpheus & Eurydice’’ (Copper Canyon Press, 2001) * “The Caged Owl: New and Selected Poems’’ (Copper Canyon Press, 2002) * “Concerning the Book That Is the Body of the Beloved’’ (Copper Canyon Press, 2005) * “How Beautiful the Beloved’’ (Copper Canyon Press, 2009) * “River Inside the River” (W.W. Norton & Company, 2013) Criticism * “Stanley Kunitz: An Introduction to Poetry’’ (Columbia University Press, 1985) * “Richer Entanglements: Essays and Notes on Poetry and Poems’’ (University of Michigan Press, 1993) * “Poets Teaching Poets: Self and the World’’ (University of Michigan Press, 1996) (edited by Voigt and Orr) * “Poetry as Survival’’ (University of Georgia Press, 2002) Memoir * “The Blessing’’ (Council Oak Books, 2002) References Wikipedia—https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Orr_(poet)

Kenneth A O'Shaughnessy lives in Simpsonville, South Carolina. He writes poetry and songs almost every day. He also writes short stories and children's picture books, including The Boy with the Pig Nose, written for his son Andy, who helped him illustrate the story. Babies for Breakfast is his first chapter book.

Alice Oswald (born 1966) is a British poet from Reading, Berkshire. Her work won the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2002 and the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2017. In September 2017, she was named as BBC Radio 4's second Poet-in-Residence, succeeding Daljit Nagra. Personal life Oswald is the daughter of Charles William Lyle Keen and Lady Priscilla Mary Rose Curzon, daughter of Edward Curzon, 6th Earl Howe. Oswald read Classics at New College, Oxford. She then trained as a gardener and worked at such sites as Chelsea Physic Garden, Wisley and Clovelly Court Gardens. She currently lives on the Dartington Estate in Devon with her husband, the playwright Peter Oswald (also a trained classicist), and her three children. Alice Oswald is the sister of actor Will Keen and writer Laura Beatty.

My name is Kirsten. I am 14 years young. I know I'm fairly young but I love poetry and I'm always being told I'm very talented. I've had a rough life, but you can do anything through Christ, who strengthens you. Yes, I am a Christian. I'm not like the stereotypes though. Well, I hope you enjoy my poems!

Bernard Patrick O’Dowd (11 April 1866– 1 September 1953) was an Australian activist, educator, poet, journalist, and author of several law books and poetry books, born in Beaufort, Victoria. O’Dowd worked as an assistant-librarian and later Chief Parliamentary Draughtsman in the Supreme Court at Melbourne for 48 years; he was also a co-publisher and writer for the radical paper Tocsin. Bernard O’Dowd lived to age 87.

Young and queer aspiring writer and poet whose dream is to be published one day. I write mostly poetry but also some essays and fiction. My words are ones of sorrow, love and turmoil. Writing is my way to process and there is a lot to process ;))

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (; 12 April 1550 – 24 June 1604) was an English peer and courtier of the Elizabethan era. Oxford was heir to the second oldest earldom in the kingdom, a court favourite for a time, a sought-after patron of the arts, and noted by his contemporaries as a lyric poet and court playwright, but his reckless and volatile temperament precluded him from attaining any courtly or governmental responsibility and contributed to the dissipation of his estate. Since the 1920s he has been among the most popular alternative candidates proposed for the authorship of Shakespeare’s works. De Vere was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and Margery Golding. After the death of his father in 1562, he became a ward of Queen Elizabeth and was sent to live in the household of her principal advisor, Sir William Cecil. He married Cecil’s daughter, Anne, with whom he had five children. De Vere was estranged from her for five years after he refused to acknowledge her first child as his. De Vere was a champion jouster and travelled widely throughout Italy and France. He was among the first to compose love poetry at the Elizabethan court, and he was praised as a playwright, though none of the plays known as his survive. A stream of dedications praised de Vere for his generous patronage of literary, religious, musical, and medical works, and he patronised both adult and boy acting companies, as well as musicians, tumblers, acrobats and performing animals. He fell out of favour with the Queen in the early 1580s and was exiled from court after impregnating one of her maids of honour, Anne Vavasour, which instigated violent street brawls between de Vere’s retainers and her uncles. De Vere was reconciled to the Queen in 1583, but all opportunities for advancement had been lost. In 1586, the Queen granted de Vere a £1,000 annuity to relieve his financial distress caused by his extravagance and selling off his income-producing lands for ready money. After his wife’s death, he married Elizabeth Trentham, one of the Queen’s maids of honour, with whom he had an heir, Henry de Vere. He died in 1604, having spent the entirety of his inherited estates. Family and childhood De Vere was born heir to the second oldest earldom in England at the de Vere ancestral home, Hedingham Castle, in Essex, north-east of London. He was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and his second wife, Margery Golding. He was probably named to honour Edward VI, from whom he received a gilded christening cup. He had an older half-sister, Katherine, the child of his father’s first marriage to Dorothy Neville, and a younger sister, Mary de Vere. Both his parents had established court connections: the 16th Earl accompanying Princess Elizabeth from house arrest at Hatfield to the throne, and the countess being appointed a maid of honour in 1559. De Vere was styled Viscount Bulbeck and raised in the Protestant reformed faith. Like many children of the nobility, he was raised by surrogate parents, in his case in the household of Sir Thomas Smith. At eight he entered Queens’ College, Cambridge, as an impubes, or immature fellow-commoner, later transferring to St John’s. Thomas Fowle, a former fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge, was paid £10 annually as de Vere’s tutor. His father died on 3 August 1562, shortly after making his will. Because he held lands from the Crown by knight service, his son became a royal ward of the Queen and was placed in the household of Sir William Cecil, her secretary of state and chief advisor. At 12, de Vere had become the 17th Earl of Oxford, Lord Great Chamberlain of England, and heir to an estate whose annual income, though assessed at approximately £2,500, may have run as high as £3,500 (£1.08 million as of 2018). Wardship While living at the Cecil House, de Vere’s daily studies consisted of dancing instruction, French, Latin, cosmography, writing exercises, drawing, and common prayers. During his first year at Cecil House, Oxford was briefly tutored by Laurence Nowell, the antiquarian and Anglo-Saxon scholar. In a letter to Cecil, Nowell explains: “I clearly see that my work for the Earl of Oxford cannot be much longer required”, and his departure after eight months has been interpreted as either a sign of the thirteen-year-old de Vere’s intractability as a pupil, or an indication that his precocity surpassed Nowell’s ability to instruct him. In May 1564 Arthur Golding, in his dedication to his Th’ Abridgement of the Histories of Trogus Pompeius, attributed to his young nephew an interest in ancient history and contemporary events. In 1563 de Vere’s older half-sister, Katherine, then Baroness Windsor, challenged the legitimacy of the marriage of de Vere’s parents in the Ecclesiastical court. His uncle Golding argued that the Archbishop of Canterbury should halt the proceedings since a proceeding against a ward of the Queen could not be brought without prior licence from the Court of Wards and Liveries. Some time before October 1563 de Vere’s mother married Charles Tyrrell, a Gentleman Pensioner. In May 1565 she wrote to Cecil, urging that the money from family properties set aside for de Vere’s use during his minority by his father’s will should be entrusted to herself and other family friends to protect it and ensure that he would be able to meet the expenses of furnishing his household and suing his livery when he reached his majority; this last would end his wardship though cancelling his debt with that Court, and convey the powers attached to his title. There is no evidence that Cecil ever replied to her request. She died three years later, and was buried beside her first husband at Earls Colne. De Vere’s stepfather, Charles Tyrrell, died in March 1570. In August 1564 de Vere was among 17 nobles, knights and esquires in the Queen’s entourage who were awarded the honorary degree of Master of Arts by the University of Cambridge, and was awarded another by the University of Oxford on a Royal progress in 1566. His future father-in-law, William Cecil, also received honorary degrees of Master of Arts on the same progresses. There is no evidence de Vere ever received a Bachelor of Arts degree. In February 1567 he was admitted to Gray’s Inn to study law. On 23 July 1567, while practicing fencing in the backyard of Cecil House in the Strand, the seventeen-year-old Oxford killed Thomas Brincknell, an under-cook in the Cecil household. At the coroner’s inquest the next day, the jury, which included de Vere’s servant and Cecil’s protégé, the future historian Raphael Holinshed, found that Brincknell, drunk, had deliberately committed suicide by running onto Oxford’s blade. As a suicide he was not buried in consecrated ground, and all his worldly possessions were confiscated, leaving his pregnant wife destitute. She delivered a still-born child shortly after Brinknell’s death. Cecil later wrote that he attempted to have the jury find for de Vere’s acting in self-defence. Records of books purchased for de Vere in 1569 attest to his continued interest in history, as well as literature and philosophy. Among them were editions of a Geneva Bible gilt, Chaucer, Plutarch, two books in Italian, and folio editions of Cicero and Plato. In the same year Thomas Underdown dedicated his translation of the Æthiopian History of Heliodorus to de Vere, praising his 'haughty courage’, 'great skill’ and 'sufficiency of learning’. De Vere made the acquaintance of the mathematician and astrologer John Dee in the winter of 1570 and became interested in occultism, studying magic and conjuring. In November 1569, de Vere petitioned Cecil for a foreign military posting. Although the Catholic Revolt of the Northern Earls had broken out that year, Elizabeth refused to grant the request. Cecil eventually obtained a position for him under the Earl of Sussex in a Scottish campaign the following spring. De Vere and Sussex became staunch mutual supporters at court. De Vere received his first vote for membership in the Order of the Garter in 1569, but never attained the honour in spite of his high rank and office. Coming of age On 12 April 1571, de Vere attained his majority and took his seat in the House of Lords. Great expectations attended his coming of age; Sir George Buck recalled predictions that 'he was much more like... to acquire a new erldome then to wast & lose an old erldom’, a prophecy that was never fulfilled. Although formal certification of his freedom from Burghley’s control was deferred until May 1572, de Vere was finally granted the income of £666 which his father had intended him to have earlier, but properties set aside to pay his father’s debts would not come his way for another decade. During his minority as the Queen’s ward, one third of his estate had already reverted to the Crown, much of which Elizabeth had long since settled on Robert Dudley. Elizabeth demanded a further payment of £3,000 for overseeing the wardship and a further £4,000 for suing his livery. De Vere pledged double the amount if he failed to pay when it fell due, effectively risking a total obligation of £21,000. By 1571, de Vere was a court favourite of Elizabeth’s. In May, he participated in the three-day tilt, tourney and barrier, where although he did not win he was given chief honours in celebration of the attainment of his majority, his prowess winning admiring comments from spectators. In August, de Vere attended Paul de Foix, who had come to England to negotiate a marriage between Elizabeth and the Duke of Anjou, the future King Henry III of France. His published poetry dates from this period and, along with Edward Dyer he was one of the first courtiers to introduce vernacular verse to the court. Marriage In 1562, the 16th Earl of Oxford had contracted with Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, for his son Edward to marry one of Huntingdon’s sisters; when he reached the age of eighteen, he was to choose either Elizabeth or Mary Hastings. However, after the death of the 16th Earl, the indenture was allowed to lapse. Elizabeth Hastings later married Edward Somerset, while Mary Hastings died unmarried. In the summer of 1571, de Vere declared an interest in Cecil’s 14 year-old daughter, Anne, and received the queen’s consent to the marriage. Anne had been pledged to Philip Sidney two years earlier, but after a year of negotiations Sidney’s father, Sir Henry, was declining in the Queen’s favour and Cecil suspected financial difficulties. In addition, Cecil had been elevated to the peerage as Lord Burghley in February 1571, thus elevating his daughter’s rank, so the negotiations were cancelled. Cecil was displeased with the arrangement, given his daughter’s age compared to de Vere’s, and had entertained the idea of marrying her to the Earl of Rutland instead. The wedding was deferred until Anne was fifteen and finally took place at the Palace of Whitehall on 16 December 1571, together with that of Lady Elizabeth Hastings and Lord Herbert, with the Queen in attendance. The tying of two young English noblemen of great fortune into Protestant families was not lost on Elizabeth’s Catholic enemies. Burghley gave de Vere a marriage settlement of land worth £800, and a cash settlement of £3,000. This amount was equal to de Vere’s livery fees and was probably intended to be used as such, but the money vanished without a trace. De Vere assigned Anne a jointure of some £669, but even though he was of age and a married man, he was still not in possession of his inheritance. After finally paying the Crown the £4,000 it demanded for his livery, he was finally licensed to enter on his lands in May. He was entitled to yearly revenues from his estates and the office of Lord Great Chamberlain of approximately £2,250, but he was not entitled to the income from his mother’s jointure until after her death, nor to the income from certain estates set aside to pay his father’s debts until 1583. In addition, the fines assessed against de Vere in the Court of Wards for his wardship, marriage, and livery already totalled some £3,306. To guarantee payment, de Vere entered into bonds to the Court totalling £11,000, and two further private bonds for £6,000 apiece. In 1572, de Vere’s first cousin and closest relative, the Duke of Norfolk, was found guilty of a Catholic conspiracy against Elizabeth and was executed for treason. De Vere had earlier petitioned both the Queen and Burghley on the condemned Norfolk’s behalf, to no avail, and it was claimed in a “murky petition from an unidentified woman” that he had plotted to provide a ship to assist his cousin’s escape attempt to Spain. The following summer de Vere planned to travel to Ireland; at this point, his debts were estimated at a minimum of £6,000. In the summer of 1574, Elizabeth admonished de Vere “for his unthriftyness”, and on 1 July de Vere bolted to the continent without permission, travelling to Calais with Lord Edward Seymour, and then to Flanders, “carrying a great sum of money with him”. Coming as it did during a time of expected hostilities with Spain, Mary, Queen of Scots, interpreted his flight as an indication of his Catholic sympathies, as did the Catholic rebels then living on the continent. Burghley, however, assured the queen that de Vere was loyal, and she sent two Gentlemen Pensioners to summon him back under threat of heavy penalties. De Vere returned to England by the end of the month and was in London on the 28th. His request for a place on the Privy Council was rejected, but the queen’s anger was abated and she promised him a licence to travel to Paris, Germany, and Italy on his pledge of good behaviour. Foreign travel Elizabeth issued de Vere a licence to travel in January 1575, and provided him with letters of introduction to foreign monarchs. Prior to his departure, de Vere entered into two indentures. In first contract he sold his manors in Cornwall, Staffordshire, and Wiltshire to three trustees for £6,000. In the second, since he had no heirs and if he should die abroad the estates would pass to his sister, Mary, he entailed the lands of the earldom on his first cousin, Hugh Vere. The indenture also provided for payment of debts amounting to £9,096, £3,457 of which was still owed to the Queen as expenses for his wardship. De Vere left England in the first week of February, and a month later was presented to the King and Queen of France. News that Anne was pregnant had reached him in Paris, and he sent her many extravagant presents in the coming months. But somewhere along the way his mind was poisoned against Anne and the Cecils, and he became convinced that the expected child was not his. The elder Cecils loudly voiced their outrage at the rumours, which probably worsened the situation. In mid-March he travelled to Strasbourg, and then made his way to Venice, via Milan. Although his daughter, Elizabeth, was born at the beginning of July, for unexplained reasons de Vere did not learn of her birth until late September. He was so taken with Italian culture and language during his travels that after his return he became known as the “Italian Earl” at court. He is recorded by Stow as having introduced various Renaissance fashions to court which immediately became fashionable, such as embroidered or trimmed scented gloves. Elizabeth had a pair of decorated gloves scented with perfume that for many years was known as the “Earl of Oxford’s perfume”. In January 1576 de Vere wrote to Lord Burghley from Siena about complaints that had reached him about his creditors’ demands, which included the Queen and his sister, and directing that more of his land be sold to pay them. De Vere left Venice in March, intending to return home by way of Lyons and Paris; although one later report has him as far south as Palermo in Sicily. At this point the Italian financier Benedict Spinola had lent de Vere over £4,000 for his 15 month-long continental tour, while in England over 100 tradesmen were seeking settlement of debts totalling thousands of pounds. On de Vere’s return across the Channel in April, his ship was hijacked by pirates from Flushing who took his possessions, stripped him to his shirt, and might have murdered him had not one of them recognized him. On his return he refused to live with his wife and took rooms at Charing Cross. Aside from the unspoken suspicion that Elizabeth was not his child, Burghley’s papers reveal a flood of bitter complaints by de Vere against the Cecil family. Upon the Queen’s request, de Vere allowed his wife to attend the Queen at court, but only when de Vere was not present and that she not attempt to speak to him. He also stipulated that Burghley must make no further appeals to him on Anne’s behalf. He was estranged from Anne for five years. In February 1577 it was rumoured that de Vere’s sister Mary would marry Lord Gerald Fitzgerald (1559–1580), but by 2 July she was linked with Peregrine Bertie, later Lord Willoughby d’Eresby. His mother, the Duchess of Suffolk, wrote to Lord Burghley that “my wise son has gone very far with my Lady Mary Vere, I fear too far to turn”. Both the Duchess and her husband Richard Bertie first opposed the marriage, and the Queen initially withheld her consent. De Vere’s own opposition to the match was so vehement that for some time Mary’s prospective husband feared for his life. On 15 December the Duchess of Suffolk wrote to Burghley describing a plan she and Mary had devised to arrange a meeting between de Vere and his daughter. Whether the scheme came to fruition is unknown. Mary and Bertie were married sometime before March of the following year. Quarrels, plots and scandals De Vere had sold his inherited lands in Cornwall, Staffordshire, and Wiltshire prior to his continental tour. On his return to England in 1576 he sold his manors in Devonshire; by the end of 1578 he had sold at least seven more. In 1577 de Vere invested £25 in the second of Martin Frobisher’s expeditions in search of the Northwest Passage. In July 1577 he asked the Crown for the grant of Castle Rising, which had been forfeited to the Crown due to his cousin Norfolk’s attainder in 1572. As soon as it was granted to him, he sold it, along with two other manors, and sank some £3,000 into Frobisher’s third expedition. The 'gold’ ore brought back turned out to be worthless, and de Vere lost the entire investment. In the summer of 1578 de Vere attended the Queen’s progress through East Anglia. The royal party stayed at Lord Henry Howard’s residence at Audley End. A contretemps occurred during the progress in mid-August when the Queen twice requested de Vere to dance before the French ambassadors, who were in England to negotiate a marriage between the 46 year-old Elizabeth and the younger brother of Henri III of France, the 24 year-old Duke of Anjou. De Vere refused on the grounds that he “would not give pleasure to Frenchmen”. In April the Spanish ambassador, Bernardino de Mendoza, wrote to King Philip II of Spain that it had been proposed that if Anjou were to travel to England to negotiate his marriage to the Queen, de Vere, Surrey, and Windsor should be hostages for his safe return. Anjou himself did not arrive in England until the end of August, but his ambassadors were already in England. De Vere was sympathetic to the proposed marriage; Leicester and his nephew Philip Sidney were adamantly opposed to it. This antagonism may have triggered the famous quarrel between de Vere and Sidney on the tennis court at Whitehall. It is not entirely clear who was playing on the court when the fight erupted; what is undisputed is that de Vere called Sidney a 'puppy’, while Sidney responded that “all the world knows puppies are gotten by dogs, and children by men”. The French ambassadors, whose private galleries overlooked the tennis court, were witness to the display. Whether it was Sidney who next challenged de Vere to a duel or the other way around, de Vere did not take it further, and the Queen personally took Sidney to task for not recognizing the difference between his status and de Vere’s. Christopher Hatton and Sidney’s friend Hubert Languet also tried to dissuade Sidney from pursuing the matter, and it was eventually dropped. The specific cause is not known, but in January 1580 de Vere wrote and challenged Sidney; by the end of the month de Vere was confined to his chambers, and was not released until early February. De Vere openly quarrelled with the Earl of Leicester about this time; he was confined to his chamber at Greenwich for some time 'about the libelling between him and my Lord of Leicester’. In the summer of 1580, Gabriel Harvey, apparently motivated by a desire to ingratiate himself with Leicester, satirized de Vere’s love for things Italian in verses entitled Speculum Tuscanismi in Three Proper and Witty Familiar Letters. Although details are unclear, there is evidence that in 1577 de Vere attempted to leave England to see service in the French Wars of Religion on the side of King Henry III. Like many members of older established aristocratic families in England, de Vere inclined to Catholicism; after his return from Italy he was reported to have embraced the religion, perhaps after a distant kinsman, Charles Arundell, introduced de Vere to a seminary priest named Richard Stephens, by. But just as quickly, late in 1580 he denounced a group of Catholics, among them Arundell, Francis Southwell, and Henry Howard, for treasonous activities and asking the Queen’s mercy for his own, now repudiated, Catholicism. Elizabeth characteristically delayed in acting on the matter and he was detained under house arrest for a short time. Leicester is credited for having “dislodged de Vere from the pro-French group”, i.e., the group at court which favoured Elizabeth’s marriage to the Duke of Anjou. The Spanish ambassador, Mendoza, was also of the view that Leicester was behind de Vere’s informing on his fellow Catholics in an attempt to prevent the French marriage. Peck concurs, stating that Leicester was “intent upon rendering Sussex’s allies politically useless”. The Privy Council ordered the arrest of both Howard and Arundell; de Vere immediately met secretly with Arundell to convince him to support his allegations against Howard and Southwell, offering him money and a pardon from the Queen. Arundell refused de Vere’s offer, and he and Howard initially sought asylum with Mendoza. Only after being assured they would be placed under house arrest in the home of a Privy Council member, did the pair give themselves up. During the first weeks after their arrest they pursued a threefold strategy: they would admit to minor crimes, prove de Vere a liar by his offers of money to testify to his accusations, and demonstrate that their accuser posed the real danger to the Crown. The extensive list to discredit de Vere included atheism, lying, heresy, disobedience to the crown, treason, murder for hire, sexual perversion, and pederasty with his English and Italian servants ("buggering a boy that is his cook and many other boys"), habitual drunkenness, vowing to murder various courtiers, and declaring that Elizabeth had a bad singing voice. Arundell and Howard cleared themselves of de Vere’s accusations, although Howard remained under house arrest into August, while Arundell was not freed until October or November. None of the three was ever indicted or tried. In the meantime de Vere was at liberty, and won a tournament at Westminster on 22 January. His page’s speech at the tournament, describing de Vere’s appearance as the Knight of the Tree of the Sun, was published in 1592 in a pamphlet entitled Plato, Axiochus. On 14 April 1589 de Vere was among the peers who found Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, the eldest son and heir of de Vere’s cousin, Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, guilty of treason; Arundel later died in prison. De Vere later insisted that “the Howards were the most treacherous race under heaven” and that "my Lord Howard [was] the worst villain that lived in this earth.” During the early 1580s it is likely that the Earl lived mainly at one of his Essex country houses, Wivenhoe, which was sold in 1584. In June 1580 he purchased a tenement and seven acres of land near Aldgate in London from the Italian merchant Benedict Spinola for £2,500. The property, located in the parish of St Botolphs, was known as the Great Garden of Christchurch and had formerly belonged to Magdalene College, Cambridge. He also purchased a London residence, a mansion in Bishopsgate known as Fisher’s Folly. According to Henry Howard, de Vere paid a large sum for the property and renovations to it. De Vere’s triumph was short-lived. On 23 March 1581 Sir Francis Walsingham advised the Earl of Huntingdon that two days earlier Anne Vavasour, one of the Queen’s maids of honour, had given birth to a son, and that “the Earl of Oxford is avowed to be the father, who hath withdrawn himself with intent, as it is thought, to pass the seas”. De Vere was captured and imprisoned in the Tower, as was Anne and her infant, who would later be known as Sir Edward Vere. Burghley interceded for him, and he was released from the Tower on 8 June, but he remained under house arrest until sometime in July. While de Vere was under house arrest in May, Thomas Stocker dedicated to him his Divers Sermons of Master John Calvin, stating in the dedication that he had been “brought up in your Lordship’s father’s house”. De Vere was still under house arrest in mid-July, but took part in an Accession Day tournament at Whitehall on 17 November 1581. De Vere was banished from court until June 1583. He appealed to Burghley to intervene with the Queen on his behalf, but his father-in-law repeatedly put the matter in the hands of Sir Christopher Hatton. At Christmas 1581 de Vere reconciled with his wife, Anne, but his affair with Anne Vavasour continued to have repercussions. In March 1582 there was a skirmish in the streets of London between de Vere and Anne’s uncle, Sir Thomas Knyvet. De Vere was wounded and his servant killed; reports conflict as to whether Kynvet was also injured. There was another fray between Knyvet’s and de Vere’s retinues on 18 June, and a third six days later, where it was reported that Knyvet had “slain a man of the Earl of Oxford’s in fight”. In a letter to Burghley three years later de Vere offered to attend his father-in-law at his house “as well as a lame man might”; it is possible his lameness was a result of injuries from that encounter. On 19 January 1585 Anne Vavasour’s brother Thomas sent de Vere a written challenge; it appears to have been ignored. Meanwhile, the street-brawling between factions continued. Another of de Vere’s men was slain that month, and in March Burghley wrote to Sir Christopher Hatton about the death of one of Knyvet’s men, thanking Hatton for his efforts “to bring some good end to these troublesome matters betwixt my Lord and Oxford and Mr Thomas Knyvet”. On 6 May 1583, eighteen months after their reconciliation, Edward and Anne’s only son was born, and died the same day. The infant was buried at Castle Hedingham three days later. After intervention by Burghley and Sir Walter Raleigh, de Vere was reconciled to the Queen and his two-year exile from court ended at the end of May on condition of his guarantee of good behaviour. However, he never regained his position as a courtier of the first magnitude. Theatrical enterprises De Vere’s father maintained a company of players known as Oxford’s Men, which was discontinued by the 17th Earl two years after his father’s death. Beginning in 1580, de Vere patronised both adult and boy companies, a company of musicians, and sponsored performances by tumblers, acrobats, and performing animals. Oxford’s Men toured the provinces during 1580–1587. Sometime after November 1583, de Vere bought a sublease of the premises used by the boy companies in the Blackfriars, and then gave it to his secretary, the writer John Lyly. Lyly installed Henry Evans, a Welsh scrivener and theatrical affectionado, as the manager of the new company of Oxford’s Boys, composed of the Children of the Chapel and the Children of Paul’s, and turned his talents to play writing until the end of June 1584, when the original playhouse lease was voided by its owner. In 1584–1585, “the Earl of Oxford’s musicians” received payments for performances in the cities of Oxford and Barnstaple. Oxford’s Men (also known as Oxford’s Players) stayed active until 1602. Royal annuity On 6 April 1584, de Vere’s daughter, Bridget, was born, and two works were dedicated to him, Robert Greene’s Gwydonius; The Card of Fancy, and John Southern’s Pandora. Verses in the latter work mention de Vere’s knowledge of astronomy, history, languages, and music. De Vere’s financial situation was steadily deteriorating. At this point he had sold almost all his inherited lands, which cut him off from his principal source of income. Moreover, because the properties were security for his unpaid debt to the Queen in the Court of Wards, he had had to enter into a bond with the purchaser, guaranteeing that he would indemnify them if the Queen were to make a claim against the lands to collect on the debt. To avoid this eventuality, the purchasers of his estates agreed to repay de Vere’s debt to the Court of Wards in instalments. In 1585 negotiations were underway for King James to come to England to discuss the release of his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots, and in March de Vere was to be sent to Scotland as one of the hostages for James’s safety. In 1586, de Vere petitioned the Queen for an annuity to relieve his distressed financial situation. His father-in-law made him several large loans, and Elizabeth granted de Vere a £1,000 annuity, to be continued at her pleasure or until he could be provided for otherwise. This annuity was continued by James I. De Vere’s widow, Elizabeth, petitioned James I for an annuity of £250 on behalf of her 11 year-old son, Henry, to continue the £1,000 annuity granted to de Vere. Henry ultimately was awarded a £200 annuity for life. James would continue the grant after her death. Another daughter, Susan, was born on 26 May 1587. On 12 September, another daughter, Frances, is recorded to be buried at Edmonton. Her birthdate is unknown; presumably she was between one and three years of age. In July Elizabeth granted the Earl property which been seized from Edward Jones, who had been executed for his role in the Babington Plot. In order to protect the land from his creditors, the grant was made in the name of two trustees. At the end of November it was agreed that the purchasers of de Vere’s lands would pay his entire debt of some £3,306 due to Court of Wards over a five-year period, finishing in 1592. In July and August 1588 England was threatened by the Spanish Armada. On 28 July Leicester, who was in overall command of the English land troops, asked for instructions regarding de Vere, stating that “he seems most willing to hazard his life in this quarrel”. The Earl was offered government of the port of Harwich, but he thought it was unworthy and declined the post; Leicester was glad to be rid of him. In December 1588 de Vere had secretly sold his London mansion Fisher’s Folly to Sir William Cornwallis; by January 1591 the author Thomas Churchyard was dealing with rent owing for rooms he had taken in a house on behalf of his patron. De Vere wrote to Burghley outlining a plan to purchase the manoral lands of Denbigh, in Wales, if the Queen would consent, offering to pay for them by commuting his £1,000 annuity and agreeing to abandon his suit to regain the Forest of Essex (Waltham Forest), and to deed over his interests in Hedingham and Brets for the use of his children, who were living under Burghley’s guardianship in his home. In the spring of 1591 the plan for the purchasers of his land to discharge his debt to the Court of Wards was disrupted by the Queen’s taking extents, or writs allowing a creditor to temporarily seize a debtor’s property. De Vere complained that his servant Thomas Hampton had taken advantage of these writs by taking money from the tenants to his own use, and had also conspired with another of de Vere’s servants to pass a fraudulent document under the Great Seal of England. The Lord Mayor, Thomas Skinner, was also involved. In June de Vere wrote to Burghley reminding him that he made an agreement with Elizabeth to relinquish his claim to the Forest of Essex for three reasons, one of which was the Queen’s reluctance to punish Skinner’s felony, which had caused de Vere to forfeit £20,000 in bonds and statutes. In 1586 Angel Day dedicated The English Secretary, the first epistolary manual for writing model letters in English, to de Vere, and William Webbe praised him as “most excellent among the rest” of our poets in his Discourse of English Poetry. In 1588 Anthony Munday dedicated to de Vere the two parts of his Palmerin d’Oliva. The following year The Arte of English Poesie, attributed to George Puttenham, placed de Vere among a “crew” of courtier poets; he also considered de Vere among the best comic playwrights of the day. In 1590 Edmund Spenser addressed to de Vere the third of seventeen dedicatory sonnets which preface The Faerie Queene, celebrating his patronage of poets. The composer John Farmer, who was in de Vere’s service at the time, dedicated The First Set of Divers & Sundry Ways of Two Parts in One to him in 1591, noting in the dedication his patron’s love of music. Remarriage and later life On 5 June 1588 Anne Cecil died at court of a fever; she was 31. On 4 July 1591 de Vere sold the Great Garden property at Aldgate to John Wolley and Francis Trentham. The arrangement was stated to be for the benefit of Francis’ sister, Elizabeth Trentham, one of the Queen’s Maids of Honour, whom de Vere married later that year. On 24 February 1593 she gave birth to de Vere’s only surviving son and heir, Henry de Vere, at Stoke Newington. Between 1591 and 1592 de Vere disposed of the last of his large estates; Castle Hedingham, the seat of his earldom, went to Lord Burghley, it was held in trust for de Vere’s three daughters by his first marriage. he commissioned his servant, Roger Harlakenden, to sell Colne Priory. Harlekenden contrived to undervalue the land, then purchase it (as well as other parcels that were not meant to be sold) under his son’s name; the suits de Vere brought against Harlakenden for fraud dragged out for decades and were never settled in his lifetime. Protracted negotiations to arrange a match between his daughter Elizabeth and Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, did not result in marriage; on 19 November 1594, six weeks after Southampton turned 21, 'the young Earl of Southampton, refusing the Lady Vere, payeth £5000 of present money’. In January Elizabeth married William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby. Derby had promised de Vere his new bride would have £1,000 a year, but the financial provision for her was slow in materializing. His father-in-law, Lord Burghley, died on 4 August 1598 at the age of 78, leaving substantial bequests to de Vere’s two unmarried daughters, Bridget and Susan. The bequests were structured to prevent de Vere from gaining control of his daughters’ inheritance by assuming custody of them. Earlier negotiations for a marriage to William Herbert having fallen through, in May or June 1599 de Vere’s 15 year-old daughter Bridget married Francis Norris. Susan married Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery. From March to August 1595 de Vere actively importuned the Queen, in competition with Lord Buckhurst, to farm the tin mines in Cornwall. He wrote to Burghley, enumerating years of fruitless attempts to amend his financial situation and complained: 'This last year past I have been a suitor to her Majesty that I might farm her tins, giving £3000 a year more than she had made.' De Vere’s letters and memoranda indicate that he pursued his suit into 1596, and renewed it again three years later, but was ultimately unsuccessful in obtaining the tin monopoly. In October 1595 de Vere wrote to his brother in law, Sir Robert Cecil, of friction between himself and the ill-fated Earl of Essex, partly over his claim to the property, terming him 'the only person that I dare rely upon in the court’. Cecil seems to have done little to further de Vere’s interests in the suit. In March he was unable to go to court due to illness, in August he wrote to Burghley from Byfleet, where he had gone for his health: ‘I find comfort in this air, but no fortune in the court.’ In September de Vere again wrote of ill health, regretting he had not been able to pay attendance to the Queen. Two months later Rowland Whyte wrote to Sir Robert Sidney that 'Some say my Lord of Oxford is dead’. Whether the rumour of de Vere’s death was related to the illness mentioned in his letters earlier in the year is unknown. De Vere attended his last Parliament in December, perhaps another indication of failing health. On 28 April 1599 de Vere was sued by the widow of his tailor for a debt of £500 for services rendered some two decades earlier. De Vere claimed that not only had he paid the debt, but that the tailor had absconded with 'cloth of gold and silver and other stuff’ belonging to him, worth £800. The outcome of the suit is unknown. In July 1600 de Vere wrote requesting Sir Robert Cecil’s help in securing an appointment as Governor of the Isle of Jersey, once again citing the Queen’s unfulfilled promises to him. In February he again wrote for his support, this time for the office of President of Wales. As with his former suits, de Vere was again unsuccessful; during this time he was listed on the Pipe Rolls as owing £20 for the subsidy. After the abortive Essex rebellion in February 1601, de Vere was 'the senior of the twenty-five noblemen’ who rendered verdicts at the trials of Essex and Southampton for treason. After Essex’s co-conspirator Sir Charles Danvers was executed on in March, de Vere became involved in a complicated suit regarding lands which had reverted to the Crown by escheat at Danvers’ attainder, a suit opposed by Danvers’ kinsmen. De Vere continued to suffer from ill health, which kept him from court. On 4 December he was shocked that Cecil, who had encouraged him to undertake the Danvers suit on the Crown’s behalf, had now withdrawn his support for it. As with all his other suits aimed at improving his financial situation, this last of de Vere’s suits to the Queen ended in disappointment. Last years In the early morning of 24 March 1603 Queen Elizabeth died without naming a successor. A few days beforehand de Vere at his house at Hackney had entertained the Earl of Lincoln, a nobleman known for erratic and violent behaviour similar to his host’s. Lincoln reported that after dinner de Vere spoke of the Queen’s impending death, claiming that the peers of England should decide the succession, and suggested that since Lincoln had 'a nephew of the blood royal... Lord Hastings’, he should be sent to France to find allies to support this claim. Lincoln relayed this conversation to Sir John Peyton, Lieutenant of the Tower, who, knowing how physically and financially infirm de Vere was, refused to take Lincoln’s report as a serious threat to King James’ accession. De Vere expressed his grief at the late Queen’s death, and his apprehension for the future. These fears were unfounded; in letters to Cecil in May and June 1603 he again pressed his decades-long claim to have Waltham Forest (Forest of Essex) and the house and park of Havering restored to him, and on 18 July the new King granted his suit. On 25 July de Vere was among those who officiated at the King’s coronation, a month later James confirmed de Vere’s annuity of £1,000. On 18 June 1604 de Vere granted the custody of the Forest of Essex to his son-in-law Lord Norris and his cousin, Sir Francis Vere. He died six days later, of unknown causes, at King’s Place, Hackney, and was buried on 6 July in the parish church of St. Augustine. In spite of his bouts of ill health, he left no will. Elizabeth’s will requested that she be buried with her husband at Hackney. Although this document and the parish registers confirm de Vere’s burial there, his cousin Percival Golding later claimed that his body was interred at Westminster. Literary reputation De Vere’s manuscript verses circulated widely in courtly circles. Three of his poems, “When wert thou born desire”, “My mind to me a kingdom is”, and “Sitting alone upon my thought”, are among the texts that repeatedly appear in the surviving 16th century manuscript miscellanies and poetical anthologies. His earliest published poem was “The labouring man that tills the fertile soil” in Thomas Bedingfield’s translation of Cardano’s Comforte (1573). Bedingfield’s dedication to de Vere is dated 1 January 1572. In addition to his poem, de Vere also contributed a commendatory letter setting forth the reasons why Bedingfield should publish. In 1576 eight of his poems were published in the poetry miscellany The Paradise of Dainty Devises. According to the introduction, all the poems in the collection were meant to be sung, but de Vere’s were almost the only genuine love songs in the collection. Oxford’s “What cunning can express” was published in The Phoenix Nest (1593) and republished in England’s Helicon (1600). “Who taught thee first to sigh alas my heart” appeared in The Teares of Fancie (1593). Brittons Bowre of Delight (1597) published “If women could be fair and yet not fond” under Oxford’s name, but the attribution today is not considered certain. Contemporary critics praised de Vere as a poet and a playwright. William Webbe names de Vere as “the most excellent” of Elizabeth’s courtier poets. Puttenham’s The Arte of English Poesie (1589), places de Vere first on a list of courtier poets and included an excerpt of “When wert thou born desire” as an example of “his excellance and wit”. Puttenham also says that “highest praise” should be given to de Vere and Richard Edwardes for “Comedy and Enterlude”. Francis Meres’ Palladis Tamia (1598) names de Vere first of 17 playwrights listed by rank who are “the best for comedy amongst us”, and de Vere appears first on a list of seven Elizabethan courtly poets “who honoured Poesie with their pens and practice” in Henry Peacham’s 1622 The Compleat Gentleman. Steven W. May writes that de Vere was Elizabeth’s "first truly prestigious courtier poet... [whose] precedent did at least confer genuine respectability upon the later efforts of such poets as Sidney, Greville, and Raleigh." He describes de Vere as a “competent, fairly experimental poet working in the established modes of mid-century lyric verse” and his poetry as “examples of the standard varieties of mid-Elizabethan amorous lyric”. May says that de Vere’s youthful love lyrics, which have been described as experimental and innovative, “create a dramatic break with everything known to have been written at the Elizabethan court up to that time” by virtue of being lighter in tone and metre and more imaginative and free from the moralizing tone of the courtier poetry of the “drab” age, which tended to be occasional and instructive. and describes one poem, in which the author cries out against “this loss of my good name”, as a “defiant lyric without precedent in English Renaissance verse”. May says that Oxford’s poetry was “one man’s contribution to the rhetorical mainstream of an evolving Elizabethan poetic” indistinguishable from “the output of his mediocre mid-century contemporaries”. C. S. Lewis said that de Vere’s poetry shows “a faint talent”, but is “for the most part undistinguished and verbose.” Nelson says that “contemporary observers such as Harvey, Webbe, Puttenham, and Meres clearly exaggerated de Vere’s talent in deference to his rank. By any measure, his poems pale in comparison with those of Sidney, Lyly, Spenser, Shakespeare, Donne, and Jonson.” He says that his known poems are “astonishingly uneven” in quality, ranging from the “fine” to the “execrable”. De Vere was sought for his literary and theatrical patronage; 28 works were dedicated to him by such authors as Arthur Golding, John Lyly, Robert Greene, and Anthony Munday, between 1564 and 1599. Of his 33 dedications, 13 appeared in original or translated works of literature, a higher percentage of literary works than other patrons of similar means. His lifelong patronage of writers, musicians, and actors prompted May to term de Vere “a nobleman with extraordinary intellectual interests and commitments”, whose biography exhibits a “lifelong devotion to learning”. He goes on to say that "Oxford’s genuine commitment to learning throughout his career lends a necessary qualification to Stone’s conclusion that de Vere simply squandered the more than 70,000 pounds he derived from selling off his patrimony... for which some part of this amount de Vere acquired a splendid reputation for nurture of the arts and sciences". Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship The Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship proposes that de Vere wrote the plays and poems traditionally attributed to William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon. Though the attribution has been rejected by nearly all academic Shakespeareans, popular interest in the Oxfordian theory persists, and his candidacy was featured in the 2011 Hollywood film Anonymous (directed by Roland Emmerich), in which he was played by Rhys Ifans. References Wikipedia—https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_de_Vere,_17th_Earl_of_Oxford

a 16 year old struggling to find her place in the world. writing is an escape for me to be myself without having boundaries. please give me a chance and give feedback so that i can better. Thank You.

George Oppen (April 24, 1908 – July 7, 1984) was an American poet, best known as one of the members of the Objectivist group of poets. He abandoned poetry in the 1930s for political activism and later moved to Mexico to avoid the attentions of the House Un-American Activities Committee. He returned to poetry—and to the United States—in 1958, and received the Pulitzer Prize in 1969. Early life Oppen was born in New Rochelle, New York, into a Jewish family. His father, a successful diamond merchant, was George August Oppenheimer (b. Apr. 13, 1881), his mother Elsie Rothfeld. His father changed the family name to Oppen in 1927. Oppen’s childhood was one of considerable affluence; the family was well-tended to by servants and maids and Oppen enjoyed all the benefits of a wealthy upbringing: horse riding, expensive automobiles, frequent trips to Europe. But his mother committed suicide when he was four, his father remarried three years later and the boy and his stepmother, Seville Shainwald, apparently could not get along. Oppen developed a skill for sailing at a young age and the seascapes around his childhood home left a mark on his later poetry. He was taught carpentry by the family butler; Oppen, as an adult, found work as a carpenter and cabinetmaker. In 1917, the family moved to San Francisco where Oppen attended Warren Military Academy. It is speculated that during this time Oppen’s early traumas led to fighting and drinking, so that, while reaching maturity, Oppen was also experiencing a personal crisis. By 1925, this period of personal and psychic transition culminated in a serious car wreck in which George was driver and a young passenger was killed. Ultimately, Oppen was expelled from high school just before he graduated. After this period, he traveled to England and Scotland by himself, visiting his stepmother’s relative, and attending lectures by C.A. Mace, professor in philosophy at St. Andrews. In 1926, Oppen started attending Oregon State Agricultural College (what is now Oregon State University). Here he met Mary Colby, a fiercely independent young woman from Grants Pass, Oregon. On their first date, the couple stayed out all night with the result that she was expelled and he suspended. They left Oregon, married, and started hitch-hiking across the country working at odd jobs along the way. Mary documents these events in her memoir, Meaning A Life: An Autobiography (1978). Early writing While living on the road, Oppen began writing poems and publishing in local magazines. In 1929 and 1930 he and Mary spent some time in New York, where they met Louis Zukofsky, Charles Reznikoff, musician Tibor Serly, and designer Russel Wright, among others. In 1929, George came into a small inheritance and relative financial independence. In 1930 George and Mary moved to California and then to France, where, thanks to their financial input, they were able to establish To Publishers and act as printer/publishers with Zukofsky as editor. The short-lived publishing venture managed to launch works by William Carlos Williams and Ezra Pound. Oppen had begun working on poems for what was to be his first book, Discrete Series, a seminal work in early Objectivist history. Some of these appeared in the February 1931 Objectivist issue of Poetry and the subsequent An “Objectivist’s” Anthology published in 1932. Oppen the Objectivist In 1933, the Oppens returned to New York. George Oppen, William Carlos Williams, Louis Zukofsky and Charles Reznikoff set up the Objectivist Press. The press published books by Reznikoff and Williams, as well as Oppen’s first book Discrete Series, which included a preface by Ezra Pound. Politics and war Faced with the effects of the depression and the rise of fascism, the Oppens were becoming increasingly involved in political action. Unable to bring himself to write verse propaganda, Oppen abandoned poetry and joined the Communist Party USA, serving as election campaign manager for Brooklyn in 1936, and helping organize the Utica New York Milk Strike. He and Mary were engaged and active in the cause of worker’s rights, and Oppen was tried and acquitted on a charge of felonious assault on the police. By 1942, Oppen was deferred from military service while working in the defense industry. Disillusioned by the CPUSA and willing to assist in the fight against fascism, Oppen quit his job, making himself eligible for the draft. Effectively volunteering for duty, Oppen saw active service on the Maginot Line and the Ardennes; he was seriously wounded south of the Battle of the Bulge. Shortly after Oppen was wounded, Oppen’s division helped liberate the concentration camp at Landsberg am Lech. He was awarded the Purple Heart and returned to New York in 1945. Mexico After the war, Oppen worked as a carpenter and cabinet maker. Although now less politically active, the Oppens were aware that their pasts were certain to attract the attention of Joseph McCarthy’s Senate committee and decided to move to Mexico. During these admittedly bitter years in Mexico, George ran a small furniture making business and was involved in an expatriate intellectual community. They were also kept under surveillance by the Mexican authorities in association with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. They were able to re-enter the United States in 1958 when the United States government again allowed them to obtain passports which had been revoked since 1950. Return to poetry In 1958, the Oppens considered becoming involved in Mexican real estate if their expatriate status was to continue. But they were contemplating a move back to the United States, which caused both of them considerable anxiety, prompting Mary to see a therapist. During one of her visits, George told the therapist about a dream he was having (the Oppens later referred to this incident as the “rust in copper” dream). The therapist persuaded George that the dream had a hidden meaning that would convince Oppen to begin writing poetry again. But Oppen also suggested other factors led to his return to the US and to poetry, including his daughter’s well-being, because she was beginning college at Sarah Lawrence. After a brief trip in 1958 to visit their daughter at university, the Oppens moved to Brooklyn, New York, in early 1960 (although for awhile, returning to Mexico regularly for visits). Back in Brooklyn, Oppen renewed old ties with Louis Zukofksy and Charles Reznikoff and also befriended many younger poets. The poems came in a flurry; within two years Oppen had assembled enough poems for a book and began publishing the poems in Poetry, where he had first published, and in his half-sister June Oppen Degnan’s San Francisco Review. The poems of Oppen’s first book following his return to poetry, The Materials, were poems that, as he told his sister June, should have been written ten years earlier. Oppen published two more collections of poetry during the 1960s, This In Which (1965) and Of Being Numerous (1968), the latter of which garnered him the Pulitzer Prize in 1969. Last years In 1975, Oppen was able to complete and see into publication his Collected Poems, together with a new section “Myth of the Blaze.” In 1977, Mary provided the secretarial help George needed to complete his final volume of poetry Primitive. During this time, George’s final illness, Alzheimer’s disease, began to manifest itself with confusion, failing memory, and other losses. The disease was eventually to make it impossible for him to continue writing. George Oppen, age 76, died of pneumonia with complications from Alzheimer’s disease in a convalescent home in California on July 7, 1984. Selected bibliography * Discrete Series (1934), with a “Preface” by Ezra Pound * The Materials (1962) * This in Which (1965) * Of Being Numerous (1968) * Alpine (1969) * Seascape: Needle’s Eye (1972) * The Collected Poems (1975) includes Myth of the Blaze * Primitive (1978) * Poems of George Oppen (1990); selected and introduced by Charles Tomlinson * The Selected Letters of George Oppen (2000); edited with an introduction and notes by Rachel Blau DuPlessis * New Collected Poems (2001, revised edition 2008); edited with an introduction and notes by Michael Davidson, w/ a preface by Eliot Weinberger * Selected Poems (2002), edited, with an introduction by Robert Creeley * Selected Prose, Daybooks, and Papers (2008); edited with an introduction by Stephen Cope * Speaking with George Oppen: Interviews with the Poet and Mary Oppen, 1968-1987 (2012), edited with an introduction by Richard Swigg * 21 Poems (2017) Posthumous publications * For more information on Oppen’s posthumous publications, such as his Selected Letters and New Collected Poems, see Wikipedia articles on Rachel Blau DuPlessis and Michael Davidson. Further reading * Oppen, Mary, Meaning A Life: An Autobiography, Santa Barbara, Calif: Black Sparrow Press, 1978. * Hatlen, Burton, ed., George Oppen: Man and Poet (Man/Woman and Poet Series) (Man and Poet Series), National Poetry Foundation, 1981. ISBN 0-915032-53-8 * DuPlessis, Rachel Blau, ed., The Selected Letters of George Oppen, Duke University Press, 1990. * Oppen, George. Selected Prose, Daybooks, and Papers, edited and with an introduction by Stephen Cope. University of California Press, 2007; ISBN 978-0-520-23579-3, paperback: ISBN 978-0-520-25232-5'. * Heller, Michael, Speaking the Estranged: Essays on the Work of George Oppen, Cambridge UK: Salt Publishing, 2008. * Shoemaker, Steven, ed., Thinking Poetics: Essays on George Oppen, Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 2009. * Swigg, Richard, ed.,Speaking with George Oppen: Interviews with the Poet and Mary Oppen, 1968-1987, Jefferson, North Carolina and London, McFarland & Company, 2012. ISBN 978-0-786-46-7884 * Swigg, Richard, George Oppen: The Words in Action, Lewisburg, Bucknell University Press, 2016. ISBN 978-1-61148-749-7 References Wikipedia—https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Oppen

I was born in Switzerland, but for my studies I have decided to move to Germany. I write poems in order to understand and "see" my emotions better. Every poem I have ever written came out of a strong emotion. I first started writing at 11 years old and have been keeping writing as a hobby ever since. I fell deeply in love with the ocean and whenever I have the possibility I sit next to a body of water and either read or write something.

I am 20 years old currently working on a book and a music album. Boston, Massachusetts, USA I've always since a little boy wrote poems, stories, songs, ect. and up until now I've put serious thought into pursuing it in a professional manner. Hope you enjoy...

I emerged from a protective barrier holding me as if a vacuum would. I expanded on knowledge that everyone knew, making all equal, but some more equal than others. I conformed. I ate when I was told to eat. Slept when I was told to sleep. And now I'm here.

I'm a poet I'm full of life and I'm always perfecting my craft

I've been writing since around the age of 13. My poetry are collection of my thoughts, my life experiences, or even sometimes the experience of others as witnessed. I love poetry and the power of honest and positive words.