An introspective, lazy kid from the North Shore
of Long Island, I was never much of a student,
more interested in studying my fellow
classmates than in opening a textbook.
All that changed, however, when in 1959
I somehow managed to squeak into NYU’s
marvelous film school.
The dark embrace of movie theaters had
sustained me throughout my childhood,
now here I was greedily soaking up film’s
glittering history, as well as all of its masters,
from Eisenstein to Hitchcock to Fellini.
I then took this love of the “moving image”
to Madison Ave (too chicken shit to try and
make a go of it in Hollywood).
And had a wonderful career, creating numerous
TV spots that were more like little movies, which
may explain why they bagged 17 Lions at Cannes.
Throughout this period, I also developed
a passion for another image-driven medium,
poetry— particularly plainspoken, personal poetry.
And now, in my retirement years, movies and
writing personal poetry continue to sustain me,
which has led to the writing of Clinging to Ghosts:
A short memoir in poems that evokes in a
human, unbridled way what it’s been like to be
alive for 79 years.
And hopefully some universal truths that just may
speak to your life as well.
Clinging to Ghosts
Buy it on Amazon here